How do I get rid of green water in my fish pond?
Question:My fish pond has really green water. I know it's algae and I have been advised by several so called professional people what to do and use, but everything costs a fortune and so far does not work. What is the answer? I have bio-balls, bacteria, loads of plants and about a dozen fish in the pond. The weather has been really hot lately. I have tried barley. It helped a little but not much. Any ideas??
Answers:
You have bacteria, plants, and fish. Do you have an aerator (waterfall, bubbler, sprayer)? Sometimes you just have to drain the pond and start over. I am a pond owner and I have drained and refilled my pond twice this year, and I use bacteria, plants, fish, snails, well water, a waterfall, and a biofilter. The pond has to establish its own ecosystem, and factors like extreme prolonged heat or 17 straight days of rain (like we've just had) can upset that ecosystem.
There are algae eating fish. Suckers and catfish I do believe. As at pet store. You need to aerate the water(have a waterfall) which will make life better for the fish in there.
Depending on how big your pond is, you should take the fish out and start over with fresh water.
Algae flourishes when there's a lot of free nitrogen in the water, along with a lot of sunlight.
If there's drainage flowing into the pond from rain or sprinklers, be careful about using fertilizers, or allowing animals to urinate and defecate on that watershed.
If it's a small pond, you might try replacing some of the water during the hot, sunny weather to try to reduce the nitrate level.
Alge thrives in warm weather in the summer. A waterfall or fountain can help in aerate the pond. There are some products that you can add to your pond to kill the alge but not plants or fish, but you may have to add more every now and then when alge comes back.
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