New pond overrun with algae! Help!

[Shannonpwns]

Wow. Beautiful pond and fish! What type of plant is that in the water that looks like a fern, I feel like I know the name of it, but can't think of it!

I'm definitely intrigued to see how your "experiment" goes, I've got plenty of dirty fish tanks to dump into my pond every week, if thats the solution haha.

 

[callingcolleen1]

It is just an experiment, and the pea green water in that pond does not bug me too much, and the pea green water does not hurt the fish either. That little pond does appear clearer since adding the aged fish tank water as well. I think I will clean my other tank out and empty another 10 or 20 gallons of the aged fish tank water into that little 100 gallon pond in the front yard. I just run a hose out and siphon the water out into that pond, easy peasy!

My three back yard connecting pondsI all have large overgrown sedges that keep the water very clean too. It is like a marsh within the pond, and the baby fish can go into the marsh away from the big fish and find refuge and food their.... sometimes the baby dragonflys eat the baby fish though.....

The three main sedges that you will find in my pond are all winter hardy for my cold zone 2/3. The biggest sedge is my Yellow Flag water iris, which is not planted in any soil at all, and it naturally floats in three feet of water, and is close to six feet tall now. The yellow flag is my oldest plant in the pond, at 22 years old, and has be divided many times, and I need to hack it back again. It blooms all yellow in the late spring.

I also have the Sweet Flag, which is the large type not the dwarf, and it is not an iris. The sweet flag is about 4 feet tall, maybe five in some spots.

The smallest sedge is the bottom pond, the "Wool Grass Bull Rush", which you can see in the first picture, the wool grass grows to about two feet, and you can see it first, next to the tall Sweet Flag in the bottom pond.

The taller sedge at the back is in the middle pond and it is the Yellow Flag Water Iris.

The fourth picture is a close up of the hornwort which is a weed in some places so you may not be able to get that....

The last picture is from the Top pond view to the middle pond...

Your selection of sedges for your area will be better as you have a warmer climate.

 

[Litzi1964]

A couple of weeks ago we had a heat wave. My pond gets about 6 hrs of direct sunlight a day. What I did to limit algae and high temps was I floated a couple of yoga mats on the surface. My water lily and marginals still got plenty of sun but the water stayed 5-10 degrees cooler.

 

[Litzi1964]

Algae can be a symptom versus a problem on its own. It can indicate high levels of nutrients and low oxygen, which can result from organic waste, too many fish and/or not enough plants. Unless you've got Jaws or Moby Dick in there I don't think 5 fish is a problem. If you have excessive waste or nutrients your water quality parameters would be off. But if your water tests come back good and if your fish are healthy then your water quality is probably ok. Then the culprits are likely a new pond cycling and lots of sun. Try my yoga mat suggestion. If nothing else your fish will appreciate the shade.

 

[callingcolleen1]

My little pond out front is in the shade, has next to no fish, just little minnows, and has sedges, hornwort, Calla lillys, and regular pond lillys. The pond was very clean, but this year it got Pea green water, first time in many many years that I have seen Pea green water. You can get pea green water from a clean glass of water with no fish or nothing, just place clean jar of fresh water in sun and you most likely will get PEA green water in just days. Pea green water does not mean that water is unhealthy, lots of people have PEA green water and very healthy fish and plants....

My little pond out front is clearing up a little more since adding the dirty fish tank water from the house that was never pea green, but was a dirty little tank and needed to be cleaned. I have another dirty little tank that has lots of bacteria and needs to be cleaned, will dump that water in my little experimental pond out front tonight and see if that makes a bigger difference. At least I can now see the little minnows when they about four or five inches from top, before I could not see them at all!

 

[haver79]

callingcolleen, Nice ponds. Other than your sweet flag, do you put your sedges in pots, in kitty litter or something?

 

[callingcolleen1]

Many years ago I used to make my own soil, and that Sweet Flag was planted in my hand made mud, a blend of river clay right fresh out of the river, mixed with peat and a small bit of top soil, the key is to have enough river mud (clay) to hold the blend together. That was like 22 years ago, and back then their was not to much selection for pond plants around here. The greenhouses used to sell Sera Water Garden products, I don't even know if the company is still around cause you don't see them anymore. That big Sweet flag is still sitting in that basket, trouble is you can't find the basket anymore....

I used to work at this greenhouse making pond plants that I used to sell, used to plant up lots of plants in this like Parrots feather, clones from unbrella palms, grasses, rushes, iries, etc. Then you could place larger rocks over top, or keep the basket close to the water surface so fish can't get in and made a big mess. Lots of people these days choose kitty litter and that works good as well and is much less messy.

