Absolute beginners pond has gone blue green.

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Naively we have dug a 10ft deep hole in clay. Its 30ft long by about 15ft wide tapering to about 8ft at each end. The pond is spring fed. We have used pea shingle around the edges of the pond and railway sleepers to create a non planted rudimentary regeneration area. We are yet to plant this area. We have not used a liner due to cost and our belief that the clay would not leak. ( It doesn't). We absolutely love having the pond. We also realise this whole swimming pond thing is alot more complicated than we thought.
First question: can we still swim in the pond ?
Is the algea harmful to us.
Do we need to start again ?
Introduce a liner, water circulation, filtration, plants....?
Its a big experiment that we are not expecting to be get anywhere near right few weeks in, but all help from informed experienced pond lovers, would be very gratefully received. Many thanks Patch Robertson
 

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Thats a lot of water but you didn't make it so big thats its impossible to filter. And with that lift you could make a heck of a water fall but in the same breath you need to stabilize the slope. A bog would clean up that green algae.
 
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Thanks so much for the response. What is a bog ? The slope on the bank will definitely be reduced. Any further advice gratefully received. Thanks again. Cheers Patch
 
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Go to you tube type in how to build a wetland bog then search for others and watch many of them as there are two types. In the forums section there is pond construction and equipment at the top is i blog called bog building that is the simplistic bog and has worked for many here then there is the aquablox snorkel and centiped bogs more advanced for larger ponds. I built both for my pond. You can find my build at the blue link below each of my posts here.
 
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A 'bog' in this case refers not to a naturally occurring wetland area, but to a type of filtration. It's actually an upflow wetlands filter, where you pump water from the pond to the bottom of the 'bog' area, where it will rise up through various size stone (or just solid pea gravel) and then exit via some sort of fall into the pond. You plant this area so the water can be fully filtered. The pea/stone provides a huge amount of surface area for the beneficial bacteria to colonize while the plants do the dirty work in sucking up the resulting nitrates. There's many threads about 'bogs' on the site, take a bit of time and decide if this will benefit you. The upside is that there is very little maintenance (compared to traditional manufactured systems) but there is some labor and cost involved to get started. IMO, it's very worth the effort.

The basics are that you pump the water into a pipe system that has cuts/holes in it so the water flows out and with the pressure of the pump, is forced upward toward the surface of your bog. Doing so, the colonized bacteria do their thing. A good idea is to provide some sort of 'vault' in case you ever want to clean the bog, which CAN clog over time but typically doesn't.

Hope this helps.
 
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A lot to read, but it's worth the look...

Here's my bog filter build:

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/my-add-on-bog-build.26848/

And addy's bog building showcase:

 
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Go to you tube type in how to build a wetland bog then search for others and watch many of them as there are two types. In the forums section there is pond construction and equipment at the top is i blog called bog building that is the simplistic bog and has worked for many here then there is the aquablox snorkel and centiped bogs more advanced for larger ponds. I built both for my pond. You can find my build at the blue link below each of my posts here.
H
 
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A 'bog' in this case refers not to a naturally occurring wetland area, but to a type of filtration. It's actually an upflow wetlands filter, where you pump water from the pond to the bottom of the 'bog' area, where it will rise up through various size stone (or just solid pea gravel) and then exit via some sort of fall into the pond. You plant this area so the water can be fully filtered. The pea/stone provides a huge amount of surface area for the beneficial bacteria to colonize while the plants do the dirty work in sucking up the resulting nitrates. There's many threads about 'bogs' on the site, take a bit of time and decide if this will benefit you. The upside is that there is very little maintenance (compared to traditional manufactured systems) but there is some labor and cost involved to get started. IMO, it's very worth the effort.

The basics are that you pump the water into a pipe system that has cuts/holes in it so the water flows out and with the pressure of the pump, is forced upward toward the surface of your bog. Doing so, the colonized bacteria do their thing. A good idea is to provide some sort of 'vault' in case you ever want to clean the bog, which CAN clog over time but typically doesn't.

Hope this helps.
 
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Many thanks for your help. Really useful. Can we continue to swim in it with the algea as is ?
Thanks again. Cheers Patch
 
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A lot to read, but it's worth the look...

Here's my bog filter build:

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/my-add-on-bog-build.26848/

And addy's bog building showcase:

That's great many thanks. Any thoughts on whether its ok to carry on swimming in the pond as is ? Cheers Patch
 

j.w

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1597614382178.gif
@Patch Robertson
Many here go into their ponds to groom plants etc. and I have a friend up the road w/a huge koi pond w/a liner and she goes swimming in hers if algae or not. She is still alive is all I can say :smuggrin:
Here is her pond in an old photo several years ago:
IMG_0916.jpg


She does have a bottom filter that goes to a filter canal and she's added a stream now too.
 

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