What can cause foam on top of pond?

I have redone and enlarged my pond this year. My pond is about 1,000 gal, I have a new pump and out of pond filter it's for about 2,000 gal. I have a waterfall and a small bell fountain I have plants and have well water and I know it's good. Something got most of my gold fish last winter, I only have 3 about 6" long and 15 that are just begining to turn color. Sometimes I see white foam or a lot of air bubbles on the top. Can anyone tell me what is causing this, it can't be too much oxygen can it? I know that sounds stupid. Zone 7 Tennessee

Hi Katherine!!! Do you do a 1/3 water exchange each week?

jeri11, no I just top off when needed, but we have a lot of rain lately so I haven't to so that.

Not stupid! It could be the dechlorinator your using. Some will cause foaming if your water is soft and/or you might be overdosing. Measure carefully. Try changing brands.

jeri11 - I've got a 2400 gal pond for going on 7 years. I do a 30% water change once a year in mid spring! If I did a 720 gal change a each week I would have to quit ponding for the expense! Plus too frequent water changes can actually aggravate algae growth. And I don't know where where I would run off all that water either. The pond does lose water through splash and evaporation and gets topped off frequently either by the hose or nature's rains. That's plenty of water exchange in most circumstances.

snpple45, I am not using any declorinatoror any thing else.

I doubt if it's too much oxygen. Rain water is soft water and soft water will foam more easily. That's a small fish load for such a nice sized pond. The foam could also be protein in the water from fish spawn. That happens frequently. The fish sperm and eggs both add protein to the water. My small goldfish pond foams every time they spawn and the little buggers do that frequently. My big koi pond foams when the koi spawn or when I am too generous with the dechlorinator as I use city water and it's a necessity. It usually dissipates over time without any intervention. Sorry you lost fish last winter. Apparently there was a lot of that going around. Your filters should take care of the protein over time as it breaks down in the water, if the goldfish will give it break from multiplying. I wouldn't worry. I know the soapsuds look is not fun though. My koi pond looked like I had added detergent the last time they spawned. It took a good week to go away, and that's when I did do a big water change right after.

My pond that I rebuilt this year did the same thing. It was after I added a few fish, so maybe it was spawning activity. I checked my water and my phosphates were high. I read that high phosphates can cause foaming too.

I went to the pond store and they gave me a liquid additive - then I had blue cloudy water - I was so upset. I called the company - they never heard of their product doing that. They thought it was an interaction with something else I put in the pond. It took about 4 days for the blue to go away. It did eventually stop foaming. Not sure what made the foam go away.

I've since learned that people add barley when the phosphates are high. I'll never add something to my water just because someone at the pond store tells me to. Research, research, and more research.

Thanks everybody who gave me some ideas why I might have foam in my pond, sounds like it's probably no big deal. katherine

Tis they time of year for romance to be in the air. I bet that is at least part of what it is. My goldfish pond has the foam too and I noticed that the fish seem very active around the sides of the pond in the last few days.

Mine also has been foaming the last few days. I had heard if your filters get dirty it can make your water foam but that isn't it because I had just cleaned all 4 filters on Monday evening. Have checked your ammonia levels after a spawn? That is another reason to do the water change after the spawn, the ammonia skyrockets.

I have a 9000 gallon pond and am down to 17 Koi from 4" to 12" in size. I finally got all the goldfish out last winter. Those silly goldfish spawn when they are yearlings. I told them they were too young.

Goldfish will spawn in a teacup if the water is right and they listen about as well as teenagers. We got all ours out last August - or so we thought. I've about 50 2" fish schooling all over that look like last year's fry. Here we go again.

The 4 that I finally caught this winter are 4 of the last fry I couldn't catch. You know when it is about 30* it is a great time to catch those elusive fish. That is how I caught all 4 of those. I put some in the lotus pond last year and a friend put in 6 of her fry and now I swear I have 15 babies. Where did those come from?

Waiting until they are too cold to move quick is a good suggestion. We had a deuce of a time catching the adults last year. I got a lot of them at night. DH would hold the spotlight and shine it real fast and I'd net. They didn't see the net coming quite as quick.

After I about killed myself on icy rocks during the ice storm of '07 I don't get anywhere near the pond if I can't see. I fall around enough in the daylight.

I have no excuse. I fall in during full daylight hours. Falls are what I do. I also bash fingers. Once I chipped a front tooth (standing up no less and a long story). I have also creamed my noggin a couple of times. Gardening is an exercise in picking your self up and running to the bathroom for the band-aids or an ice bag. Found out last fall when I had my foot x-rayed for a bunion problem that the rock I dropped on top of my foot actually broke the first metatarsal bone. I told my husband that hurt! I couldn't get a shoe on over the lump for two weeks. But I did finish the rock wall wearing an old slipper with a hole cut in the top for the lump. The gardening must go on!

EXACTLY, the gardening must go on.

Sometimes when it rains, my pond will fill up above the skimmer and the water flow is restricted and that will create bubbles on the surface.
I try to do a 10% water change every too weeks.
Also with well water you shouldn't need a dechlorinator.

I may not have too many gold fish now but it sure sounds like I'm going to be over loaded. That is just what I needed to hear HA HA. Thanks

Check around and find a source to get rid of some now, you'll need it. I gave some away last year but those 4 were busy in the tank I moved them to I guess cause I have babies there also. I'm sure glad Koi are older before they spawn.

Goldfish make good fertilizer. When there is no place to take about a 100 of em' sometimes the decisions are hard ones.

On a lighter note I finally found the major source of my late spring pond foaming and its been under my nose for all these years. I read an ad in a professional koi magazine for a special filter that eliminated foaming. The claim was this special filter worked on removing dissolved organic carbon from the water. So' I'm thinking what could be adding organic carbon to the pond and then it hit me. We have huge ancient oaks that drop catkins about this time every spring by the bushel baskets full. If you are not familiar with white oak catkins they are brown stringy things that are really messy. They temporarily stain concrete a bright tannish brown. The blow in drifts and collect in every corner. They catch in your hair. They drape themselvs across all spring flowers. They catch on your shoes and track into the house. Your dogs come in looking like sea monsters. They catch under windshield wipers. You get the picture. A real pain in the neck for about a month until either you sweep em' up or the trees finish and they eventually disintegrate.

Well my back pond has a skimmer that catches the catkins before they sink to the bottom - so no problem and no foam. I empty the skimmer daily. My front pond is another story. No skimmer. The catkins swirl around on the surface until they tumble under the water fall, get soaked and add dissolved organic carbon to the water. I began removing the catkins about 5 times a day and the foam has greatly diminished. Now why did it take me so long to figure this out!? If you add a fish spawn to this scenario then you've got two sources of foam with the addition of the protein from the spawn. And double the foam.