Why is Waldon Pond green?

[waldon pond]

Hello New to the world of pond maintenence....and apparently uploading pictures to forums...anyway, I bought a 100 gallon pond at an auction last year. Then bought a pump sized for the pond to pump water over a large rock I brought up from the creek. I filled the pond with city water and started it with prep. We don't have a water softener, and very hard water, and live in the middle of the limestone belt. I then, a few months later, added ten 5" koi and one lilly. The fish made it through the winter along with the lilly. Now the pond is full of green water. I picked up some sludge reducer and used accordingly, but doesn't seem to help. Not sure where to go from here...

 

[Waterbug]

Sludge reducer is suppose to do something to debris laying on the bottom. So for sure no effect on green water.

UV filter is 100% effective at clearing green water.

Next best solution is trickle water changing. You can Google "pond trickle water changes" for more info if you like.

Next best solution would be adding a stream or Trickle Tower. Google "pond strawberry pot trickle tower" for more info.

After that we start getting into things that really don't work very well, if at all.

Fish load, algae and ammonia...
There is an issue you might want to be aware of. The green water algae consumes ammonia directly. Ammonia is produced by fish and is toxic to the fish. When the green water algae dies it won't be pulling ammonia out of the water. Ten 5" Koi is a large fish load for a 100 gal pond, maybe 5 times as many fish I'd expect your pond to keep alive long term.That fish load I'd expect to produce more ammonia than the surface ares of the pond to handle. A Trickle Tower is very good at converting ammonia, but for your fish load I'm not sure a single Strawberry Pot would be enough. Testing the water for ammonia and nitrites will tell you for sure what is going on. I'd also measure nitrate too for the same reason, but nitrate has to be pretty high to be toxic.

So the fish ammonia is feeding the algae, allowing the algae to reproduce fast, making the water green. However, it's impossible to remove all ammonia and nitrates, so lowering ammonia and nitrates wouldn't be a solution to green water, it would just make the water less green over time.

Without testing and dealing with ammonia I would expect all your fish to be gone within a month of the pond clearing. Not saying it will happen, just saying that would be my expectation.

 

[waldon pond]

Thanks for the info....I've been researching a bio filter online and found a lot of do it yourself builds on youtube... Is this the same as a trickle tower? or will this have the same outcome as trickle tower?

 

[CometKeith]

waldon pond, Welcome. You are going to have a really tough time maintaining that pond. It is very small for the number of fish you have. Maybe a couple small goldfish would be okay for a pond that size. They are producing way more waste than the pond can cycle and have healthy parameters. I would consider giving away most of the fish or think about a much bigger pond. I have a 600 gallon pond and about a dozen goldfish and no koi. A good rule of thumb for beginners is 10-20 gallons of water for every inch of fish, so you can see one or two fish would be the most assuming your 5" koi don't grow.

 

[Waterbug]

Thanks for the info....I've been researching a bio filter online and found a lot of do it yourself builds on youtube... Is this the same as a trickle tower? or will this have the same outcome as trickle tower?

Is what the same as a Trickle Tower?

 

[waldon pond]

a bio-filter? Does it serve the same purpose?

 

[Waterbug]

A Trickle Tower is a bio filter, meaning it converts ammonia and nitrites. However virtually all filters are called bio filters whether they are or aren't because it sounds good. Basically if a filter has to be cleaned they would be a mechanical filter to remove muck. A good bio filter doesn't have to be cleaned. Many filters try to do both at the same time and do neither very well because the bacteria in a bio filter can't live in the muck. But combo filters sound great and so they sell better.