Need Help to deal with muck and foam

[Maxime Mailloux]

Hi,

BACKGROUND:

I bought a house 2 years ago with a pond in the backyard. For the past 2 years, I did not have any fish or plants. I just tried to keep the water relatively clean with chlorine (withou much success) .

But it does not matter, because ,this year, I am transitioning to a "true pond" with fish and plants.

I completely drained the water this spring, removed all the rocks and muck at the bottom in(and left the rocks out). So the pond is quite clean. I have some large rocks left on the edges.

Location : Montreal, Canada

Pond size : About 1200-1500 Gallons (As I did not build it, it's a tough call).

Setup :

- 1 in-pond skimmer + Laguna Maxflow 1900 GPH Pump + Laguna PF2100 filter with UV light + waterfall (including additionnal bio spheres)

- I also have a laguna maxflow 900 GPH pump to boost the water fall (i.e with bottom inlet , pump is in a "cage" to block large debris)

Plants: 1 water lilly, 9 water hyacinth,

Fish : 9 comets (small, 2 inches for 1 month now) and 3 Koi of 3-4 inches (for 2 days)

Picture

http://imgur.com/OF9X8RY

Water is crystal clear. I have no algae at all. (I had a bloom in May, but its gone know)

Fish / plants doing fine from what I can see.

However, I am not sure how I can correctly feed my comets. They are hiding most of the times, and never come at the surface. So no real way to tell if they really eat the food I am giving... (They are still alive after 1 month though). i feed them once every 2 days.

PROBLEM

My problem is that is started to have foam at the water surface. Not tons, but still enough to annoy me. Also, I can see that there is a layer of debris, mucks forming on the bottom and on the rocks. I am not able to get rid of it with the skimmer net. It just starts to float around everywhere, and it is too fine for the net to catch it. so it is very light / small particles, not "sludge" yet.

Pictures:

http://imgur.com/1IReAqQ

http://imgur.com/4sEVz8G

Not too sure where it comes from. Fish wastes, overfeeding, algeas that has been killed by my UV light maybe ?

I can leave with some muck at the bottom on the line , but the stuff on the rocks make my pond look dirty. And I have the foam. I want to improve this, and I am guessing both are strongly related.

I changed some of the water, maybe 5%. It helped with the foam only ,but it came back after 2-3 days. I am reluctant to start making large water change every couple of weeks for ecological and practical reasons. I am quite sure I have the right quantity of filtration for my pond size, and my fish load is also quite reasonable. I think.

So what is the solution to my problem ? Do I really need to buy a pond vacuum ? Anyone knows if this model would work decently to remove the

mucK? on the large rocks on the edges of the pond (but inside the water) ?

https://www.amazon.ca/Python-ULTIVAC-Ulti-Vac-Maintenance-System/dp/B000O3ARRO

Should I rather by something MuckAway (bacterias that eats muck)? Less trouble ? Just throw it in and wait ?

Or is the problem elsewhere ?

I have already spend significant money to get the pond going, and I want to spend my money very wisely from now on, considering the pond stuff is quite expansive in general.

So your recommendations are welcomed!!

Thanks in advance.

Max

 

[sissy]

No pond is perfect you are going to get foam and muck is good fish love to eat it .Those type filters need to be back flushed often .Some times more than once a day .A pool net will help Some thing with a fine mesh

 

[Smaug]

Ponds have muck and foam,net out the muck and don't worry about the foam. As for feeding,yiur fish are small,3 times a week is enough. Keep in mind that fish such as koi and comets get quite a bit if their food from bio film,algae and bugs.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

If the photos are any indication of a problem, I do not see one. No real foam is visible in any of the photos and very little sediment on the rocks.
As long as you have fish and plants you will have a certain amount of sediment. This is natural.
If you are looking for semi-sterile conditions in your pond, you will likely need to drastically change its configuration.

 

[Lisak1]

Agreed on both counts with what has already been said. Some sediment build up is natural, as is algae on the rocks. That's not "dirty" in nature. The tiny bubbles you see in the picture are not a concern at all. Foam can be indicative of a problem, but you don't have foam, at least not in the pictures you shared.

 

[KC Crook]

When my algae gets a bit "hairy" i stop feeding the fish for a couple days, they seem to clean it up. Its pretty hard to starve fish.