Hi, all! I moved into my new house about a year and half ago and it came with a pond in the back yard. It's about 1200 gallons and is the kind with a liner underneath. It's kidney shaped and at one end is the intake area and at the other end is a waterfall (about 3 feet high maybe - built into a mounded up flower bed). The deepest point is about 3'. There are a bunch of fish - just regular gold fish I think - and several irises and lilies. It's next to a line of pine trees (which I hate and would love to remove, but it would probably cost $5000 to remove five large evergreens - especially since they're along power lines). It's also mostly in full sun most of the day. The previous owner left me some info about the pond and apparently the pump is a ShinMaywa 3300. There are a couple different densities of filter pad and some lava rock.
So my main issue, probably like everybody else, is freaking algae. The thing is CHOKED with algae. I spent more than $1000 last summer having the pond cleaned out and then buying and using string algae killer (EcoBlast) and algae control liquid (AquaOne) until it froze over in like December. I also use barley straw. By the end of summer it was disgusting again and now that it's spring again here in Ohio I can see that the bottom foot or so of the pond is just a mangled slimy mess of live and dead algae plus pine needles and rotten leaves and God knows what else. I stopped feeding the fish because I read that they eat algae and that adding fish food was just adding more nutrients for algae to take advantage of.
So I'm assuming my major algae-causing issues are full-sun location, millions of pine needles constantly falling in, and too few plants. I also think the water flow is too slow. There is motion in a straight line between the intake and the water fall, but the rounded outer areas of the 'kidney' shape are pretty much stagnant!
So I bought a pressure washer and plan to clean out the pond myself this year. I am well aware that a pond will *always* have algae, but I'm just wondering what I can do to reduce the amount of it? Certainly I shouldn't have to continually dump 2-4 times the company-recommended amounts of algae killers in there 9 months of the year should I? I'm assuming getting more plants would be a great idea to help 'use up' some of the nutrients that the algae are thriving on? How can I increase the water flow - especially in the stagnant areas off to the sides? Is there an underwater pump with tubing or something that can circulate water around the whole pond better? Would one of those canvas 'sails' help keep algae down by putting the pond in shade *and* cutting down on pine needles falling in? What else can I do to better take care of this pond?
Go easy on me - I'm a newbie!!
Cynthia
So my main issue, probably like everybody else, is freaking algae. The thing is CHOKED with algae. I spent more than $1000 last summer having the pond cleaned out and then buying and using string algae killer (EcoBlast) and algae control liquid (AquaOne) until it froze over in like December. I also use barley straw. By the end of summer it was disgusting again and now that it's spring again here in Ohio I can see that the bottom foot or so of the pond is just a mangled slimy mess of live and dead algae plus pine needles and rotten leaves and God knows what else. I stopped feeding the fish because I read that they eat algae and that adding fish food was just adding more nutrients for algae to take advantage of.
So I'm assuming my major algae-causing issues are full-sun location, millions of pine needles constantly falling in, and too few plants. I also think the water flow is too slow. There is motion in a straight line between the intake and the water fall, but the rounded outer areas of the 'kidney' shape are pretty much stagnant!
So I bought a pressure washer and plan to clean out the pond myself this year. I am well aware that a pond will *always* have algae, but I'm just wondering what I can do to reduce the amount of it? Certainly I shouldn't have to continually dump 2-4 times the company-recommended amounts of algae killers in there 9 months of the year should I? I'm assuming getting more plants would be a great idea to help 'use up' some of the nutrients that the algae are thriving on? How can I increase the water flow - especially in the stagnant areas off to the sides? Is there an underwater pump with tubing or something that can circulate water around the whole pond better? Would one of those canvas 'sails' help keep algae down by putting the pond in shade *and* cutting down on pine needles falling in? What else can I do to better take care of this pond?
Go easy on me - I'm a newbie!!
Cynthia
