Hello, so I live in Canada just across the river from Detroit. Having issues with long string algae. My pond is small made of all concrete. 3.5 feet deep 2.5 wide and 6ft long. About 400gal, 1500 liters. I have a UV filter on my pymp. Current temp is 62°Far or 16°C. It gets about 3 hours of direct sun during the day. I have 7 goldfish, forget the proper name but I posted a Pic. They are chunky and about 8 to 10 inches long. See other pics for the food I feed and the test strip results. Advice on how to get water properly balanced. Have not done a water change for a couple years now. I have a water lilly that keeps losing leaves for some reason. Had other floating plants but they were crowding the lilly so I removed them.
String algae, water chemistry
- Thread starter Fugly69
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Sorry I just want to add that I have a waterfall and 2 aerators.
How to get rid of the string algae and how to balance water chemistry. Thank you
Welcome!
The string algae is telling you that you have too many nutrients in your pond. Overgrowth of any kind of algae is a symptom, not the problem.
How to address the actual problem:
1. reduce the bio-load; i.e., get rid of a few fish
2. increase the biofiltration: more pond plants; water lilies don't count - marginals or floaters are your best option. Since you don't like floaters, look for ways to add marginals. How about an added bog filter?
3. feed less, and/or upgrade the quality of the food. Tetra is not a high quality brand of food; lots of fillers which means lots more waste.
4. make sure you remove the organic waste - dead leaves, etc. You mentioned losing lily pads - that's the natural life cycle of a lily. The pads last a few days to a week, depending on the variety. Just make sure you remove them before they end up rotting in the pond.
You do these things and the water will balance itself. Having said that, small ponds are tricky. They are much more sensitive to small changes. In this case you may find that some small, regular water changes help a bit.
Aeration helps. UV is worthless on string algae. And your fish appear to be the comet variety of goldfish - love those colorful guys!
The string algae is telling you that you have too many nutrients in your pond. Overgrowth of any kind of algae is a symptom, not the problem.
How to address the actual problem:
1. reduce the bio-load; i.e., get rid of a few fish
2. increase the biofiltration: more pond plants; water lilies don't count - marginals or floaters are your best option. Since you don't like floaters, look for ways to add marginals. How about an added bog filter?
3. feed less, and/or upgrade the quality of the food. Tetra is not a high quality brand of food; lots of fillers which means lots more waste.
4. make sure you remove the organic waste - dead leaves, etc. You mentioned losing lily pads - that's the natural life cycle of a lily. The pads last a few days to a week, depending on the variety. Just make sure you remove them before they end up rotting in the pond.
You do these things and the water will balance itself. Having said that, small ponds are tricky. They are much more sensitive to small changes. In this case you may find that some small, regular water changes help a bit.
Aeration helps. UV is worthless on string algae. And your fish appear to be the comet variety of goldfish - love those colorful guys!
Hey there. So I am also considering making a small bog filter. If I do then I don't need my other filter correct?
Well, not necessarily. Remember that you need both biological and mechanical filtration. The bog provides the biological, but a filter with pads adds mechanical filtration. So a lot depends on your pond, your surroundings and how much debris yyou might get in your pond. We built our pond without the mechanical filtration but eventually added a biofalls to the system for added mechanical filtration.
j.w
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It does not hurt to have extra filtration at all!
It is normal to have a bloom of algae in the spring before the plants catch up and come back to life. Once my plants start growing, I yank out the algae by hand. This also happens with new ponds. Yes lowering the number of fish and how much they are fed can help. But you will likely have more algae ever year as the pond wakes up from winter.
@Laaf did you mean "you will likely have algae every year" vs "MORE algae every year"? I agree that every pond will have algae in the spring, but I don't think you meant to imply it would increase annually.
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colleen in canada could really be helpful to you . She also has a youtube channel . She ives in Medicine Hat Canada
colleen penny
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In 8 years coming to this site and being a ponder. Only twice now have i seen that someone was not pleased after adding a bog.
But I have to agree with @Lisak1 the bog does a great job its stronger on bio filter than mechanical. Though it can clear up your water drastically. Imo something else is needed to pull out the heavy solids and some of what is floating in the water column. Bogs hold on to all the waste and solids.
But I have to agree with @Lisak1 the bog does a great job its stronger on bio filter than mechanical. Though it can clear up your water drastically. Imo something else is needed to pull out the heavy solids and some of what is floating in the water column. Bogs hold on to all the waste and solids.
Ideally you’re pushing water to the bog that’s “clean” but realistically we found that the tiny particles are able to pass through the bog and just keep getting recirculated in the pond. That may not bother some people. The water still appears clear. But in our case, as soon as we put the underwater camera in, and I could see it, it drove me crazy. Adding the bio falls with filter pads, made a tremendous difference for mechanical filtration.