Algae removal

[JamieB]

How old are the kids? Get a floating pool thermometer, keep it on a line by the edge of the pond, and when the water is steadily over 40, you can feed the fish. Once the fish are used to you, you can get them to a point where you can hand feed them. If you have energetic little ones, that’s a great time to read a short story to them as the fish eat, if they are bigger like 10 years old or so, it’s a great time to read a chapter in a book. Or you can all sit there reading on this forum, which is mostly kid safe, but occasionally we do forget kids get on here, so people argue about things like politics or covid, or use less than child safe words. Our youngest member just turned 13, I’m so proud of him getting hooked on ponds early, he’ll never be able to afford a bad habit!

 

[JamieB]

I was just laughing about my above comment, hubby said forget that, tell them to come get a puppy! We’ve got plenty! ( just had three litters born, didn’t get big male fixed in time) so looks like if you want a good dog, you’ll just have to make a road trip to Oklahoma! Free husky mix puppy! Good outside in cold weather, smart, tough, good at keeping kids playing hours on end, and will protect the kids and pond from pesky thinks like raccoons, snakes, skunks, possum, beaver, will chase away scary things, and are currently good with cats.

 

[poconojoe]

Welcome and nice pond!
A lot of great information given already.
If you decide to get some fish, read up on the nitrogen cycle. It might sound complicated, but it's just nature's way of filtering the water.

Start out with a few feeder goldfish from your local pet store. They are cheap and very hardy. I started out with some over 12 years ago and most of them are still swimming around in there.

Once you are satisfied that your fish are doing well, add a couple shubunkin. They are a variety of calico goldfish with beautiful colors and long flowing fins. Don't get too many fish because they will multiply and it can get overpopulated real quick.

In a very general layman's term...
The fish poop, the poop turns into excess nutrients, the plants feed on the nutrients (algae is a plant too), beneficial bacteria colonizes all over the place and that's how nature purifies the water.

By adding more plants, as suggested, they will compete with the algae for the excess nutrients.

There are also seasons where algae will bloom, such as hot summer days, but it will eventually die back. Especially with the help of other fast growing plants.

Floating plants not only compete with algae, but they also provide shade, preventing sunlight from getting to the algae. Algae, being a plant, needs sunlight to thrive.

A pond with fish and plants is not meant to be hospital clean. I like a coating on my liner. It gives it a natural look. There are times when that coating is very prominent and other times when it dies back. It's the free floating algae that most don't like. That's when your water turns a solid pea soup green and you can't see your fish. That's no fun.

 

[bagsmom]

you sound like me trying to convince my parents I need more fish

It's a good thing I'm not your Mom. "More fish? SURE!" "Another pond? That's a GREAT idea!" We would be in trouble.

 

[GBBUDD]

One of the best ways to set up a new pond is to wait on introducing the fish give the algae and the microbes water bugs water spiders etc to get established. Sounds like your there Algae is a direct result of dissolved organics in the water , dead leaves ,plants including algae live and die and if the balance drifts toward one side or the other then you get an imbalance. Making a vacuum using a siphon and trying to remove the leaves and any heavy sludge can go a long way in lessening the algae in the long run it's not a magic potion for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction, But it would change over night more like over a week or two if you remove that much from the water column. Adding some gold fish from what i can see in your pond MANY wish there ponds looked so good. From what i see there's no huge amounts of hair algae and only a little 3 inch or so fibrous algae. so add some fish DO NOT FEED THEM AND WATCH THEM SEE IF THEY PICK AT THE ALGAE AND THE ROCKS. don't add to many start with a half dozen and see what there actions are the fish are the best at telling you if your water is healthy or not.
I would start with a couple lilies for shade and color and then try some water crest that you can get at the grocery store it grows very fast it's easy to grow and easy to control and remove from the pond.

 

[Kirk44]

Hello everyone
My pond gets a lot of sun. I have plenty of plants and a UV light so my water is clear and I don't mind the algae that covers the rocks. I do however get a ton of string algae in the stream and the rocks on the water falls. Pulling it out is getting to be a lot of work. I was looking at the Aquascape ion gen. Has anyone here tried it and how did it work out? Our pond is about 1500 gallons and has koi. This will be our 3 rd summer.

