What is happening to my pond?

[tucker]

When the ice thawed, I had a great layer of green stuff on the liner, plus some string algae. The weather got warm for a couple of weeks, then turned cold again, and all the green stuff started dying on the liner.
Now that it is turning warm again, finally, it is starting to grow again near the top of the sides,BUT.........the water looks terrible - its a light greenish brown color. I keep testing the water, and everything is testing out ok.
I am cleaning out the filter every other day as it is clogging up. I am shop vacing every 3rd day stuff off the bottom, some of it is in small clumps. And I know that adding water when I do this is helping feed the algae. I have my bio filter going, but I don't think it is doing anything yet. I have a laguna prefilter on my pump - I don't use the filter material in it anymore - was blocking it up to fast. I also added a submersible pump to try to get more of the floating stuff out.....but it seems that is clogging up too - some of the pieces are just too large.
Finally today, I did a PP treatment, and will do another one tomorrow, hopefully it will break down some of the stuff to allow it to go thru the system better.
Question..........why did the green good layer die out in the first place? Was it because it was warm, then turned cold again.
Good thing, my fish are happy, and starting to spawn (altho I don't know if that is a good thing).

Karyl

[Jackie Ramo]

I'm not sure why the good algae died but I do know that a PP treatment will not break down the mulm but will burn off the nutrients so it stops growing. String algae is glogging up my skimmer mats and they need to be cleaned twice a day. The good news is the algae is finally getting less so I see the light which is probably a train coming :grin:


I know its a pain but I'd up the cleaning schedule for a few days. I did this about 3 days ago and can really see a difference.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie I don't see an end to the string algae here. At least I am not the only one here with it. Everyone I know is plagued by it. It hasn't gotten to my filters. I keep twirling it out with a dowel stick.

[Jackie Ramo]

I'm running the vacuum everyday and cleaning the skimmers at least 2x's per day. The string algae is dying off but the water is getting greener....

[Busy B]

So string only grows in good water?

My water must be bad :sad:..I'm not plagued with it...or is that a good thing? :wink:

[Jackie Ramo]

Your's is still too new for string algae, first you willget green then string, then winter :frisbee:

[Terri]

String algae or any algae grows in water which provides it's food source, this is not "good" water, nor "bad" water... but the presence of string and single cell is an indicator that the water is growing "rich" with nutrients... and there is only a few things that provide that ;-) this along with ample sunlight can cause an explosion of green.

[Busy B]

Yeah and I know exactly where mine is coming from...stupid cottonwoods!

[Jackie Ramo]

The siberian elms here have a bumper crop of seeds. Looked like it was snowing yesterday and of course the wind had to shift so most of it went into the pond... thank heaven for skimmers.

[Dewi]

Am I right in thinking salt can help you combat Algae??

[Jackie Ramo]

There is algae in the ocean. Algae is a very adaptable plant :mad:

[tucker]

Well, algae on the rocks along the edge (the ones in the water) are starting to turn green again, and also on the liner - good thing.
Now, my green water has turned a dark green/brown......cleaning out the filters everyday......maybe now with some warmer weather, the bio filter will kick in, and I can see the bottom again, so I can shop vac again. The lilies are starting to grow, so hopefully that will help soon too.
I have set up my temp skimmer - between the seeds flying off the trees, and the popular tree fuzzies.....my poor pond :mad:

My fish are angry because I am just feeding them every other day, and they are punishing me by spawning again :roll:
My daughter is going to send me some water hyacinths, and I will plant them and put them in a pool in the waterfall, so hopefully that will help some more.

Wish I could get some of that dreaded string algae, the pond always clears up with that - anyone want to send me some :grin:

Karyl

[Jackie Ramo]

Right now I'm at the half and half point, half string and half green.... hard to tell which way it will jump. Green I think as the string is dying off pretty quick.

But I have lots to spare if you want it shipped. :lol: