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| I've rebuilt my pond this year and am questioning the filtration. I'm finding that I get quite a lot of
detritus buildup even over just a few days. Even all the plants have a thick coating of slimey algae along the stems. My plants grew poorly over the summer and did not provide much surface coverage (probably because they were ALL transplanted into pea gravel). My fish count was at 17 goldish (4 are about 6", a few at 3-4" and the rest smaller). Plus now I have another 19 babies that were born this year. I gently sloped the pond so that all the detritus would collect at one end, but clearly its not and there is detrius all over and in some pockets. I rocked in only a few areas with pea gravel on the shelf, the rest and the very bottom is all bare. I don't know why its not 'sweeping down' to the other end. My pond is 1500 gallons metered (irregular size 18' x 10'). Skimmer is rated to skim ponds up to 600 sq. ft.
As for water quality, its usually clear and is good. I test the water every month and each time get the following
My questions:
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| Hi, you never stated how deep your pond was, it looks shallow to me. I am not sure this is part of the problem but I never have had any problem like this, but my pond is 3 ft deep in the center and 2 ft in the rest of it with 1ft shelves........anyone, does the depth have anything to do with this??? |
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| Pond is 24" deep after the waterfall and tapers down to 32" deep by the skimmer. All plant shelves are 12" deep. Depths sound almost the same as yours. |
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| Your pond is beautiful. I don't know the answer. My first pond was shallow around the edges, but I didn't have it built up enough around the edges so had a lot of run-off from the lawn when it rained and I had the stuff you have. I used the filter mentioned in other post with a filter made out of a tote with cotton batting and it helped a lot. But when I re-built my pond with it being 3 ft. below ground level and 2+ ft. above and added a skippy and bog filter, now do not have that problem. The only place I have that kinda stuff is in the bog filter, but I only have plants and snails in there, so I just flush it out every now and then and no problems. Glenda |
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| I could certainly be wrong, but that looks more like some kind of algae. If doesn't look like you have enough plants and fish to produce that much rotted vegetation and poo in just a few days. Perhaps your lack of surface cover after the transplanting has led to a sustained algae bloom? Wish I had an answer for you. Gorgeous pond! |
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- Posted by buyorsell888 Zone 8 Portland OR (My Page) on Sat, Sep 6, 08 at 20:38
| Your pond and surrounding landscaping are gorgeous. Looks like algae to me. I would not be particularly worried about it. |
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| Now that I look at your photos again, that "gunk" in the net looks just like the algae that grows in my sheep water tanks - no plants, no fish, full sun, and only get dumped and refilled 'bout every 3rd week, and really scrubbed about every 4-5 weeks, otherwise just topped off. It's green, slimy, short, sort of fluffy but not really....unlike string algae altogether. It really sticks on the side and bottoms, eventually turns brown/black but is quite thick. I use a putty knife and a wire brush to clean the water tanks. Not recommending that :) But I would consider trying to reduce it. |
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| I don't see any floating plants, like water hyacinth, water lettuce, or duckweed. I don't see any submerged plants like hornwort or anachris. Have you tried any of these plants? These plants are very good at removing nutrients. The potted plants, like lilies, get their nutrients from the potting medium, so they don't help the water quality much. I see that your phosphate test is 0, but most phosphate tests aren't sensitive enough to detect low levels of phosphate. You really want your phosphate level to be 0.0, not just below the threshhold of the test kit. If your test kit is sensitive to .1 PPM you can disregard this. |
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| Looks like to few plants and too much sun and new water, coud be the cause That algae can be sucked out with shop vac or moving a utility pump around the bottom of the pond. Filter the pumped out water through old sweaters, quilt batting, landscape fabric, or some other material, contained in a laundry basket [or some other container that the water can run out off and back to the pond. The water should return to your pond cleaned up. If you do not suck it out now, it will be floating to the top next year in clumps. Then it can be netted out. Either way it is a pain in the a++. "Horton" |
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- Posted by sleeplessinftwayne z4-5 IND (My Page) on Sun, Sep 7, 08 at 6:59
| I have to agree with the previous posters that it is algae. It may be your test kit is not giving you accurate figures. How old is the kit? It looks to me like you have an abundance of nitrates in the water. Nitrates = nitrogen such as you will find as the first number of the three you see on a package of fertilizer. In spite of the excess of nitrates your plants don't seem to be getting the benefits of it. What kind of fertilizer are you using? Have you considered using a UV light? Sandy |