 

[Jhn]

Hello everyone
My pond gets a lot of sun. I have plenty of plants and a UV light so my water is clear and I don't mind the algae that covers the rocks. I do however get a ton of string algae in the stream and the rocks on the water falls. Pulling it out is getting to be a lot of work. I was looking at the Aquascape ion gen. Has anyone here tried it and how did it work out? Our pond is about 1500 gallons and has koi. This will be our 3 rd summer.

How many fish are in the pond and how big are they? In a pond your size it isn’t going to take that many koi to cause issues. A lot here use hydrogen peroxide to get rid of troublesome algae spots in the waterfalls and streams. Algae overgrowth is a sign of an imbalance in the pond, usually too many fish in the pond that is overwhelming the biofilter.
No to the iongen while it will get rid of the algae it does it by putting copper in the water, which is acutely toxic to invertebrate life ie snails, aquatic bugs, plankton in the pond, which is the base of the ponds food web. It can also lead to dinoflagellate explosion in the pond, which can be a lot worse than the algae you are trying to cure. Try to find the source of the algae problem and fix that.

 

[Mmathis]

A 1500 gallon pond with koi..... A lot of your algae problem might be due to excess nutrients. Koi are big waste producers.

 

[Kirk44]

Hello
I have 10 koi about 6 inches long each. I test the water weekly no ammonia and nitrates near zero and zero nitrites. I do monthly 25 percent water changes and vacum the bottom of the pond bi weekly. We have a bio falls and a pondmax 7200 filter that gets back washed monthly also. Between the 2 pumps I'm moving about 8,000 gallons an hour. The fish are fed lightly mostly on the weekend. I wasn't sure about the ion gen as I was worried about the copper also. Where the water is shallow as in the stream and the water falls is my only trouble spot. I have to believe it's the sun as our yard is in full sun light with no shade. I guess I'll just have to keep removing it by hand.

 

[bagsmom]

Do you have string algae year round? Or mostly in the spring? I get it in my pond in the spring, before the temps really warm up. It seems to go away on its own later in the season.

 

[Kirk44]

I would say the more sun and the higher the water temperature is is when it really grows. Spring and fall it slows down. I might try the hydrogen peroxide that was recommended a few posts ago. The ion gen seems to work for a lot of people but it's a little scary for me. The koi we have are very interactive and I would hate to kill them.

 

[Jhn]

I would say the more sun and the higher the water temperature is is when it really grows. Spring and fall it slows down. I might try the hydrogen peroxide that was recommended a few posts ago. The ion gen seems to work for a lot of people but it's a little scary for me. The koi we have are very interactive and I would hate to kill them.

if you do the hydrogen peroxide thing, turn the waterfalls and stream off then hit the algae with the hydrogen peroxide.

Too much sun alone isn’t going to cause algae problems, my pond is in full sun pretty much all day as well, but I have zero algae issues other than that of the biofilm coating in the pond. My pond is heavily planted and has a bog filter, that out competes algae for available nutrients.

You should be a lot scared of putting an ionizer in your pond, checkout the article section of this forum. There is an article by Meyer Jordan on the deleterious effects of an ionizer on our ponds and the aquatic life in them including how copper bioaccumulates in fish. While it will do what It is advertised to do, there are side effects of using them.

 

[Lisak1]

An alternative to hydrogen peroxide for algae is sodium percarbonate. It's in a powdered form - sold commercially as things like EcoBlast for cleaning waterfalls. If you buy it unlabeled, it's way way cheaper and very simple to use. I use it on my waterfall a couple of times a season, but I also sprinkle it over the entire pond in spring and it works like magic, pulling debris up from the bottom of the pond. Perfectly safe - upon contact with water it breaks down into hydrogen peroxide and soda ash. I also use it in the shallower areas of the pond to clean up the algae that can collect there.

 

[Kirk44]

Good idea about turning the falls off. I'm definitely not going the ion gen route. Thanks for all the feedback. It's nice to come here and get help and advice.

 

[pebbleoz]

If you don’t get fish your pond will be a mosquito incubator.
You can get these floating supports for water plants so the plants can cover more water area quickly.
I tried to find a US example but amazons too ridiculously $$$.

Mini Floating Pond Plant Ring 7cm pot

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I have wonderful memories as a child watching tadpoles grow in ponds.