Newbie with a inherited pond

[kingkenny59]

Hello everyone.
My names Dave and recently moved into our new property,It has a rather large fish pond with fish,And from what i can gather it is suffering from Algae Bloom,The previous owners we rather vague with instructions on the maintaining the pond etc,So i am in the process of draining the pond down so I can remove the Algae,Any tips/hints how to prevent the re-growth of the Algae.
Thanks.
Dave.

 

[sissy]

WELCOME Draining will just cause more problems and can kill the fish .

 

[kingkenny59]

Thank you for the advice
Dave.

 

[sissy]

Do you have well water and how big is the pond and what kind of fish .You may have to remove the algae with a brush .I guess they left you in a real pickle ,not telling you enough .

 

[j.w]

Dave
You want to keep the water you have in there as the fish are used to it and some people use lots of plants in their ponds to eat up the nutrients in their water to compete w/ the algae. Others like using UV lights or barley liquid or straw. Algae will go away on it's own eventually.

 

[kingkenny59]

Hi,The pond is approximately 14' x 10' and 4' to 6' deep with a separate fed holding area feed from main pond by 3" tubes,Not much up on fish but there is a mixture a few leatherbacks, shabbiness and afew im not sure of

 

[sissy]

Well at least he made it deep enough and may be a lot of gunk on the bottom .Not sure what those fish are but they sound interesting .Is there a pump or a filter of some sort

 

[kingkenny59]

It has a pump which supplies the water fall feature,But no filter,I have a 80L container that i am converting to a filter.

 

[sissy]

not a bad pond and looks like you have some good muck on the liner and does not really look to bad at all .I think once you get your filter going you will be amazed at how fast it clears up .I was expecting worse and have seen he worst .

 

[kingkenny59]

There is no liner,from what i can make out it is cement rendered and a form of rubberised paint on top to seal it,It was built way back in 1975,so it is doing well,As to the filter he never had one,I know when we first viewed the house the water was pretty clear of any Algae,So not sure how he kept it clean,We found some sort of chemical in the shed along with all the other things for the pond,I have tried to google the chemical without success,All i can make out is Seaboard and a few other words on the label,But it is some form of pond treatment

 

[don't ask]

welcome Dave.... yep just get the basics going like pump and filter and check water parameters with a liquid test kit...things will fall into place.. if you already drained a substanial amout of water out, remember to use de-chlor when adding water back in if not on a well..also try using a spray nozzle and let the water splash into pond to help remove chlorine..perhaps test water from tap first before adding the dechlor and try to resist the urge to buy and use chemicals from pet supply stores

 

[kingkenny59]

Many thanks Sissy/Don't ask for the bits of advice.

 

[sissy]

Gosh the guy really must have done a good job then ,geeze 1975 .

 

[addy1]

to our group!

That is a neat looking pond, it will take you a little while to get things going good, but everybody will help you with any ??'s you have.

 

[kingkenny59]

Here are some more pictures of the pond,The fish in the last two pictures is the pair of leatherback carp,Both about 15/16" long.