Swimming Pond Help

[MitchM]

In low doses, chlorine will not harm plants or periphyton, but we start to get into identifying which dinoflagellate you have, using a microscope.
Chlorine will disable some dinos so you can collect them via mechanical filtration.
See this excerpt for a bit more information.
https://books.google.ca/books?id=ML...YDAM#v=onepage&q=pond dinoflagellates&f=false

 

[bigring]

Thanks for the link Mitch - interesting reading. Will look into trying to get this dinoflagellate identified in hopes of finding the proper cure. I may try doing what the book said and testing how chlorine affects the algae in a bucket first (with proper measuring and ratios of course).

 

[Telion]

It's really lovely! Looks refreshing!

I'm thinking your pond could benefit from a lot more plants. I understand that your plant zones comprise the "appropriate" amount of space, but perhaps being more heavily planted would help.

I also think I would nix the IonGen - I get the purpose, but the end result is just dead algae in the pond. Work to crowd it out rather than kill it and leave it to decay in the pond. I also think the IonGen has the potential to kill other single celled beneficial organisms in pond. It's non-discriminating.

Agreed, also with your existing plant zones are you pumping water to or through them in a bog fashion? Could any of them be converted to a functioning bog setup? And lastly you mentioned having adequate water movement but your mechanical filters stay clear and clean, how much gph are you pushing through the filters and through the pond?

 

[bigring]

Just wanted to update this thread. After much reading, and the great suggestions and info here, I increased the Ph of the pond. It had been sitting at just about neutral (7). I added approximately 22kg of sodium of bicarbonate gradually to the pond to increase the Ph. I got it up to around 8-8.5 and it seems to have helped tremendously - the dinoflagellates seem to have died off and the grunge growing everywhere subsided and is now gone. Also, my plants, which seemed to be struggling have bounced back - all my water hyacinth and lettuce have been doubling in size when at one point they appeared to be dying off; they're all much healthier, even this late in the season. Will post some pics up when I get a chance. Thanks everyone for all the help!

On a side note, in the Spring I plan on also buying a new pump to increase the flow and circulation of water. I don't think doing so would hurt things at all.

Cheers

 

[TXNSP]

Hi

Just wanted to update this thread. After much reading, and the great suggestions and info here, I increased the Ph of the pond. It had been sitting at just about neutral (7). I added approximately 22kg of sodium of bicarbonate gradually to the pond to increase the Ph. I got it up to around 8-8.5 and it seems to have helped tremendously - the dinoflagellates seem to have died off and the grunge growing everywhere subsided and is now gone. Also, my plants, which seemed to be struggling have bounced back - all my water hyacinth and lettuce have been doubling in size when at one point they appeared to be dying off; they're all much healthier, even this late in the season. Will post some pics up when I get a chance. Thanks everyone for all the help!

On a side note, in the Spring I plan on also buying a new pump to increase the flow and circulation of water. I don't think doing so would hurt things at all.

Cheers

Hello! We are currently constructing our swimming pond. I noticed you have a shallow area incorporated in your pool. Ours slopes from a depth of 2’ to 9’. Well now I’m panicking because it just dawned on me how slippery the pond liner is going to be and I’m dreading the injuries walking in the shallow area (we have two littles that will be confined to that end). Were you able to find a way to get good grip in your shallow area? Did we completely goof with our design and basically make a dangerous slip and slide that will sail our babies to the deep end?