Water gone thick green

[tanny]

I am quite new to pond keeping and over here in Cyprus theres no real outlets for professional supplies etc so its hard to source equipment.

We have a shaped pond outside with normal liner ringed by stones. It is serviced (last year and this) by 3 pumps each with a home mead filter going onto a larger bio type filter then by gravity back into the pond.

Previously the water has been absolutely crystal clear and the fish and lilies loved it.

However this year we inherited some more fish from another property where the water was black like soup and you couldn't see 2 inches under the surface.

Since introducing the fish my water has gone thick green, I am changing/cleaning the filters every second day because they get so clogged up with gunge.

I have used 2 loads of Algizin in the water (all my pet shop had) and theres no improvement, if anything even worse.

I live at 500meters altitude, winter it is outside only 4 degrees and summer can hit 50 centigrade, the water has never frozen.

What should me next move be to try to clear the water please. I am enclosing a couple of pictures.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MitchM]

Excess nutrients have exceeded your pond's filtration capacity.
The Algizin is for string algae which is not what you have.
Can you give us more details/pictures of your filters, water pump volume output and plants?
What is your pond's total water volume?
Have you been performing any water tests?

 

[tanny]

Thanks MitchM, the pond is about 4000 litres, its a little dark here now so will send the pumps and filters tomorrow.

I will do a whole load of driving tomorrow to see who stocks a water testing kit. Is there a brand you suggest.

 

[MitchM]

API is the standard liquid test that is available most places.
In addition to the master test kit, also pick up the KH/GH test kit, also made by API.
http://www.apifishcare.co.uk/product.php?sectionid=2&catid=7&subcatid=0&id=138#.Wtyr_y8ZNhE
http://www.apifishcare.co.uk/product.php?sectionid=1&catid=4&subcatid=0&id=79#.Wtysly8ZNhE

The basic idea is that you need to have your water moving enough so that detritus doesn't settle and decompose in excess quantities.
The suspended detritus needs to be removed by mechanical filtration and/or broken down by bacteria in which case you have sufficient plant populations so that the nutrients are consumed by plant leaves or roots before nuisance algae takes over.
Most people have a combination of mechanical and plant filtration aided by sufficient water circulation/aeration.

 

[j.w]

@tanny

 

[Lisak1]

You've come to the right place for help! And @MitchM will give you great advice. Your pond is trying to seek a balance, so the algae is in abundance because there's an abundance of nutrients for it to feed on. Don't stress too much about the green water - it in and of itself is just a symptom, and your fish don't mind it. You need to work to correct the problem that is causing the excess nutrients in the water and things will improve.

How many fish do you have and what kind and size?

 

[tanny]

Sorry for the delay getting back to you Its been a crazy period. I can't find anyone here selling the test kits so am ordering one. (usually about a month to get here).

The take is approximately 3000 litres with different depths.

I have 3 Jebao 1500 litres per house pumps and an air pump for nice bubbles.

Two of the pumps are piped from the tank (obviously) into separate filter buckets which then drain into the pond by gravity. The third is simply to try to move water around and create oxygen.

All the pumps (in pond) were also inside plastic boxes with sponge filters (home made) to try to collect the gunge and debris before going to the main filters.
Yesterday I removed the pumps from the boxes and run them straight to the main filters to try to speed up the flow if possible and let the filter catch the muck.

This morning all the small pump filters were clogged up so I have cleaned these again to increase the flow and will persevere for this a week to se if it clears the water, then reinstate the pump filter boxes.

We previously had about a dozen goldfish and a 12 inch koi, and it was crystal clear, but inherited 6 lion heads, more goldfish and 2 kois 24 inches long, thats when the issue started, so maybe they're making too much poo poo of it is allowed to settle.

Hopefully agitating the water and faster flow will clear it although its going to be a twice daily job of cleaning the pumps.

 

[tanny]

Also (sorry forgot), we water the garden almost daily here, would it be feasible to run the fresh water hose into the pond and use one of the pumps to use the nutrient rich water for the garden?

 

[GoPond2018]

I recently just changed my liner from a 2" hole damage. Since then I water became greener each day. Nothing that I haven't seen before. In the past I bought UV light and it cleared up the green water. This lead me to check my UV light to see if it's still operational - I learned my UV light was dead which is why it caused so much green algae to grow.