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| My impression was that UV's only take care of pea soup green water. What is shown in the pictures is clearly not pea soup green water. And a UV will not help this. I had a UV at the time I had what he has and it did not help. I no longer need or use a UV. Glenda |
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- Posted by pondbucket 5 (My Page) on Mon, Mar 15, 10 at 19:48
| Hello everyone, I've been away but we are starting to emerge from winter around here (near Kansas City) and I'm thinking SPRING CLEANING! I've brought this old thread back since it had some good pictures of detritus AND algae shown collected on the bottom. My pond is going on year 3 and I've never really did anything about the stuff on the bottom. (No Bottom Drain). My water really turned clear the latter half of Year 1 and since I've netted the pond I've been able to keep most leaves out. But, after two full years and the eventual die-backs of winter, there is an accumulation of detritus on the bottom. I suppose it's mainly particles of rocks, plants, small leaves (that escape my net), and whatever else makes it pass the water's edge. Every time I get into the pond and move around I really stir-up the detrital muck and the water goes cloudy for a day or so. I've read Horton's comments from above, but I don't yet have a shop vac and I really don't want to purchase a pond vac ($$$). Surprisingly, I don't really have any string algae this year (at least not yet)! I'm without a bottom filter ( I do have a Savio skimmer), what options do I have of removing the fine algae and the detritus from the sidewalls and bottom of the pond? (It looks a lot like the photos from above). I think it is too fine to sweep. It would just float away. As always, all help is much appreciated! |
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- Posted by missa7 7/Okla (missatim@hotmail.com) on Mon, Mar 15, 10 at 20:40
| Looks like the stuff I get. I always thought it was some kind of algae. Get tired of fighting/dealing with it. If I feel froggy I vac it out with the shop vac. Needs done right now, just a bit chilly. I add plants & they never seem to do as well, LOL. But I keep trying. Can't do floating plants ... fish eat them. Lettuce & hyacinth never seem to do well prob cuz of the fish. IDK. Another year, maybe I'll get it this year. LOL. |
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| I would put goldfish in the pond and never feed them. It is algae, and they will eat it. Bubba |
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- Posted by pondbucket (My Page) on Tue, Mar 16, 10 at 0:23
| Bubba, I've notice that my 12 or so goldfish do eat at the stuff on the sidewalls. I haven't fed my fish in many months, probably since early November and now that the temperatures have warmed above freezing, they are moving around and nibbling. I just don't think it's enough to keep up. Missa, my plants did real well my second year; first year, not so much -- the algae really took off in the first half of Yr 1. But in Yr 2 the plants, especially water hyacinths took off. I had to start giving them away (and composting them). My hyacinths were placed in my upper pool and before long they were crowed and blooming. I mean, they were getting easily four feet tall, from tail of roots to top of leaves... they really cleared my water. I'm reading more past posts on this subject. It is becoming more and more evident that vacuuming is the way to go... but are there any special techniques and tools? |
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- Posted by sara_in_philly 6 PA (My Page) on Tue, Mar 16, 10 at 11:59
| I usually have water hyacinths in my upper pond and they will fill the pond in the summer. I would pull some out, wash out the scummy stuff on the roots in a bucket and throw it to the larger pond where fish will eat all the roots. Then I will take those half eaten one out and put them back to the upper pond to recover and so on and so forth. This way, fish get to eat something different and I don't have to throw away as many water hyacinths. |
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- Posted by missa7 7/Okla (missatim@hotmail.com) on Tue, Mar 16, 10 at 16:25
| I sometimes wonder if the uv affects the plants. Like it kills off nutrients they need or something. IDK. Weird, I know. It prob doesn't, just crosses my mind sometimes. |
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- Posted by buyorsell888 Zone 8 Portland OR (My Page) on Thu, Mar 18, 10 at 15:52
| It possibly does, you aren't weird. Remember, algae is a plant and if something kills algae it isn't weird to think it might harm more desirable plants. Pondbucket, your pond is still gorgeous! You can stir it up and filter it out with quilt batting in a net bag temporarily set up under your waterfall. You can also use a flocculent that clumps it together and shop vac it out. They are usually sold as Pond Clarifiers. |
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- Posted by landey1230 9a (My Page) on Mon, Mar 22, 10 at 23:56
| That's exactly how my pond looks once things begin to warm up a bit. String algae is considered the nature of the beast with ponds. Especially at the beginning stage. It's best to get as much out as possible by using a vac or a toilet scrub. It will grow back until you have the proper coverage. I heard barley straw works well, but I've never used it. I usually just take as much algae off as possible. Today, I vacuumed it and lots of string algae was floating every where. I clean my filters before and after I vacuum. |
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