Help with Green water!

[GBBUDD]

Lilies do little for out competing algae for those nutrients. Try some water cress. String algae prefers fast flowing waters it is always last to disappear in the streams or falls. you won't find a strand in my pond but you can find a sprig here or there in the stream.

 

[Alice_Bee]

If you have concrete blocks or limestone rock, gravel etc in the pond, it will help it go green. Regularly.

 

[KeeperOfThePond]

We need to know more about your pond.

Do you have fish? If so, what variety and how big are they?

How much water does your pond hold?

What filtration do you have, if any.

Do you test your water. What are the readings?
Use the kit with liquid reagents. The strip tests tend to be inaccurate.

Most of us here strive to keep things natural. It's the most balanced and consistent way of doing things. Adding chemicals can cause sudden parameter swings.

We've had countless posts from people adding so-called "fish friendly" algecides which have killed all their fish.

If I need to add my house water, I use a dechlorinator. That's the only thing I ever use.
No algecides, clarifies, barley, bacteria......ever.

If you are suffering with green water, either you are too stocked with fish, you don't have enough plants or your filter is not up to the task. Too much sunlight may contribute to a degree. Floating plants or lillies can help shade the pond.

I used to have problems with green water and tried everything. Finally, I added 2 more aerators ( total now of two pumps and 4 airstones) and another water lily (total of 4 lilies, parrot feather, purple pickerel, and a few miniature cattails. I do not feed my goldfish as my pond is well established. I also have a skimmer and a waterfall filter. I have had my pond since 2014. I believe good aeration is the key.

 

[GBBUDD]

Your stripping as much co2 from the water which plants need along with sun light for vigorous growth during the day

 

[Alice_Bee]

I used to have problems with green water and tried everything. Finally, I added 2 more aerators ( total now of two pumps and 4 airstones) and another water lily (total of 4 lilies, parrot feather, purple pickerel, and a few miniature cattails. I do not feed my goldfish as my pond is well established. I also have a skimmer and a waterfall filter. I have had my pond since 2014. I believe good aeration is the key.View attachment 143101

Plenty of limestone in this picture, it's feeding the plants. What is your water source pH, if you don't mind me asking? Aeration certainly helps, because it cools the water, and heat, plus lime, plus nitrates is green of some kind or another

 

[brokensword]

Plenty of limestone in this picture, it's feeding the plants. What is your water source pH, if you don't mind me asking? Aeration certainly helps, because it cools the water, and heat, plus lime, plus nitrates is green of some kind or another

what exactly in the limestone do you think is feeding the algae? Lime is only beneficial when water pH is acidic and locking up nutrients for uptake. So you're saying the lime is helping the algae flourish? I think if you have nitrates abounding, that's when you get algal blooms.

 

[Alice_Bee]

I'm saying my tap water comes out at 8. And limestone, concrete, or mortar in contact with the water on a pond with high pH will have excessive algae and excessive plant growth even if no fish. I clean ponds for a living. i see it all. You don't have to believe me. Chunk in a couple of concrete blocks and see if it gets better. I've seen clumps of aquatic iris 9 feet across that I don't know what they weighed because I turned down having us clean it. I'm not doing that to my crew. But you put some concrete or limestone in the pond and you get something. I think the food is calcium carbonate, but I am not sure why it does it. I don't have to know why, to know that it happens.

Now in lower pH, the limestone or concrete balances the pH, and it doesn't cause as bad a problem. I used to live where the KH was 2. And it didn't matter there.

 

[Lisak1]

I've seen clumps of aquatic iris 9 feet across that I don't know what they weighed because I turned down having us clean it.

I'm confused what this has to do with the algae growth.

 

[Alice_Bee]

Plant food either grows giant plants or lots of algae. Limestone in a pond is plant food, I don't know why, I am not a botanist or a chemist. But I've been cleaning ponds for 23 years or so, and boy if there is limestone or concrete or mortar I can expect horrible algae or giant plants. This I know. In the Pond Builders Bible, by Aquascape is a tiny paragraph that I scanned and for the price of a service call, provided to pond owners who had ponds built with limestone with horrible algae problems. And told them they could go talk to their builder.

 

[Alice_Bee]

From Aquascape Pond Builders Bible, page 195. But it doesn't matter. I know that many people on the east coast use lime pebbles in their bog filters, and I know the east coast gets a lot of acid rain and ponds probably need, and get, the alkalinity support from the limestone pebbles and on perimeter and even below water in the ponds. In north Texas, if you put too much limestone in it, and grow a bunch of turf algae, expect to pay more for your cleanup or clean it yourself. One of local landscape companies says you can't remove turf algae, it takes a more expensive pressure washer. Algaecide does nothing about it. You can use UV to clear green water, but if you are putting plant food in the water, you are going to grow something.

 

[brokensword]

From Aquascape Pond Builders Bible, page 195. But it doesn't matter. I know that many people on the east coast use lime pebbles in their bog filters, and I know the east coast gets a lot of acid rain and ponds probably need, and get, the alkalinity support from the limestone pebbles and on perimeter and even below water in the ponds. In north Texas, if you put too much limestone in it, and grow a bunch of turf algae, expect to pay more for your cleanup or clean it yourself. One of local landscape companies says you can't remove turf algae, it takes a more expensive pressure washer. Algaecide does nothing about it. You can use UV to clear green water, but if you are putting plant food in the water, you are going to grow something.

just to be clear because there's a lot of newbie pond owners that might read this; lime is NOT a plant nutrient. It may indeed cause you issues re algae growth, but you need the science behind the whys, here. As noted earlier; lime affects pH. It can unlock nutrients for plant uptake but the algae is NOT using it as plant food. And at pH of over 8, it no longer has that effect.

I approach issues with an eye toward what's causing the problem, so I understand your position but it's erroneous to state lime is a plant food. It's like most think nitrobacter and nitrosomas are the main players in the nitrogen cycle but the science proves otherwise; it is archaea and nitrospira that do the heavy lifting.

And just to add another bit of evidence; my dad (and then I) had cement aquariums for decades and there was no abundance of algae of any kind. Cement is rife with lime, so...

 

[Alice_Bee]

I appreciate your advice. And I will continue to improve Texas ponds. And you enjoy your pond. I haven't learned anything on this forum that was useful to me.

 

[brokensword]

I appreciate your advice. And I will continue to improve Texas ponds. And you enjoy your pond. I haven't learned anything on this forum that was useful to me.

because you seem to already know everything you want to know, even if it's wrong. You do you.

You probably think 10 gallons per inch of fish is the right kind of pond math, too...

 

[Alice_Bee]

I have work to do, I have contributed my opinion, as well as a quote from a respected authority. I'll be back in January. Ya'll enjoy your ponds.