I have 2 questions and hopefully someone has some great answers. I had very ugly water for a couple weeks and since absolutely nothing was working we draining about 85% of the pond, refilled, declorinated, and then it was clear. That was 6 days ago. Guys, I'm green/cloudy again. Something has got to give because my patience is growing very thin. So here's the questions: 1.How much filtration should I have? 2. What is the smallest UV light I can get? Pond is 230 gal preform and only 4 fish. Biggest one is about 6". Very few plants since most of them have died because of the cloudy water. I have 2 pumps/filters running now. Do I need another one? I'm debating if I should even do anything considering the late time in the summer. Thanks!! You guys are the best. "T" :)
Is it possible?
Sledder, it may be getting kind of late in the season for you - when's your first frost? (Could it be the annual turning of the water?)
Here are some ideas for clearing it up, either for this year or next:
My neighbor swears by barley straw for clearing up yucky water, but I haven't personally tried it. From what I've read I think it may be something to introduce early on in the season - can anyone tell me if that's accurate, or if Sledder could try some now?
Water hyacinths work great for me at keeping the water clear.
Last year I had a "bio filter" running; it + the hyacinths kept the pond sparkling. It was a homemade one left by the previous owners. It was a tall 3 gallon plastic tub, with a hose fitting near the bottom, another one for overflow near the top, and an inflow from a hose attached to a pump coming in the back. About 1/3 full of fairly large pea gravel. That was it. The water ran in, trickled through the pea gravel, came out the bottom. I rinsed the gravel about once a week (not completely clean, but cleaned out any really nasty crud), and that was it. I didn't set it up this year because we decided to rearrange the pond a bit, and it wasn't very aesthetically pleasing. But my pond isn't nearly as clear this year as it was last year, and I think that's the difference.
Hope this helps - I understand your frustration!
Sledder,
Your BIG mistake was changing the water. Ponds are things that evolve. The slimmy green stuf is usually becuase the water is too new (not settled down, got balanced). At the start of the year mine gets a bit cloudy. I just let the frogs, toads, fish and snails eat it away. The water lily leaves keep out the sunlight, so the algae doesnt get rampant, and come winter the whole lot settles down again. Chemicals can solve it (sort of), but what you need to do is GIVE IT TIME.
Hope that helps,
El Tel
Ok first the green water, that is a natural event of tap water, it it will clear eventually on its own.
Filtration, work from the principle of half the volume of water through the filter every hour, so in your case you need to pump 115 gallons an hour through a filter, there is no such thing as a filter that is too big, less you get silly with it, but that is a general rule of filtration, that has worked and does work well, but filtration is not a cure for greenwater, but it will help to ballance the chemicals in the water thus reducing the risk of it.
I went through three years of my magazines looking for that article on brown water, sorry couldnt find it.
okay okay....I learned something tonight. Hubby and I went to a local fish place that sells limited pond supplies. The salesperson there informed me just the same as you guys that I wasn't being patient. I kinda figured that. But she also told me that I may need another biofilter going. So I took the plunge and got another one...bigger one. At the present moment I have 3 going. Which is probably overkill but it should clear the water sooner. Also she told me I clean my filters too much and too hard. Apparently when I clean the filters I "scrub" them too much. I killed my own bacteria. That explains alot! That's probably why the pond was clear and then got cloudy. Then as I kept cleaning the filters I was only making matters worse. It must be the Mom in me...always cleaning. So I'll check in the morning to see if it's clearer. I'll let everyone know. I think in the spring we're gonna try to make our own veggie filter. Does anyone suggest an easy way? I do think it's too late in the year for one now so it looks like spring will have to do. Good thing I like winter. I do feel sorry for the fish. I've put them through a lot!! "T" :)
Hi Sledder,
It's me again... Changing the water did not cause your problem again... I have only a make shift bio filter as I told you before... I have another small pond maybe 200 gallons (my dh's pond)with river fish in it...bream,crappie,catfish,etc...I told him that is his pond and to take care of it.
Oh lord...you should see how awful it is...gunk and leaves and such and the fish keep living, these are fresh water fish and they just keep going!!! And the water is clearer than my big pond...
I don't know...go figure!
Hope you get it right soon!!!!
Reb-
one more note, barley is for string algae only and it takes a couple of months. You can buy liquid barley straw now, supposed to work pretty fast, but again, it's only for string algae.
Hey Prissy, your dh could call his pond "The Energizer Pond" since the fish keep going, and going, and going. Oh, that was a terrible joke. So Sorry! :) The pond was still alittle cloudy this am, but definitely better than a week ago. I can tolerate this until spring. Now if I can just find a little baby heater.
It will take your new filter three weeks to get enoungh bacteria groth to do any good as a filter, and this time of year the water cools down and there growth is slower, so dont expect any real change from it yet.
