Algae bloom? tadpoles died in a day

[Girlzorba]

Hi all,

Hoping for some insight from your brains!

We've had our pond for a couple of months now, it's about 370 gallons, 7 x 9 x 1ft. A few plants in and around and a small filter that is dumping back into the pond, hopefully enough of an aeration.

A couple days ago, we lost most of our tadpoles- they just died. I am thinking algae bloom, but wanted to hear any other ideas. I am adding some pics, we've had some "horse hair" type algae grow, I pull it out when I can. In that same time frame, the algae on the rocks and the floating plants (not sure what they are called) seemed to turn a lighter shade of green and the pond got a bit cloudy. I tried to aerate even more with a bucket, hoping that would save the few tadpoles that remained. What do you think? I just bought some bacteria, algaecide and a test kit too.

Thanks in advance! so sad to loose my taddies! I added a cute pic of my baby frogs too.

 

[Mmathis]

Oh no, I’m so sorry you lost your babies! I wouldn’t think an algae bloom would hurt them, but it looks like you have tannins (breakdown from leaves, tree limbs, etc.) in the water — that’s what causes that tea-color. Actually, tannins shouldn’t harm them either.

I wouldn’t recommend adding anything to the water, especially not an algecide! Tadpoles start out life as herbivores— IOW, they eat the algae on rocks and other surfaces as their primary food source. As they grow into toads or frogs, their diets gradually change to eating bugs.

They say that tadpoles are a bio-indicator of a healthy environment, so when you don’t have taddies, look for a problem with the water, so you are correct to look to your water. Do you have fish? Do you test your water?

If you have city water, do you add a dechlorinator to the water when you add water? Chlorinated water is harmful in large enough quantities, and with a small pond like yours, a little bit is a lot.

Do you have any run-off from your yard that could have gotten into the pond...or a dead critter, something like that? Over-spray from pesticides?

I would ask if the container gets full sun, which could overheat the water, but I know from accidental experience that tadpoles seem to do just fine wherever the eggs are laid.

 

[Girlzorba]

thanks, Turtle Mommy!
We do have occasional leaves falling now, but I have been picking out what I can a couple times a day. The tadpoles had definitely been eating well, but then whatever happened to turn our algae that whitish, I have to assume it's the same thing that killed them. We don't have fish and we hadn't tested our water, but my test kit should get here today or tomorrow. We do add dechlorinator when we add tap water, but we haven't had to add any city water since we started the pond. I don't think any runoff bothered them or anything dead got in there, we've had some big rainy days and light rain, and the pond seemed to do fine after those. I'll ask my hub though, just in case he put anything down. We tend to shy away from anything dangerous, we like to use as little bad chemicals as possible. The water did get warm, but really only the top couple inches. The bottom was still nice and cool.
I thought maybe an algae bloom just sucked up all the oxygen? But I really don't know enough yet.

 

[flexney]

Hi, I'm no expert - I'm hear with a very similar problem - but I am so sorry that you lost your guys. I've lost all of my tadpoles and just lost a frog, and I'm just devastated. I hope we both get things balanced fast!

 

[Lisak1]

Oh I'm sorry to hear that! Funny how easily we get attached, isn't it?

An algae bloom wouldn't kill them, but the fact that you noticed the algae change color is interesting - a sudden algae die off will deplete the water of oxygen. So the mystery is why did the algae die? Turning white like that sounds like what happens when an algaecide is applied, but you said that wasn't the case.

Hmmm... anything else you can think of that changed with the pond?

 

[Mmathis]

@Lisak1 I didn’t catch the part about the algae color change — and it was mentioned twice in her initial post. Duh! That does make you wonder about a chemical contaminant of some sort. I’ve never had this happen — an algae and/or tadpole die-off, so it will be interesting if we can help @Girlzorba figure this out. We never stop learning!

 

[Lisak1]

When I use sodium per carbonate on my waterfall the algae will turn kind of a gray/white color as it dies. That's what made me think of it. I would imagine hydrogen peroxide will do the same thing. Neither of those would be harmful to fish, but I bet algaecide has an effect on the color of algae when it kills it as well.

 

[Mmathis]

When I use sodium per carbonate on my waterfall the algae will turn kind of a gray/white color as it dies. That's what made me think of it. I would imagine hydrogen peroxide will do the same thing. Neither of those would be harmful to fish, but I bet algaecide has an effect on the color of algae when it kills it as well.

...and tadpoles are very sensitive to environmental changes, so guessing it wouldn’t take much in the closed environment of a pond.