Hello All!

[Ruthie]

I am quite new to pond life! I have a small garden and built a small pond 250 litres and water fall about 2 years ago. I stocked it with a few plants and all was good.....


..... Until I got a little brave and added some fish, only a few small goldfish and shubunkins. I currently have about 6 that are about 3-4 inches in length and they appear to have has some babies which is great!

However since I added the fish I have had huge trouble with silt, I had quite a lot of blanket weed so have been using a weed buster and something to break it down but now my pond filter is terrible. I drained down the whole pond and cleaned very thing and put new u.v. Light and supra but 2 weeks later it's totally clogged again. The pond water itself is quite clear.

Please could someone advise on what to do?

All feedback very greatly appreciated ;o)

Ruthie

 

[Stu74]

Hi Ruth welcome to the forum.
Im not sure i can help with your problems but i can tell you about my similar experience.

I have also had a problem this year with blanket weed.For the 5 years i have had my pond this is the 1st time i have had trouble with algae of any kind.
I could be wrong but i think the reason is because i cleaned my filter system last autumn very thoroughly.I also drained my pond totally and cleaned it then filled it with nice fresh clean water.I usually only give everything a quick rinse but this time i had cleaned everything so it was like brand new inc the media filter.This i think was where i went wrong.The filter system will have bacterias that have built up over time that are actualy beneficial to keeping a natural balance to the water in the pond.
This year in late spring/early summer my filters blocked up with blanket weed a few times so i had to clean the weed out of the filters and also scoop out as much algae/blanket weed as i could out of the pond.After a few times of doing this and a month or so later the weed had totally gone.
My only explanation for this is that my pond water has got its natural balance back.

Im sure you will get some helpful advice on here from more experienced people than me.

 

[sissy]

Welcome and yes hen you clean t will look fresh for a week or two and after that all the bad algaes will come back stronger than ever before .I watched a pro clean a pond and he thinks he knows it all .All he did was add after he power washed the pond and filters in the spring was add a whole bunch of bio start media he told me works every time .It worked for one month and they ad foaming green algae all over there pond .They called and yes he'll come back and fix for 150 more dollars .They asked me what can we do now .I can't tell them it is not going to be lots of work and it was almost 2 months of it but now there pond is clear and clean .A view under my new bridge I built well rebuilt ,made it wider and nicer looking and my one waterfall that is just over a foot deep where my fish is in the pic

 

[DrCase]

Welcome to the Forum

 

[j.w]

Ruthie

 

[taherrmann4]

Welcome Ruthie.

 

[Julia]

HI Ruthie welcome to forum. Hope you can post some pictures.

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Ruthie, Welcome! That is a lot of fish for a 250 litre pond. They are producing waste which your algae, ie blanket weed is using to feed itself. You have eliminated the single cell algae with your UV light. I would suggest to add some plants. They will compete for the nutrients (nitrates) with the blanket weed. Floating plants will help shade the water from the sun so it doesn't help the blanket weed grow. Also as Stu74 mentioned you don't want to clean the beneficial bacteria from the pond. Their job is to breakdown the fish waste into non-toxic components. You might want to get a test kit and check for ammonia,nitrites, and nitrates.

 

[Becky]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

 

[Ruthie]

Hello thanks to all for the lovely welcome messages, I will try to post some pics soon : o)