Susan I think chemicals are bad for your pond and I have been ponding for many years. I don't know what Microbe Life or GreenClean contain so I am not sure if they are harmful. But the best way to keep a pond healthy and happy is to keep if free from debris that settles on the bottom, filter the water and make sure it has lots of oxygen. If you don't want to add filtration the concentrate on debris removal and water changes.

There are so many ways to filter your pond. Many people vacuum the pond bottom, some use retro-fit bottom drains to keep the bottom clean and those who are newly installing a pond will include a bottom drain to their ponds.

Filtering the pond is important to keep maintenance at a minimun. You need to remove as much debris as possible with a good filter and make sure you have biological filtration as well. For example I have two circuits of filtration. My skimmer has a 57 watt UV light and all the water that is drawn from the surface goes to a big DIY filter that uses foam, plants and Savio springflow to help with the mechanical filtation and the biofiltration. My bottom drain goes to a settling pond in which the debris settles to the another small pond and it is cleaned out a few times a year. Since your pond is concrete then a retro-fit bottom drain could help. But vacuuming would work as well.

When I first started out ponding I would vacuum my pond with a pump that I held with a small rope. I used that and a net to get out debis. Very low tech but worked well. I would then add fresh water to replace what I had taken out. Years go by and I have experimented with underground filters, Bead filters and DIY filters. When I rebuilt the pond (a few times I admit) the bottom drain attached to a seperate pond made maintenance much easier.

So you just need to find the type of filtration that suits your needs. At the very least keep the bottom clean and do some water changes during the season. This is a very simple way to keep your pond healthy. Also the catfish will not hurt your fish. When I had my catfish he co-exsisted very well with the Koi. RIP Wayne.

Lisa

I've never heard of Green Clean but Microbe Lift won't hurt anything. Won't clear up the green algae but it won't hurt.

You get algae when you have sun and no other plants using up nutrients in the water. You can add plants or some kind of shade or a UV light which kills the algae as the water passes through. You do need a filter to remove the dead algae or it will just feed a continuous bloom of algae.

Koi and turtles like to eat/destroy plants so it is harder to have plants with them in the pond. Many koi keepers resort to the UV. Many goldfish keepers can get away with lots of plants.

I've read plenty of posts over the years on various forums where catfish have caused problems with koi and goldfish and others where they have not. Catfish certainly won't help with the algae problem.

Chemical controls of algae are likely to cause problems with fish or turtles even when used exactly as directed. They all claim they are safe but I've read too many posts by people who killed their fish to believe that they are 100% safe.

I agree with the others. Microbe LIft is a biological device that won't harm the pond, but I don't know of its true effects on cleaning a pond. Never used it. I've never heard of Green Clean, but I'm nervous about introducing chemicals into the pond.

Many people use quilt batting in the skimmer to help strain out the pea soup, or green water algae. Wrap it around the skimmer mat or fold it a few times and lay it in front of the mat.

The catfish is fine. Many people keep a catfish in their ponds to help with "birth control" for the koi. The catfish will eat the hatchlings.

LIsa gave good advice on the retro fit bottom drain. I installed one on my pond last spring, and it works great. I have not had a green water problem since installing it.