Green water

[Mogweed]

We've just built a pond and waterfall - silly time of year to do this here
in the UK, I know, but if we hadn't, we'd spend the money on something else
and still have a crappy garden come summer :o)

Anyway, because it's the wrong time of year, we have no plants or fish in it
yet but it is a "working pond" in the sense that it's full of water and the
waterfall is active. When the time comes, we intend to put in plants but are
undecided about fish. All we really wanted was the relaxing sight and sound
of tinkling, gurgling, water and fish - if we have any at all - will be just
a couple of goldfish.

We haven't installed any sort of filter yet, partly because we have nothing
(live) in the pond yet and partly because we've run out of money. However,
the water is getting rather green so I was wondering if there are any sort
of chemical additives I can put in to reverse this and have clear water
again? Come the spring, I'll probably empty the pond and power-wash the
liner before installing the plants and a filter of some sort, but is there
anything I can do until then?

Cheers,

Mogweed
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[Ka30P]

Congrats Mogweed,
Yours is the first green water question of
2004! We ought to have a free gift for you...

Actually it is kind of nice to read about green water when all my pond is a
small opening for bird drinking in an expanse of
snow and ice in the NW US.

Algae grows when nothing else does. It is incredibly tough stuff. It even grows
in the artic. You should be very afraid... ;-)

I'm going to paste in my algae primer for you to look at. It should start you
on the path to enlightenment and humbleness. It should also give you an idea of
how to gear up for algae battle come spring.


Algae fighting tips
~ Nutrients for algae are sun, new water, fish waste, fertilized run off,
rotting plants, blown in dirt.
~ New ponds and spring ponds need time for plants to get established, algae is
quicker at getting going.
~ add plants, of any kind, in the pond. Especially underwater plants.
~ Shade is good - provided by lily pads, floating plants or artificial shade
for part of the day.
~ LOW fish stocking (20 gallons per goldfish, 100 per koi after starting with
1,000 gallons) and *not* overfeeding the fish. Too many fish and too much
feeding is probably responsible for most pea soup water.
~ adding a combination mechanical and biological filter to screen gunk and
convert fishy ammonia waste.
~ build a veggie filter, run water through plants, as easy as floating water
hyacinth in your filter.
~ clean up dead plant matter and screen for falling leaves
in the fall.
~ water movement, occasional water changes of 10%
~ add a sludge consumer, concentrated bacteria.
many rec.ponders use <A
HREF="http://united-tech.com">http://united-tech.com</A>
~ building ponds with bottom drains and skimmers.
~ do not use algaecides, they only make lots of suddenly dead algae
and that will feed the next algae bloom.
~ do not worry about algae that grows on things (substrate algae) this is good
for a pond
~ gently remove string algae
~ UV lights work on suspended algae - does cost some $$.
~ patience and time and more patience ;-)



ka30p
http://www.geocities.com/watergardeninglabradors/home.html

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

I hope you'll like my answer, Modweed. Do nothing.

Not only is this the less work option now, it is the less work/frustration
option later. Your pond is cycling, it is only green now because of the
nutrients that were in the water to begin with. Leave it alone and the
algae will die. If you kill it, new algae will feed off the old, and then
it becomes a con$tant you-work cycle of green, kill, green. Do you want a
pond or a swimming pool?

Come spring do NOT power wash the algae off the sides. Add your plants
first and two goldfish* in a few days, you will not need an additional
filter beyond the algae on the sides and plants.

*I highly recommend fantail goldfish. They do not reproduce as heavily, and
when/if you do have too many babies (you'll know this when the water starts
to turn green) fantail babies are easy to catch. They are also worth more
at the pet store, so easy to sell or give away. ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website


>On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 18:35:03 +0000 (UTC), "Mogweed" > wrote:

>We've just built a pond and waterfall - silly time of year to do this here
>in the UK, I know, but if we hadn't, we'd spend the money on something else
>and still have a crappy garden come summer :o)
>
>Anyway, because it's the wrong time of year, we have no plants or fish in it
>yet but it is a "working pond" in the sense that it's full of water and the
>waterfall is active. When the time comes, we intend to put in plants but are
>undecided about fish. All we really wanted was the relaxing sight and sound
>of tinkling, gurgling, water and fish - if we have any at all - will be just
>a couple of goldfish.
>
>We haven't installed any sort of filter yet, partly because we have nothing
>(live) in the pond yet and partly because we've run out of money. However,
>the water is getting rather green so I was wondering if there are any sort
>of chemical additives I can put in to reverse this and have clear water
>again? Come the spring, I'll probably empty the pond and power-wash the
>liner before installing the plants and a filter of some sort, but is there
>anything I can do until then?
>
>Cheers,
>
>Mogweed

[Mogweed]

Thanks ( I think :o)) to both Ka30p and to Jan for your enlightening
replies. I guess I'll leave it alone then :o)

Cheers,

Mogweed.

"~ jan JJsPond.us" > wrote in message
...
> I hope you'll like my answer, Modweed. Do nothing.
>
> Not only is this the less work option now, it is the less work/frustration
> option later. Your pond is cycling, it is only green now because of the
> nutrients that were in the water to begin with. Leave it alone and the
> algae will die. If you kill it, new algae will feed off the old, and then
> it becomes a con$tant you-work cycle of green, kill, green. Do you want a
> pond or a swimming pool?
>
> Come spring do NOT power wash the algae off the sides. Add your plants
> first and two goldfish* in a few days, you will not need an additional
> filter beyond the algae on the sides and plants.
>
> *I highly recommend fantail goldfish. They do not reproduce as heavily,
and
> when/if you do have too many babies (you'll know this when the water
starts
> to turn green) fantail babies are easy to catch. They are also worth more
> at the pet store, so easy to sell or give away. ~ jan
>
>
> See my ponds and filter design:
> http://users.owt.com/jjspond/
>
> ~Keep 'em Wet!~
> Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
> To e-mail see website
>
>
> >On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 18:35:03 +0000 (UTC), "Mogweed"
> wrote:
>
> >We've just built a pond and waterfall - silly time of year to do this
here
> >in the UK, I know, but if we hadn't, we'd spend the money on something
else
> >and still have a crappy garden come summer :o)
> >
> >Anyway, because it's the wrong time of year, we have no plants or fish in
it
> >yet but it is a "working pond" in the sense that it's full of water and
the
> >waterfall is active. When the time comes, we intend to put in plants but
are
> >undecided about fish. All we really wanted was the relaxing sight and
sound
> >of tinkling, gurgling, water and fish - if we have any at all - will be
just
> >a couple of goldfish.
> >
> >We haven't installed any sort of filter yet, partly because we have
nothing
> >(live) in the pond yet and partly because we've run out of money.
However,
> >the water is getting rather green so I was wondering if there are any
sort
> >of chemical additives I can put in to reverse this and have clear water
> >again? Come the spring, I'll probably empty the pond and power-wash the
> >liner before installing the plants and a filter of some sort, but is
there
> >anything I can do until then?
> >
> >Cheers,
> >
> >Mogweed
>