Newbie Skippy question

[rb.]

Hi everyone. Glad I found this place. Some background...

Installed pond last fall (175 gallons, I think, box is long gone) filled with water, promptly turned green. LOL

Emptied in spring, refilled, added hardy water lillies, dwarf cattails, iris. Dumped in about 14 feeder goldfish in May, currently stable at 7, and they have grown. also in May, bought floaters...Parrot feather, water hyacinth, duckweed (which the fish wiped out), and a larger floater that looks like duckweed...forget the name. At that time, I also built a skippy filter. Things were ok, except fish died about one a day until we got to 7, and water clarity was bad, as I had dirt in the water from plants. Was waiting for the pond to cycle. Then, beginning of June, we had a 6 hour piwer outage that allowed the skippy to drain and dry out. It had been nice and slimy green, but it was no more. Between that, and the dirt in the water, a few weeks ago I decided to drain, vac the dirt out, and refill. Was clear for a few days, of course, then went cloudy (algae I assume). Fish were happy, plants were happy. Now the skippy is growing what I believe is string algae in the top of it. Does this mean it's not working? I added some more beneficial bacteria int the water around the pump intake a few days ago. Comments?

 

[koiguy1969]

O.k yes string alge in the top of your filter is an indication its working. the final product of a bio filter is nitrates. plants, including alge feed on nitrates. i get string alge in the top of my filter as well. the good thing is i dont get it in the pond. except the occassional few strands on my lilly stems. if your water is green its an alge bloom. if its gray or milky looking its a bacterial bloom. please see:
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/basic-water-quality-problems-t5332.html

 

[rb.]

Thanks, koiguy. I've been lax on testing, as with summer, I'm not up early enough to do an early a.m. test. Off to the water quality thread.

 

[rb.]

Just pulled out some water...it's not really coloured, just a bit cloudy. Did a strip test, KH 120, GH 180, PH 8.0, NO2 & NO3 0. From test literature, I guess those readings are ok? Maybe just add more beneficial bacteria? Or just leave it alone? Fish seem happy, plants seem ok.

 

[koidaddy]

You could make a small fines filter to get the fines. Use some fabric batting or the like to clean things up.

 

[addy1]

If you want to get the fine stuff out, buy some quilt batting stick in a laundry basket under the water fall. Or put a net bag of some of the stuff in the waterfall, it will catch the real fine stuff.

Or just leave alone.............lol it will most likely slowly clear up. Try not to do extreme clean outs, that wipes out the good algae growing on the sides, then you are starting over with new pond syndrome again.

 

[j.w]

Batting works good. I tore apart a lawn swing we had and the white fiber stuff inside was just perfect to put in my plastic veggie strainer that I put inside the foam swim floaty I tied together w/ twine:

 

[KennethO]

White/milky looking is a bacterial bloom which will clear in a few days. This is good and just means your bacteria is multiplying to cover more space. This sounds more likely since you did a full clean. In the future you should never do a full clean unless its totally needed. Use a vacume instead if possible.

Muddy brown is just fine particles in the water. Use quilt battling to catch it.

 

[rb.]

Thanks, everyone. By quilt batting, do you mean the cheap, polyester stuff? Wondering, 'cause I'm also a quilter, and I have that and cotton quilt batting. I assume cotton may be a problem as it's organic, not synthetic. ??

 

[j.w]

Yep the cheap synthetic polyester stuff is what you want. Change it everyday if you need to til it starts to slow down in turning green or brown. You can rinse it out and use it again and again.

 

[addy1]

Put it in a net bag, makes it easy to rinse and clean. I used it to get the fine pea gravel silt out of our pond beginning of this year.

 

[rb.]

Thanks!