Green water

[CdnPond]

This is the first summer for us with our pond and it has been unusually hot. Pond is about 650 gallons....all plants are new this spring (early June) We have either 4 or 6 gold fish (2 are feeder fish so not sure if still around). The water is green and we have been advised by sales people at pond/pet businesses to add numerous chemicals to clear it and nothing has worked so we are contemplating adding a UV clarifier. We have had the water tested numerous times and told it was okay....there is no string algae. We have a bio-falls, skimmer with a 3000 gallon/hour pump, an inline iogen 2 ....also we have 2 bubblers.
Your advice please.
Hope you can see the green water in this photos.

 

[Jhn]

As long as there are enough plants in the pond, i.e. water lilies, irises, oxygenating plants, marginals list ges on. They will eventually outcompete the algae for the available nutrients.

Honestly, your pond water doesn't look that green to me. I would not add any chemicals to clear the water as it is not getting at the problem of excess nutrients. U.v. Clarifier is your call not really neccessary though, the amount of circulation you have is plenty. With patience it will clear.

I added some lilies to a 300 gallon stock tank I had, to get them growing before I added them to my pond. It turned pea soup green for about a month. Now it is crystal clear, did nothing to it except let the lilies grow and had a 300 gal per hour pump circulating the water.

 

[Lisak1]

we have been advised by sales people at pond/pet businesses to add numerous chemicals to clear it and nothing has worked

Stop adding chemicals. If you had left it alone, it would have cleared on it's own. The problem with killing algae is all you are doing is feeding more algae... and so on, and so on. It's the little green dance! As your pond matures and as your plants grow the water will clear up on it's own. Just remember - green water is a symptom, not a problem. It's just telling you your pond has excess nutrients and at the same time, it's doing it's part to keep those nutrients under control.

More plants, more aeration, more time - no more chemicals (or money!) tossed in the pond!

By the way - we had an IonGen and found it useless. After much tinkering around we finally discovered there was something about our water that affected the conductivity so it never worked... which, if you read a bit about ion generators on this forum, was probably to our benefit. Just a tip...

 

[DutchMuch]

pond/pet businesses to add numerous chemicals to clear it

Well its to late to stop you, you got scammed

What is your water parameters as of right now,
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:

have had the water tested numerous times and told it was okay.

This is also a common sales pitch, you need to test the water With a liquid test kit (API master test kit is good) YOURSELF, so you can see the numbers.
They usually lie to you

"is my parameters ok?"

"Yea they are ok"

Actual parameters ammonia 100000 nitrite 1000000 nitrate 0.

 

[CdnPond]

Well its to late to stop you, you got scammed

What is your water parameters as of right now,
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:

We will have our water tested and/or get the test kit and let you know. Yes we certainly did gey scammed!

This is also a common sales pitch, you need to test the water With a liquid test kit (API master test kit is good) YOURSELF, so you can see the numbers.
They usually lie to you

"is my parameters ok?"

"Yea they are ok"

Actual parameters ammonia 100000 nitrite 1000000 nitrate 0.

Well its to late to stop you, you got scammed

What is your water parameters as of right now,
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:


This is also a common sales pitch, you need to test the water With a liquid test kit (API master test kit is good) YOURSELF, so you can see the numbers.
They usually lie to you

"is my parameters ok?"

"Yea they are ok"

Actual parameters ammonia 100000 nitrite 1000000 nitrate 0.

Well its to late to stop you, you got scammed

What is your water parameters as of right now,
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:


This is also a common sales pitch, you need to test the water With a liquid test kit (API master test kit is good) YOURSELF, so you can see the numbers.
They usually lie to you

"is my parameters ok?"

"Yea they are ok"

Actual parameters ammonia 100000 nitrite 1000000 nitrate 0.

 

[CdnPond]

We certainly were scammed! We will have our water tested and see what they say and get a test kit as you suggested and will let you know.
Thanks.

 

[mgmine]

You can test it all day and it wont stop the green water, A UV light will clear it up in a week and keep it that way. To me its the simplest cure for a green pond. Yes you can wait until it clears by itself but that may take the whole season and next year you can go through the same thing.

 

[DutchMuch]

You can test it all day and it wont stop the green water, A UV light will clear it up in a week and keep it that way. To me its the simplest cure for a green pond. Yes you can wait until it clears by itself but that may take the whole season and next year you can go through the same thing.

it takes like 1 month just saying.. and it doesn't cost 400$

 

[sissy]

quilt batting in a crate will pick up fine stuff .But sales people are called that for a reason ,they sell and they don't really care most times

 

[CdnPond]

You can test it all day and it wont stop the green water, A UV light will clear it up in a week and keep it that way. To me its the simplest cure for a green pond. Yes you can wait until it clears by itself but that may take the whole season and next year you can go through the same thing.

Thanks and we are certainly considering the UV.....

 

[CdnPond]

quilt batting in a crate will pick up fine stuff .But sales people are called that for a reason ,they sell and they don't really care most times

Interesting....I had read about that quilt batting in a crate....I was wondering if anyone had tried that. Thanks.

 

[sissy]

been doing it since 2005

 

[MitchM]

CdnPond, I'm not sure if it was made clear to you, but you should stop using the Iogen.
See this thread for another member that was having problems because of the Iogen:
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/need-help-identifying-algae-please.21824/

 

[CdnPond]

Thanks....we disconnected the iogen a couple days ago....

 

[cas]

Very pretty pond @CdnPond .

My pond usually has an algae bloom each spring for about 2 weeks. When I didn't have as many fish, I didn't get algae blooms once my pond matured.

To control algae naturally:

• Increase Oxygen
  • Algae thrive in a pond with a low level of dissolved oxygen because the good bacteria are not functioning at maximum capacity. Increasing the oxygen level in the pond increases the growth of the good bacteria. The increase in Oxygen helps facilitate the breakdown of organic waste and sediment on the pond's bottom.
• Control Nutrients
  • Manually remove debris.
  • Provide filtration - both mechanical and biological filtration.
  • Keep fish population low.
  • Do not over feed fish. Be sure uneaten food is removed from the pond.
  • Prevent water run-off from the yard going into the pond. The run-off could contain nutrients, fertilizer, soil, herbicides.
  • Need the pond to have plenty of plants.
  • Water Hyacinths and water lettuce are good plants to out compete the algae for nutrients. Their roots dangle into the water and are great at taking up nutrients. These are tropical plants and need to be added after the water warms.
  • When an algaecide is used to kill off algae, the dead algae will add nutrients into the pond.

• Reduce Sunlight

• Add aquatic plants to help shade the pond surface.
• Add a sun shade or floating island of plants.

• Let the pond mature.

• It usually takes three years for a pond to mature. The pond needs time to create a good biofilm on its surfaces, and time for the microscopic animals and good bacteria to reproduce.
• Do not totally clean out the pond and scrub the liner and rocks. This puts the pond back to a ‘new’ pond. One that needs to reproduce the biofilm, microscopic animals and good bacteria.
• Do not do too large of a water change. ‘New’ water does not have all the micro-organisms that the ‘old’ water has.