Milky water

[Vanquished]

Hi all,

I dug out our pond and kind of prepared it for me to carry on this spring. Over the last 2 weeks we have introduced some plants along with aquatic soil. Yesterday, I came home from work to find the water looking milky, it has little clumps of tiny bubbles, seems to have got worse. I have read that birds bathing can cause this problem.....? We have lot's of bids taking a bath at the shallow end of the pond. We have no live stock except for a Swan Mussel who seems pretty well.
Any advice on this will be very much appreciated.

 

[koiguy1969]

foamy bubbles are usually a sign of D.O.Cs...dissolved organic compounds. do you have fish in the pond? is there much in the way of muck (leaves, silt, fish poop,or even bird poop,etc..) on the floor, of pond or rocks? if so clean it up and do a partial waterchange.

 

[Vanquished]

Thanks Koiguy for your quick response. We have no fish just the Swan Mussel which seems to be healthy, I can see it filtering by opening up, so I'm not suspecting this to be the problem.
My daughter has just sat at the pond with a net fishing it out. It appears to have cleared up a little, also looks green in the net.......?

When it's fished out, we can hear it fizzing in the net. :bowdown:

 

[DrDave]

Keep the bottom clean.

 

[addy1]

Fizzing algae? water change may help the best, maybe some barley straw to help control the algae.

 

[Vanquished]

Thanks guys! Well I'm certain it is algae as we've managed to scoop it all off the surface. Barley Straw sounds like the way forward for me, I would like to keep the pond as natural as possible............No chemicals. We do don't use weed-killers or pesticides in our garden and I don't want to start.

Thanks again for you sound advice, I'm off to buy Barley straw...........Cheap too!:lol:

 

[sissy]

If your filtering the water put some quilt batting in the filter to catch all the fine dirt works great and when batting gets dirty just wring it out hose it off and put it back .Works great for me and cheap too

 

[addy1]

jw says she has put kitty litter clay into a bag into the water flow and it helped with the algae also.

 

[Vanquished]

Well I purchased the Barley straw and dropped it in, until it starts to decompose I'll will just fish out the blanket weed as.
No filters, just the Jumbo Swan Mussels.

 

[sissy]

I have never seen a jumbo swan mussel what do they do

 

[j.w]

Yep kitty litter (the 100% clay kind w/ no other additives) works good for string algae or blanket weed. I've also found a place not too far to buy the compact bales of barley straw for $12. :regular_waving_emot

 

[Vanquished]

I have never seen a jumbo swan mussel what do they do

Hi sissy, they filter the water, I believe approximately 40 litres per day.....? Mine are 10-15cm in length.

 

[addy1]

wow nice one there! wonder if they have them here lol

 

[j.w]

Do they multiply in your pond and do you ever eat them? Cuz they look kinda like razor clams and they are deeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious, yum

 

[sissy]

wow that is big I am wondering the same thing addy.Have to google that big devil there .Thanks for posting the pic and I found if you don't ask you will never know ,says native to the british isles it says so guess there would have to be something similar to it in the us though