I'm having an algae control problem and not quite sure what to use to get it stabilized. The pond is one of those 250 gallon pre-formed in-ground setups and I've had it in place for about 7 years now with no major problems...Well, I've had Koi jump and and commit suicide in the past and recently had an owl eat over 1/2 my fish in 2 nights (caught it in the act one night) to the point that I was left with only 4 large goldfish (8"). I'm running a 500 gph pump and a PondMaster PMK1250 filter system (so the pump probably runs at 300 gph or less due to the filter) and a "bell-style" fountain in the middle for oxygenation. The pond gets direct sunlight in the morning and evening with partial sunlight during the day. Other than fighting some string algae this year it's been fine.
Well, a month ago, we went on vacation and had a friend of my wife and my mother-in-law watching things around the house and something happened where 80% or more of the water was ejected from the pond before my mother-in-law caught it and fixed it (and refilled the pond....The water for the refills would be softened water in most cases and has been the norm for years). Unfortunately, the water got under the pond and floated one side up so it was now at an angle and the only way to fix it was to completely empty it, remove it, and fix the underlying issues. This was done the next weekend and the pond water was pumped into a kiddie pool along with the fish. Pond and rocks (river rocks on the bottom) were removed, pond was scrubbed to get rid of the string algae, rocks were cleaned and it was all put back in. I transferred the old pond water and the fish back into the pond and everything seemed OK for a week or so. Then came the algae....
The algae seems to be a plankton-style algae. We treated it with PondCare AlgaeFix to no avail and then tried Tetra Pond Algae Control and that did not seem to work either. This stuff went from light green to "I can't see anything" within a 24 hour period. 3 of the 4 remaining goldfish died due to lack of oxygen in the water while the wife was trying to treat it with the chemicals. I performed a 3/4 water replace and after 24 hours it started getting green again and sediment forming on the sides and bottom. I pulled another 3/4 of the water off again yesterday after I scrubbed the sides and treated it with AlgaeFix and it seems to be clouding up again. The one remaining large goldfish seems to be having difficulty getting oxygen at times even with the water pretty clear.
Any thoughts to what I can use to "fix" this issue?
Thanks
Well, a month ago, we went on vacation and had a friend of my wife and my mother-in-law watching things around the house and something happened where 80% or more of the water was ejected from the pond before my mother-in-law caught it and fixed it (and refilled the pond....The water for the refills would be softened water in most cases and has been the norm for years). Unfortunately, the water got under the pond and floated one side up so it was now at an angle and the only way to fix it was to completely empty it, remove it, and fix the underlying issues. This was done the next weekend and the pond water was pumped into a kiddie pool along with the fish. Pond and rocks (river rocks on the bottom) were removed, pond was scrubbed to get rid of the string algae, rocks were cleaned and it was all put back in. I transferred the old pond water and the fish back into the pond and everything seemed OK for a week or so. Then came the algae....
The algae seems to be a plankton-style algae. We treated it with PondCare AlgaeFix to no avail and then tried Tetra Pond Algae Control and that did not seem to work either. This stuff went from light green to "I can't see anything" within a 24 hour period. 3 of the 4 remaining goldfish died due to lack of oxygen in the water while the wife was trying to treat it with the chemicals. I performed a 3/4 water replace and after 24 hours it started getting green again and sediment forming on the sides and bottom. I pulled another 3/4 of the water off again yesterday after I scrubbed the sides and treated it with AlgaeFix and it seems to be clouding up again. The one remaining large goldfish seems to be having difficulty getting oxygen at times even with the water pretty clear.
Any thoughts to what I can use to "fix" this issue?
Thanks