Algae on walls... will vacuum help?

[leet13]

Hi all. My pond has been up and running for a little over 3 weeks. Had lots of cloudy water from construction and about a week and a half in, started to get algae on the walls. This is not string algae but the kind that is jelly like and hard to pick up without it. I had string algae last year but re did my pond this year.

Did a 20% water change before I added fish and it seemed ok for a day or two... this was done before fish were added.

Water looked good yesterday besides the algae on the walls ... I could see the bottom... so I added my 3 subunkin to the pond. Since they have been in, I cannot see anything because the algae is being kicked up now. I feel terrible they are in this water... it looks so gross.

Would using a vacuum help this kind of algae or will it just be a neverending battle? As long as it doesnt hurt my fish, I am fine with it looking gross although I feel bad for them having to live in there with the water looking like that.

I have a 2700 gallon pond (approx) with a master solids handling pump (savio) at 2000gph with 18w UV in a pressurized tetra pond filter plus waterfall at 1000gph on other end of pond with some filter media in the weir. Pond is in sun from about noon or 1 o clock until the sun goes down. Ph is a little high at 8 or 9. nitrite 0, phosphates 0, and ammonia 0 (as of yesterday). All filter media had bacterial gel coated on it before it was put in place and turned on and I also have been using powder bacteria and liquid barley extract... oh and quilt batting. Its catching some of the small floating algae that the fish kick up. I have a few water lilies, one water hibiscus, one elephant ear, one lotus and water hyacinth that doesnt seem to be multiplying. I assume this algae came from the plants I bought at a store but I washed them well before putting in. Guess I didnt get it all off.

Hope I coved it all

 

[dieselplower]

I would not do anything to remove the algae at this time. Right now it is consuming ammonia and other things that would otherwise be harmful to your fish until your filters and pond surfaces can become more established with the beneficial bacteria that takes a while to spread. The green water is not bad for the fish.

 

[Mmathis]

That algae is the healthy, good kind. I would leave it alone

 

[crsublette]

Yep, agree with everyone above.

Patience is worth its weight in gold... Grr, or however that saying goes. :bdaybiggrin:

Give the pond time to mature. To mature, the proper organisms and bacteria need to grow in the pond.

At this early stage, much of the beneficial stuff will be floating around in the pond until it can attach it self somewhere in the pond. During this beginning period, turn off the UV unless you desire to turn it back on due to floating pea green water algae. Once the pond is a few months old or so, then I would turn it back on; in the meanwhile, you can properly store it for use later on in time.

Plants also take time to adapt to the pond. When I did plants, the transition period was over a month and then they started growing like crazy.

Checkout the two threads beneficial bacteria powder and algal blooms to help you further understand.

Since your pond is quite young, algae will become quite dominant through out the year. It takes roughly around 3 years or longer for the pond to properly mature. Although, it truely never stops maturing.

So, be sure you do not scrub nor power wash nor drain nor disinfect the pond / filtration and keep water changes to a minimum. If you feel like you must do a big water change due to polution concerns (such as ammonia, nitirite, etc), then I would only do a water change of at least 40% once a week or as needed. As time progresses, the bacteria, microorganisms, plants, and other actors will deplete the minerals in the water. So, continue to do small 5~10% weekly water changes to replenish the minerals in your pond. Also, be sure you are properly dosing the water with dechlorinator. Check out rememdial water chemistry and treatment for some very basic things to know and be sure to do your homework by reading the threads in this subforum.

>> I have simply just copied and pasted much from my previous replies in this chemistry forum subsection. So, since school never ends no matter how old folk are, I task you with this homework to read the threads in this chemistry subsection. :cheerful: Good luck to ya. :claphands:

 

[leet13]

THANKS EVERYONE! I guess I am getting impatient because I just wanted to get my fish out there from the basement (after we redid the pond)... and now its so gross looking but I am happy with the levels I am getting although the PH seems to be the only thing that changes here and there but its not drastic. I already see my koi eating my pink elephant ear roots and all that... lol My parents keep saying I need to clean or scrub but I keep saying that its the good kind of algae and not to disturb. Been having less sun lately so the algae doesnt look as thick as it was.

 

[leet13]

Sorry for my dumb sounding original post. i was using my tablet and didnt proof read like I should have because it doesnt want to display this site that well (cant figure how to upload because it doesnt do anything when I chose it while on the tablet). ugh

 

[Waterbug]

I could see the bottom... so I added my 3 subunkin to the pond. Since they have been in, I cannot see anything because the algae is being kicked up now.

That tells me this algae is most likely dead algae. There are mat algae that are gel like, and they do break up pretty easy, but into large chunks, not into something fine that would cloud water. Dead, decaying algae can be called "gel". And besides, species of mat algae are not a great benefit in the pond like the string/fuzz types are.

Would using a vacuum help this kind of algae or will it just be a neverending battle? As long as it doesnt hurt my fish, I am fine with it looking gross although I feel bad for them having to live in there with the water looking like that.

A vacuum can remove it. Live algae is good for fish, dead algae is bad. However, how bad depends on the fish load, amount of algae, state of decay, water temp, amount of water movement. Fish can certainly stay a live with dead algae, but if the decaying process consumes too much O2 the fish can be killed. In most Water Gardens it isn't a problem. In Koi Ponds with large fish it can be a serious problem.

Fish still would probably prefer this environment because bugs live on the decay so more food for the fish. But as long as you're feeding the fish they certainly don't need the dead algae.

Algae is a never ending battle. Just like your yard plants will grow. Even here in the desert I get weeds in my desert landscape. Different species of algae will come and go in a pond. There will be a contiguous supply of dead algae.

Vacuuming removes the dead, pulling out live string algae is like trimming the hedges. In both cases it allows for more algae to grow and benefit fish. Dead algae that gets stirred up and can settle on live algae can kill the live algae, or reduce growth. The settled matter can also reduce bio conversion bacteria.

 

[JohnHuff]

Leave the algae on the walls. Fish will eat it and it'll disappear by itself.