Your filters should have an overflow system on them, when the water levels gets close to the top or to it, then it is time to clean them out, if you have a filter medium in the filter, put it in a bucket of water from the pond, that will give you about half an hour to clean out the filter without loosing the bactiria colony, so they begin to work again soon after you put them back, it may just be necessary to give the medium a gentle rinse in pond water just clean off any mulm that has settled on it.
Got a question.. We have a water feature & getting ready to put in a small pond. For a filter we have a rubbermaid round food container with holes in it. Inside we have netting with the pump. The net gets pretty yucky & I take it out & wash it off.. am I killing good bacteria? So far our water has been pretty clear. Should I dump the container & rinse it out? We are new to ponds as U can tell *G*
Sugar
http://users.wfeca.net/dbaad/pond/buckets8-3-02S.jpg
Your pic is adorable. What kind of "netting" is it? And how long has your water been clear? Fish? Plants? When you wash off the netting,,,what are you washing off? Is it brown? or green? (sorry so many questions)..
"T" :)
Sugar, just lightly swish it in a container of pond water. don't clean it! just get the really big gunk off. and don't use clean water, pond water.
sledder it is what I think they call toul, may be spelled wrong. It is the stuff that they make the stiff slips out of. You can get it in the fabric Dept at Wal-Mart. I hear quilting batting is good too.
We have 2 small feeder fish in each tank. Yes, I have a few plants in each one. The only time we had any problems was a little string algae in the purple one.. we put an extra fish there & it was gone the next day & we moved the fish. Hmmm I'll have to check the color of the gung but do have some trapped tadpoles in the net both dead & alive. I believe it was kinda brown but not sure (hope that's not bad). I did get a little brown water in them from a pot of plants I bought. At that time we had a leak created by dripping down the watering can so had to add some water everyday.. that cleared up the water. We now have that corrected. As soon as we feel better we are putting in a 52 gallon pond. Thats less water than we have now. Right now we both feel bad from what seems to be a bad cold. It's too hot for 2 old people to dig sick :( I already have a spot picked out for a bigger pond *G* I want one of the 125 gallon ones with a 30 gallon spillway like my neighbor has. It all came in a kit. We probably would need help digging that. The mantis tiller we have is pretty good at digging though. That will be next spring I'm sure if at all. I can shovel out but can't dig with my foot. I can dream :)
I'll try cleaning the netting like it says here. We have had it down over a month & hope it stays as clear as now. We are gonna put a trickle tower veggie filter along with a regular filter in the pond when we get it down. I hope to get it down next week.
Sugar
PS.. we have well water if that makes any difference.
This message was edited Thursday, Aug 15th 1:35 PM
Sledder,
I have just moved and had to move my pond with me!! Well, I have used Barley Straw from the start. I have one big bail, and 2 smaller one's. I haven't had any prob's (knock-knock-knock on wood) so far with green water. SEo, I believe the Barley does stop pea soup water. I always put it where the waterfall runs over it. And then just put the others around in the pond. One more idea- I bought some stuff called Algae Blocker. You may know of this, but you can get it in Blue or A smokey color. I used Blue, and didn't use as much as it called for, so that it wouldn't look like a toilet bowl with the blue thing hanging on the side! That hides the pots, and it would block the sun from giving you all that Green water! And, you can still see your fish! I lucked up I think, becuz where I just moved to, the water from the spicket comes straight from the lake. We have put in a preform waterfall, with a small tub about 20 gallons at the top of the fall (as a resovoir) and it is a gusher!!! I also have had an algae eater in my pond, since I put the 1st pond in about 9 mos ago, at the other house. We brought him along too, but will have to bring him in before it gets cold and put him in my 55 Gallon Aquarium. He's about 10 inches long and I already have one in the tank that big, so I don't guess I'll have an algae prob, inside. I certainly believe in Barley Straw and an Algae Eater and the Algae Blocker. Since it is so late, I would get a big bag of Barley and try the Algae Blocker. And next season, I'd put an Algae Eater in there, if it were me. I know that some people think Barley is only good for String Algae, but that is the only Algae I have had so far. And I believe the Barley kept my water clear, becuz it was right out in the sun. No shade at all. Here I have lots of shade, and will have to have a net.
Didn't mean to write a book, but I hope some of this helps!!!!
Thanks, TraciS
Every one has great advise, just be paticent, time is the one thing we ponders can't seem to use. My pond is 1200 gallons and the first year we couldn't stand the green water and DH empty out half. Well it took even longer for the pond to stabilize. Just wait, I know it is hard, but it is worth it. Barley straw is great and we use it all year.
In the spring as the water warms up I add AlgaeFix, along with the new barley, pond stays clear all summer, just remember to change straw every three months