We have a small ornamental water feature in our drive with a fountain. The pond has lilies, papyrus and many small fish, who have been multiplying very well. Now with summer upon us and average temperature about 100 degrees, the water is turning green. In the cooler months it is nice and clean. I am using barley straw, but is there anything any of you can recommend which will clear the green sludge? I want it to be as eco friendly as possible. My other ponds (one small the other a small lake are fine, they however are not in full sun). Please help. Any suggestions? Thanks
Green water with sludge
What do you have for a filter, if you don't want to spend money on UV (I DON"T) you may be able to get a finer filter pad from the pet store. What kind of algae and sludge, how much water, and what are you using to filter/move the water around. I don't use any chemicals either - but my climate is much cooler.
Describe as best as you can what you have and what you see ( or take pics) and you'll be in god hands..
sorry, good hands
3% Hydrogen peroxide, available in drug stores, dosed at the rate of 1pt per 1000 gallons is a natural algae killer. H2o2 is the same chemical given off by barley. Barley bales, when placed in the water flow, give off H2o2 and are used by many wanting a natural pond algae solution. H2o2 is temporary. You get a good algae kill and then the algae returns. Barley bales emit H2o2 on a constant basis and provide long term algae control. The downside is that they are messy and can be unsightly. It depends on your particular ponding filtration equipment and where you can get them into the water flow. H2o2 is harmless to plants and fish. You must know the gallons in the pond to dose correctly.
BTW I love my UV's. After constant algae battles I installed two on a 2500 koi pond and one ( built into a Fishmate filter) on a 480 gal goldfish pond. The 2500 gal koi pond is full sun and can green very quickly. Other than adequate filtration, it was the best money I ever spent on pond management. Crystal clear water and no chemicals. The bulbs are replaced after 12 months of actual usage. I've used them for 9 years.
They now sell liquid Barley Extract treatment for ponds also, that way you don't have to wait the 6-8 weeks for bales of barley to breakdown and start releasing the compounds (barley use needs to be started before Algae starts to show up). The treatments can be found online as well as anywhere they sell pond items. Treating the water will help, but in the long run it's better to stop what is causing the Algae if possible.
How often do you test your Pond water? Nitrate is what feeds algae, along with sun and has to have both to survive. Nitrate is the breakdown of Ammonia (fish wastes and plant decomposition) to Nitrite than to Nitrate (which in small amounts is harmless). If your filter/biological filter is removing the Ammonia and Nitrite (which are deadly to fish) correctly, than you shouldn't have much of a Nitrate problem. Plants will also help remove the Nitrate, such as Anacharis. Anacharis if planted (or floated) in your pond will oxygenate it, remove Nitrate (plants use for food) and starve out the Algae (don't know if you can use it in Barbados, but it is a North and South American plant and can be found in most pet stores or online). The warmer the water the less oxygen there is in it. So Anacharis, or plants like it are important to pond health.
When you feed your fish, please make sure you give them only enough to eat within 5-minutes and remove all leftovers after that. Overfeeding leads to more Nitrate also.
You could also try providing something to shade the feature in the hot months, possibly taller plants to shade the water. Not being able to see your feature it would be hard to tell.
Just some ideas, good luck to you.
This message was edited Jul 5, 2009 4:12 PM
This message was edited Jul 5, 2009 4:13 PM
If you don't have any shade at all for it,just make sure you have three fourths of the water covered with plants and it should do fine. BEV
Freshwater clams/mussels! These little guys are great!
I have worked for a major water gardening supplier and have owned a few of my own ponds. I have never seen a cloudy pond/aquarium/tank that had a sufficient number of clams in it. Ever.
I put 25 clams in my 1800g pond and it cleared in about 3 days.
Try these sources...
http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/misc_critters/critters.htm#clams
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=1075+1642&pcatid=1642
http://www.tricker.com/cat-scavengers
as well as many sellers offering them on eBay...
Good Luck!
I have river snails in mine to keep it clear also. BEV
No to be picky here but the fish waste conversion cycle in a pond goes like this. Ammonia, which is highly poisonous, is produced by fish and is converted to nitrite by nitrosomonas bacteria. Nitrite is also poisonous, but keeping a salt level of .01 or higher will not allow the fish to take it up so it is more manageable as you wait for the pond to cycle. Nitrite is converted to nitrate by nitrobacter bacteria. Both the nitrosomonas and nitrobacter bacteria are present in a "cycled" pond filter, hence you have 0 readings for ammonia and nitrite. The end product in a fully cycled pond filter is nitrate. Nitrate is not toxic to koi but should be kept under 60ppm. A healthy filter should produce nitrate. If the nitrate level is too high you have a heavy fish load for the pond size or you are over feeding. Nitrates can be managed by adding plants to the pond that will use it for food and by water changes. A high nitrate level in a fully cycled pond is a sign of a healthy filter that can keep up with the fish waste but too little water volume. Over feeding and/or over stocking produces more fish waste which produces more ammonia which causes the end product of the waste conversion cycle, nitrate to go higher.
Adress the stocking level, feeding amount, do some partial water changes and you'll get the water clearer and healthier.
I plant my plants in baskets with rocks only, no soil. They eat up all fish poop nutrition from the water, so algae has very little left to thrive on. Any roots that eeek out, the fish nibble on and take care of.
I completely LOVE my pond with the UV light. With the plants being planted in rocks....the uv light....salt and beneficial bacteria/enzyme products, I've had crystal clear water ever since. No harsh chemicals.
I fought green water for years I was so discoureged I covered my pond in. I missed it so much I wound up putting in a 95 gallon pond. I found some stuff that worked finally.
Its called Crystal Blue all natural pond cleaner. You can get it here
http://shopbehnkes.com/products.php?openparent=2190&pid
I now have put in a 175 gallon pond
You can see my new little pond here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvKNFrdnJpQ
Good luck
Greg