Water clarity after treating for blanket weed!

[Stingray]

Hi, my pond has been established for about 4 years now. I have been having the following problems: Shortly after fish started feeding again I cleaned out the pump & filters & did a partial water change, for about a month the water was crystal clear & all tests on the water were fine, a week later I noticed the beginnings of a bout of blanket weed, I have had several previous problems with blanket weed before & have always been able to bring it under control with great success using Clover leaf treatment & later with Cloverleaf sludge buster. I treated pond as usual with Cloverleaf Blanket Control but unusually after several days the water was still quite milky coloured so I decided to do a water change again which I did & within a day or two the water was pretty good and clearing, about three days later it was starting to look very 'murky' again, during the last water change I did introduce some water lilies so this time I cleaned the pump out again & the filter & changed about 90% of the water, everything was fine & the water was very clear & all tests were good, about 12 hours later the water clarity was starting to deteriate again, I was gutted to say the least, the next day there was an improvement & the water appears to be getting clearer albeit quite slowly. Ever since I started the pond I have never had problems that I have not been able to solve with ease. Can anyone throw some light on the events that I have encountered, Many thanks, John (stingray).

 

[addy1]

When I drained my hot tub pond, to catch a fish are remove it, the water was clear. Once refilled the water was extremely clear. Within a day or so it was extremely cloudy.
The water took about 4 days to clear up to as it was before I drained and refilled. About a 80% drainage.

Give your water time to stabilize and it should clear up.

 

[Lisak1]

My advice is #1 stop the water changes and #2 don't use additives for algae control. Every time you change the water, you're upsetting the balance the that your pond is trying to achieve. And additives "work" but often have side effects - like killing off microorganisms or leaving dead organic material in the pond. If you're struggling to get your pond to clear, you want to identify the cause and address it. You're treating the symptom but not getting to the root cause.

Now tell us a bit more - how big is your pond? How many fish and what kind? What kind of filtration? What kind of water testing are you doing (strip or liquid) and what are you testing for? (Remember - clear water doesn't mean healthy water.) Do you have any plants in your pond? Any information you can share would be helpful and as usual - we love pictures!

 

[Stingray]

Hello, good news is that the pond condition has returned to being extremely clear & tests with strip papers are all very good apart from needing to be treated with 'Aquasafe'. The pond is 6' x 6' x 3' deep, fish are all koi 5 about 3 inches which bred 2 years ago & 6 about 9" & one about 12 inches. I said I have had several Blanket weed incidents & have always successfully treated it without problems, the only things I did differently was add 3 lilies and use a liquid sludge buster instead of the granuals. anyhow all seems to be ok now but I would like to know why things went so wrong causing the problems I had never had before, thank you all, John (stingray).

 

[Lisak1]

I can tell you what your main issue is - you have WAYYYYY too many fish. If your measurements are accurate, your pond comes out to under 900 gallons. Some will advise that you need 1000 gallons for the FIRST koi. So that's step 1 - reduce your fish load. You have a goldfish pond quite honestly - not a koi pond.

Second step is to understand what algae means in your pond - it's a symptom of too many nutrients present in the water, in your case from the heavy fish load. You can use products to temporarily reduce the nutrients or add more plants, but eventually your fish will grow so large that no amount of treatment or plants will be able to remove the nutrients fast enough and your fish will suffer. Also, anytime you kill off algae, you have to remember that you are temporarily reducing the oxygen in your pond. A really large algae die off can kill your fish as well. Work to correct the cause and the pond will take care of the rest.

Water changes only serve to upset the balance of your pond and are stressful to your fish - some people swear by them, but I never do intentional water changes. And you shouldn't need to be adding anything to a pond that is well-established. Remember that clear water does not equal healthy water. You can't tell anything about the quality of your water from looking at it.

Why is this happening now and getting harder to control? We hear over and over again on this forum "everything has been fine for years and I haven't changed a thing - and NOW this bad thing happened". What people forget is the thing that is constantly changing - the size of the fish. And koi in particular grow big, and fast. And from a biomass point of view they put way more stress on a pond than goldfish do. A 20 inch koi puts off way more waste in the form of expiration and elimination than 20 - 1 inch goldfish.

I know this isn't what anyone wants to hear, but sadly it's an all too common occurrence. One local pet shop near me will only sell koi to people who can prove they have an adequate size pond to house them. All responsible koi sellers should take the same steps and people wouldn't end up where you are right now.

 

[Stingray]

Hello Lisak 1, thanks you for your advise & I will be addressing the problem in a manner you have suggested, I now realise that although I have the situation under control now, it will be very short lived, a couple of years ago when the fish were no where near as big as they are now I re-homed 3 shabumpkins & 2 comets which did lesson the blanket weed occurances for the season. So are there any members local to me interested in re-homing some of my Koi?, I'm reluctant to lose all my Koi but I think letting the 5 small (3 inch) Koi and say 3 of the larger Koi go would be ok at least for this year, I realise that I will have to let the others go in time & then perhaps go down the goldfish root as you suggest. I don't want to sell them as I would not know if they were going into a similar or worse situation, again thank you all, John (stingray)

 

[Stingray]

I can tell you what your main issue is - you have WAYYYYY too many fish. If your measurements are accurate, your pond comes out to under 900 gallons. Some will advise that you need 1000 gallons for the FIRST koi. So that's step 1 - reduce your fish load. You have a goldfish pond quite honestly - not a koi pond.