I discovered over the years that some plants with large rhizomes or tubers, like to "run loose" in the pond and make there own soil or sod, I discovered that if you have a rocked shallow edge, just wedge in the rhizome to hold it in place till it gets growing, or just float a small clump of yellow flag with no soil at all, and tie it to the edge so it does not move about, and they grow well there and their long roots just dangle straight down in the water, and the fish love to swim under it!

 

[Shannonpwns]

What's the best way to plant water lilies? I've got like 10 tubers that need to be planted, but I'm a lily pad newbie.

 

[addy1]

I put mine in walmart oil pans, in pure clay kitty litter (walmart) place the tuber against the edge of the pan, growing tip pointing towards the center of the pan. Keep the growing tip uncovered. I usually add 1/4 cup osmocote (granular fertilizer) under the kitty litter.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I cleaned out the other tank in the bedroom and drained more old dirty water into the pea green little pond out front again last night, and it seems this morning the small minnows that live in there are still fine swimming around and now at least I can see them! I took about 20 gallons from that tank and drained it into the small 100 gallon pea green pond. I think it is working from what I can see, but it is too early to tell for sure what is happening. My theory is the benificial bacteria for sure will be in that aged fish tank water and should seed the little pond out front and help it balance better and quicker.

It is still kind of dark out and I have to run to work this morning for a few hours, so this afternoon I will take a close up picture and post it later today. We will see if it will balance and I hope to have good improvements by the end of the week.

 

[callingcolleen1]

today's pictures of the little pond experiment of mine. It is to early to say for sure if the experiment is working, but now at least the surface water is clearing and I can see the little minnows better today and even got a picture of them!

You can see the hornwort now too near the surface of the water.and I did add duck weed from that tank as well.

 

[Shannonpwns]

It looks great!

I got my pond filled back up, we needed to empty it anyways to spray waterfall foam between the waterfall rocks so they hopefully won't fall if we have an earthquake. I took all the rocks out of the bottom but felt bad that the fish had limited places to hide, so I put two rocks at the bottom and put a flat rock (a leftover one from the waterfall) on top, so they have a cave to go under in case of raccoons. I have a dog though, and he does a good job of keeping them out, but the pond may attract them. I know they were all over the pond when it was in the front yard. I'm planting my lily pad tubers hopefully tomorrow, I haven't had a chance to go get some fertilizer for them yet. But I got my ruffled water lettuce and something else in there, forget the name...hopefully they multiply! Cause there's not much.

 

[sissy]

we call that fairy moss here colleen .My lilies did not flower at all this summer I think there was just to much rain and cloudy days for it .But I like the leaves just as much .I used a piece of square 12 inch pipe that was used to cover up a 8x8 treated posts a neighbor put in for a swing and i asked for the cut off pieces .free is good .

 

[callingcolleen1]

Don't feel bad Sissy, my Lilly pads never bloom, I have not had a bloom on my pads for at least 15 years, too many darn trees, they are taking over! I pulled a ton s baby trees today, they grow like weeds, does every seed have to sprout!!! H E L P ....

The little pond in the front yard does seem to be stabilizing and the pea green water is thining as far as I see. Nothing too dramatic to report today, other than there was a "line up" of Robins waiting to bath at my stream than connects to the little green pond. This is the first year I have had that handy dandy birdie bath with fresh flowing water, just perfect spot for all the "poopy" birds to come bath! Maybe that is why I have the pea green water there this year!!!!

Shannon, I forgot that your pond would be the most to "shift and move" during the small quakes, Lord forbid a big quake! I wonder if you had a slow motion camera set up at the pond, if you would be able to see vibrations over the water? That would be freaky for sure!

 

[Shannonpwns]

Luckily we haven't had a real earthquake in my city for almost 20 years. Back in 1994 when I was 10, it was a HUGE quake, a 7.4 I think. It took down buildings, houses, freeway bridges, roads tore up, it was bad, and really scary. So we're probably due for a good earthquake like that any day now, since its been so long haha. *knock on wood*

i have a turtle that my parents got me when I was 5, luckily he survived that quake, even though we had cinder blocks INSIDE his tank....don't ask me why...cheap hiding places for a turtle my parents hated???? Lol. Anyways, I still have him! And I hope he doesn't have to go through that again lol. Wish I could let him live in my pond, but I'm afraid he'd run away or get eaten....or chomp on my fish. He's a little Musk turtle, so not very big, but loves to eat unsuspecting fish. Oh and, My dad used to take him swimming in the pool with him, Haha.

So yea, hopefully my waterfall holds up in any earthquakes! If I had a slow motion camera watching the water, to "warn" me of earthquakes, I'd be so paranoid all the time, staring at it, thinking every bubble ripple was gonna kill me haha.