I dread the summer

[lilianfrs]

Hi All
I am a 72 yr old lady with a garden pond abt 6ft x8ft by 26" or there abt.I have had this specific pond now for about 8 yrs. In it I have got 3 fish. A MASSIVE ghost carp, a very large Carp, and a medium 2nd class Israli carp probably about 10 inches long.

2 yrs ago I started having major problems with my pond in the summer. So I bought a new filter and pump with a built in UV. I kNOW that the pump is well big enough to clear the pond and I KNOW that the light is working ok. (I tried 2 different lights in it last summer, incase one wasnt working. But I have to go out there every hour, when we even get half decent weather to skim the algae from the top of the pond.

I can not now get into the pond to clean it out, as I cant climb out of it, so you can see the problem I have. Shall I fill it in? Or can some kind person on here save my sanity. Today I was advised to try a pond keepers forum, so heres hoping. Thanks to you all for reading this.

Lilian Fraser

 

[Sunshine]

Do you have a place near you that does pond maintenance that will come clean it for you? Or maybe give a neighbor kid a few dollars to do it for you.

 

[j.w]

Lillian
Can you just use a long net to clean and scoop out the muck and such instead of going in there? If you have pots of plants in there and you don't want to have to bring them in and out then just don't put them in there. Just have a bare pond w/ only floating water lilies. You can tie a rock to them and throw them in there and they will send up their flowers and get their nutrients from the fish poo. You can tuck other plants in between rocks and let them trail over the edge. I love Parrots Feather and Creeping Jenny and also you can toss in some Creeping Primrose and it will sprawl over the water w/ it's nice green leaves and little blooming flowers. We like to leave a nice green carpet of algae on the sides so no need to remove that. Now is there any other reason why you would need to go in the pond to clean anything else?

 

[Waterbug]

Your pond is about 750 gal.

No stream or waterfall?

What kind of filter? How often does the filter need to be cleaned?

What size (gph) pump?

How much food do you feed?

What's MASSIVE? And what's "very large"? Very large carp to me is in the 60 to 80 pound range.

Do you measure anything like ammonia?

The kind of algae that forms a slick on the surface is not super common. You can have it one year and never again. The surface slick algae can occur with clear water but can happen along with green water algae.

A properly sized and installed UV will kill green water algae but won't affect the surface slick algae. A skimmer is normally the best option for surface slick algae along with a stream/falls and catch basin which collects and holds the algae out of sight.

 

[addy1]

You could put in some barley straw or peroxide to help kill off the algae.

We will do our best to get you going again. Post some pictures so we can see what you have it helps us figure out the best way to help.

 

[Becky]

Hi Lillian, welcome to the forums :wave:

Where abouts in Tyne & Wear are you? My husband's family is from Cramlington!

 

[Anthony Altorenna]

Just another thought to add to Waterbugs' questions: do you have a small fountain or some form of aeration to break up the surface tension of the water?

Waterbug knows a lot more about the different forms of algae, but it may help to keep the algae from forming if you can add some water movement along the surface of the pond.