Could you also install a UV light to control the algae growth?

 

[Sharala]

Hi: this is an old post from another thread. Sounds like more plants are a good solution.

Also I remember many years ago on another Board reading about homemade temporary algae filters of old cotton sweat socks over ends of filter lines with water going right back into pond. Changing socks as filled up.

HTH.

—————-
<<these are great plants to get in your pond. Just want to let anyone know if you are curious, my pond was very green for weeks. I used a product called algaefix from drfosterandsmith.com and it worked to clear up the algae a little, but didnt quite get it completely clean. I was using that for about 2 and a half weeks using it every third day. Just last week I bought 5 water hyancinths (and one water lettace) from the local grocery store and within three days my pond cleared right up. My pond is about 1000 gallons and it has been in the mid 80s to low 90s during the day. I am always giong to buy these plants from now on because they worked wonders. Also, I do not have a UV light and was really looking at them before buying these plants. It is the easy way out to clear up your pond (and some people say its the only way), but if you need to save money, like myself, use lillies and buy a small amount of water hyacinths. I say buy a small amount because they spread rapidly in warm conditions. also, i do have a few different types of plants but not very many of them.”

 

[tanny]

I don't have a UV light however yesterday I put a whole load of quilt material around the pump casing and this seems to be working, I also just bought some tights to filter, so will change the lagging a couple of times to se how it goes. Im not a lover of using ANY chemicals I don't need.
I read somewhere that water hyacinths can be harmful to some fish is that correct.

I was also considering putting a couple of floating polystyrene boxes with some veggies in to float on the water, has anyone else done this and what success.

 

[GoPond2018]

I don't have a UV light however yesterday I put a whole load of quilt material around the pump casing and this seems to be working, I also just bought some tights to filter, so will change the lagging a couple of times to se how it goes. Im not a lover of using ANY chemicals I don't need.
I read somewhere that water hyacinths can be harmful to some fish is that correct.

I was also considering putting a couple of floating polystyrene boxes with some veggies in to float on the water, has anyone else done this and what success.

Water hycinth has worked fine for me. No harm to my Koi's. The only harm is the Koi's love to eat up the roots of the water hycinth which in turn slowly kills the water hycinth because there is no more roots for the plant to absorb enoughenough from the pond to stay alive. On a side note, when I first had my water hycinth my Koi's actually went into spawning frenzy laying eggs onto the long roots of my water hycinth. Sadly I was unaware and unprepared for the spawn so all the eggs became nothing :-(

 

[Souper09]

When I had that situation I used algaefix and added a small pond aerator for the pond, I wanted to make sure the water had a good flow of oxygen and it also increased circulation. In about three days the water was back to normal and I removed the aerator. I feel the extra green was caused by some fertilizer run off.

 

[Koi4JT]

I am quite new to pond keeping and over here in Cyprus theres no real outlets for professional supplies etc so its hard to source equipment.

We have a shaped pond outside with normal liner ringed by stones. It is serviced (last year and this) by 3 pumps each with a home mead filter going onto a larger bio type filter then by gravity back into the pond.

Previously the water has been absolutely crystal clear and the fish and lilies loved it.

However this year we inherited some more fish from another property where the water was black like soup and you couldn't see 2 inches under the surface.

Since introducing the fish my water has gone thick green, I am changing/cleaning the filters every second day because they get so clogged up with gunge.

I have used 2 loads of Algizin in the water (all my pet shop had) and theres no improvement, if anything even worse.

I live at 500meters altitude, winter it is outside only 4 degrees and summer can hit 50 centigrade, the water has never frozen.

What should me next move be to try to clear the water please. I am enclosing a couple of pictures.

Thanks in advance.

Try to incorporate as much plants into the pond as you can, such as irises and grasses, whatever will tolerate your climate. The plants will absorb the nitrates, etc. and reduce the same from allowing excessive algae growth. A "bog" filtration system will also help eliminate your problem as the algae will tend to grow in the bog rather than the pond per my experience. JT

 

[gliebig]

Mine looks like that every spring before I open the pond. Filter and UV cleans it up in a couple days.