Second step is to understand what algae means in your pond - it's a symptom of too many nutrients present in the water, in your case from the heavy fish load. You can use products to temporarily reduce the nutrients or add more plants, but eventually your fish will grow so large that no amount of treatment or plants will be able to remove the nutrients fast enough and your fish will suffer. Also, anytime you kill off algae, you have to remember that you are temporarily reducing the oxygen in your pond. A really large algae die off can kill your fish as well. Work to correct the cause and the pond will take care of the rest.

Water changes only serve to upset the balance of your pond and are stressful to your fish - some people swear by them, but I never do intentional water changes. And you shouldn't need to be adding anything to a pond that is well-established. Remember that clear water does not equal healthy water. You can't tell anything about the quality of your water from looking at it.

Why is this happening now and getting harder to control? We hear over and over again on this forum "everything has been fine for years and I haven't changed a thing - and NOW this bad thing happened". What people forget is the thing that is constantly changing - the size of the fish. And koi in particular grow big, and fast. And from a biomass point of view they put way more stress on a pond than goldfish do. A 20 inch koi puts off way more waste in the form of expiration and elimination than 20 - 1 inch goldfish.

I know this isn't what anyone wants to hear, but sadly it's an all too common occurrence. One local pet shop near me will only sell koi to people who can prove they have an adequate size pond to house them. All responsible koi sellers should take the same steps and people wouldn't end up where you are right now.

Hello Lisa, I did take all your comments on board and I have taken the following steps: Firstly I sold all the Koi to a dealer and enthusiast from Stoke, he showed me photos of his extensive set up which included many very large pools, he also did a lot of charity work supplying fish to elderly care homes and schools, a really pleasant man, he did comment that my fish were in very good condition. I then started what would be a total clean out of my pond and all the equipment, I intended to start all over again but with more knowledge thanks to you and others on this forum. As said I cleaned everything and refilled pond, after about a week I added quite a lot of various plants, I left the pond with filters and aeration all running for about a month after which I done paper strip tests and everything was fine apart from needing to add a little more 'Aquasafe'. I have recently restocked the pond with 5 shabumkins (3") 2 shabumkins (2") 2 yellow comets (2") and 2 red comets (2"). Its now all looking extremely good and tests are perfect. I now have a very healthy pond and the fish will grow given time and the bonus is that I'm getting photos from the buyer of the Koi showing where they are slowly being re-homed and they certainly are much much better off now, so its a thumbs up for all your help, many thanks, John (stingray).

 

[Lisak1]

What a positive and uplifting comment! I'm so glad you were able to hear all the advice in the spirit it was offered and take it to heart. Some people would have taken offense or simply wandered off and continued on the path they were on, never finding the balance that a healthy pond needs.

This is a forum full of helpful people who just want to see others having success in pond keeping. With all your changes, I think you will find happy days ahead! Shubunkins and goldfish will give you just as much pleasure as koi in a pond, and are much more suited to a pond your size. Share some photos of your pond - we love pictures!

 

[poconojoe]

Great advice with a great outcome!
Sorry you had to re-home your koi, but at least they are in good habitats and will live happy healthy lives.
Shubunkin are cool fish with many color combinations and don't grow too large.
There are different types of goldfish, comets, etc too.
Enjoy...

 

[Stingray]

Thank you for your replies, its good to know that I have done the right thing for my pond and most importantly for my charges. Not sure how to post photos, regards, John (stingray)

 

[Bifferhead]

Hi, my pond has been established for about 4 years now. I have been having the following problems: Shortly after fish started feeding again I cleaned out the pump & filters & did a partial water change, for about a month the water was crystal clear & all tests on the water were fine, a week later I noticed the beginnings of a bout of blanket weed, I have had several previous problems with blanket weed before & have always been able to bring it under control with great success using Clover leaf treatment & later with Cloverleaf sludge buster. I treated pond as usual with Cloverleaf Blanket Control but unusually after several days the water was still quite milky coloured so I decided to do a water change again which I did & within a day or two the water was pretty good and clearing, about three days later it was starting to look very 'murky' again, during the last water change I did introduce some water lilies so this time I cleaned the pump out again & the filter & changed about 90% of the water, everything was fine & the water was very clear & all tests were good, about 12 hours later the water clarity was starting to deteriate again, I was gutted to say the least, the next day there was an improvement & the water appears to be getting clearer albeit quite slowly. Ever since I started the pond I have never had problems that I have not been able to solve with ease. Can anyone throw some light on the events that I have encountered, Many thanks, John (stingray).