urgent help needed!

[scurtis1966]

hi all,

new member steve from Swindon UK here! i recently moved into a new house with a pond in the garden. The pond water is very green though and i have tried most things to try and get it looking better. You name it i have tried it.... cleaned the filter, new uv lamp, plants, even replaced about 5/6 of the water a few weeks back. i have frogs, newts and 4 goldfish living in the pond so the quality of the water cant be too bad i guess? can anyone suggest my next course of action? anyone else had the same problems?

thanks & look forward to hearing from you all

 

[sissy]

replacing a lot of water will just make it worse .Try quilt batting in a basket under a water fall or in you filter where your water comes out .It will pick up the fine algae .You may have to clean it often .

 

[adavisus]

Photo's would help, what aquatic plants are in the pond?

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[scurtis1966]

thanks andy & sissy for your prompt replies and help..... i will definately try the quilt batting sissy .... as for pics andy i dont have any to post at the moment but suffice to say its pea green and you cant see anything past the 1st couple of cm's .... trust me.... i have dropped a dozen or so oxygenating plants in as well as a couple of water lillys... i also have some spiky tall plants on the top shelf too... i have been on some other sites since i joined this one and i am almost certain that the quilting will help but i was wondering if you guys could assist with my pump set up? i am not sure that i have it set up right... at present it sits at the bottom of the pond and there is no filtration media inside the basket that the pump is housed in .... should there be? also should the pump be raised off the bottom slightly as i am sure it must be pumping all the debris and rubbish that sits on the bottom of my pond.... up through the filtration system and this may be more than the filter can handle. what do you think?

 

[j.w]

scurtis1966
You can make a simple filter like I had by taking about a 10 gallon black plastic plant container w/ holes drilled around the sides and put in some filter fiber on the bottom. Set your pump in there and then stuff more fiber all around the pump and more on top. Run the tubing out the top and the electric wire too. Take some of the fiber and cut a nice round piece out and make a slit/hole through the round piece for the tubing and the wire to come out. Make sure all is good and tight on top so the piece can't float away. Tie some rope on the sides of the pot so you can lower and raise it out of the water when you need to clean it. This is just a make do kind of set up till you can build or buy a better set up. I used mine that way for 11yrs but finally got tired of lifting the heavy sucker up and down.

Picture of filter fiber I used. You can use either kind and it bends and cuts (w/ an box cutter) pretty easy. I got mine at a pond store a few miles away but you can find it on line too:

 

[j.w]

Oh yeah and you might want to raise the pump off the floor of the pond in case something happens as you don't want it to drain all the water out of your pond. Set it up on a plastic milk crate or ?

 

[Becky]

Welcome to the forums! :wave:

 

[cajunmeme]

Welcome. Cotton batting is a must for green water. Moving the pump off the bottom another must. And putting pump in filter basket a must.

I'm thinking you are now off to a good start.