What is the algae and how to control/destroy it

[vascott1]

I have had this issue for a few weeks now. I have never seen it and my pond is about 15 years old. It is a gelatinous covering on the rocks and always has air bubbles. I also have mats of slime in my skimmer. I have to say that so far, this season has been great for clear water I am in Fairfax VA. I have an Aquascape dosing system and have "Maintain" in that and also have an IonGen running. Nothing new. Smaller number of fish this year.

 

[brokensword]

An iongen isn't recommended by one of our smartest members, Meyer Jordan;

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• #9

toripillar said:
Yes. It's 1,200 gal. I have a waterfall w/ bioballs, aquascape skimmer, pump & filter medium. I have been adding beneficial bacteria, but stipped algaecide after almost killing my fish teice. So i just installed a copper iongen system about a month ago for string algae. I have several new lily pads I'm trying to get going cuz pond gets a lot of sun.

What is the present setting of your iongen?
It really appears that what you have done is severely stressed your fish with the algaecide treatments, then added to this stress by treating for parasites without really being certain that you have a problem. Now you have added a copper/zinc ionizer. Copper (and zinc) are extremely toxic to fish and all other aquatic life. If the levels are not precisely controlled, multi-specie fatalities may occur.
It should also be taken into account the relative infancy of your pond. If all of your fish were added within a short period of time, an Ammonia spike would have been likely (explaining the behavior of the Koi that you could easily pick up). This likely Ammonia spike, sadly, was only the first of several actions that only further weakened your fish as explained above.
Cease tossing quick remedies and 'snake oil' into your pond. Give it a chance to mature on its own. Nature knows what it is doing."

 

[Lisak1]

While I don't recommend the Iongen personally, it's really only useful for string algae.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but algae on pond rocks is perfectly normal and expected in a healthy pond. If your water is clear then I'm not quite sure what he issue is.

 

[Jhn]

Green/brown “algae” with air bubbles trapped and running an iongen, either cyanobacteria or dinoflagellates. Iongens seem to make the ponds conducive to the growth of these, not sure why, but seems like everyone that comes here that has the above mentioned problem is running an iongen.

Personally, would stop using the iongen for the reasons already mentioned by Meyer Jordan via @brokensword. Nothing good comes from sticking highly toxic metals into your pond.

 

[vascott1]

thanks for the advice. I will consider turning off the iongen. Still trying to determine what this stuff is as I have never seen it before. Algae has never been a worry. String algae is a nuisance and that has been minor and only on the waterfall. The gelatinous nature of this has got my attention and I would like to know if there is anything I can do to remove it. I am amazed at how quickly it comes back after I scrape it off the rocks!

 

[Lisak1]

Why get rid of it? It's something your pond needs right now - unless it's taking over, why not let it do it's thing? Maybe I'm not getting the full picture, but it looks pretty innocuous from here.