Very fine green floating particles

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I have had my bond for twenty years, about 8 years the waterfall started leaking the fish had dies out and has just sat.

This summer I drained it as far as I could siphon ~4" and scrapped as much muck and dead leaves out as possible. I filled it up with city water and after two weeks added a few small goldfish. My lilies are going strong and I have lots of iris. The pond started to great up and so I got the uv stearlizer working again with a fresh bulb and the water started clearing up.

About two weeks ago I started getting a very fine green floating substance, tiny like flour on the surface. My skimmer removes duck weed but this stuff just spreads out evenly and defies skimming. Hit it with a hose and it disappears but comes right back. Any idea what it is? My thought was dead algae from the uv. I have never had this in the past, just green water or string. I live in western WA, cool weather and the pond is mostly shaded maybe getting 3 hours of partial sun.

I no longer have the waterfall so my aeration is much decreased but I am circulating at the same rate about 500 gph with a 750 mag pump.
2017-07-27 10.13.59.jpg
 
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Yes the big stuff is duckweed, it's the fine green stuff that covers most of the pond that I am wondering about.
 

cas

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I'm not sure why the skimmer wouldn't remove it. I can't keep anything in the pond that isn't anchored from going into my skimmer. You could try adding an air stone to get more water circulation.
 
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It will get sucked into the skimmer, when I clean out the duckweed. The problem is the stuff wants to sit directly on the surface horizontally and won't pile up, so once the surface of the skimmer is full of the stuff no more goes in. I might add an air stone or small pump in skimmer and see if that will help it sink and accumulate more. Imagine it's like thousands of small styrofoam balls, that's how it acts.
 

sissy

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quilt batting a crate with pump hose in it and it will catch it
 
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I have had the issue for about two weeks, I have batting in the skimmer, but as I said before the stuff just sits on the surface. I stopped by Harbor Freight today and bought a small pond pump and placed it in the skimmer pointing up to keep the surface tension in the skimmer broken up a bit. It seems to be helping some after a couple of hours I had reduced the area down to about 80% coverage. We will see what it does overnight. I wish I could figure out what it is.
 

sissy

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your water looks very still so you may need water movement in the pond .place the pump you got in the center of the pond with a hose directing that water into the quilt batting .I would raise the pump up so it is only a foot from the surface of the pond .You may need an aerator
 
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It looks and sounds like cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae.
Not an algae, but a bacteria that loves nitrogen.
You may notice a funny smell from your pond.
It would help your pond if you could increase circulation and aeration again.
 

Meyer Jordan

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As @MitchM stated, this is likely a cyanobacteria bloom. There may or may not be an odor depending on what specie it is. Like all algae blooms it should dissipate on its own over time.
As a result of your cleaning, the pond's biochemical balance has to be re-established. That is what's happening.
 
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Thank you all for the help, the extra pump in my skimmer made all the difference, this morning it was clear. I will probably shut it of in a week and see if it comes back. This is the first time in 20 years that the pond has been drained. Hopefully a balance will return. Good news is the fish are happy!
 

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