Pond Scum

[seastar]

I need some help with my pond. I have been trying to keep the water clear but it is a thick green soup. I tried different kinds of chemicals, but nothing seems to work. All my fish are healthy. I only see them when they come to the surface to eat. I clean out the filter often. It is a large submersible filter. The pond is 300 gallons. And doing water changes does not seem to help. I have 1 medium size Koi, 2 small Koi and 3 small Goldfish. I am going to bring the goldfish in, but I want to leave the Koi out for the winter. I would like to have the water clean and healthy before freeze-up.

I would appreciate any advice on how to get the water clear and keep it that way.

[Parachromis1]

Try scottish barley. It seems to help with everyone elses pond.

[MMAX]

Cleaning out your filter often may be part of the problem. Do you hose it out or use pond water to clean it? If it's hosed out you destroy the beneficial bacteria that works to keep your water clear. Does your filter provide lots of surface movement? Is your pond shaded or in direct sunlight? How deep is the pond? Do you have any plants? All these factors will contribute to keeping your water clear. I wouldn't keep using all the chemicals. Maybe someone else can help--is it too late to drain the pond, clean it and start over this late in the year?

[African_Fever]

How deep is your pond?

[gobies et al]

You haven't said, but I assume you are going to be putting in a heater for the Koi. The heaters are 150 watt/hr 24/7. That will get fairly pricey over the winter. The pond will also have to be aerated. The Japanese breeders do not believe in wintering out small Koi ie. they should be at least 2 year old (40 cm/15 in). As you can gather, when I had Koi, I set up an indoor pond for them for wintering.

I didn't have a problem with green water using bog filtration. There were lots of plants to handle the excess nutrients and filtering through gravel and sand kept my water clear. It is too late in the season to try that approach.

Good luck with your ponding!

[seastar]

My pond is 2 feet deep. I have a water lily and some Canna Lilies, and some other big leaf plant, but they do not offer much shade. The pond is in full sun most of the day. I have bio-balls in the filter that I rinse out with pond water, but the other filter media I hose it off. I am going to give the barley a try. Would any type of barley straw work, or is there a specific type. I have barley seeds from a farmer and I grew my own barley this summer. I wonder if that will work. Right now it is too soon to harvest it.

I have lots of water movement, there are 2 fountains.

I have a pond heater that keeps a hole open in the ice and I am going to keep an air pump going this winter. The biggest Koi is probably 3 years old. But the other two are a 1 year old and a 2 year old. I will bring in the youngest one.

When I was in Wisconsin this summer there was a beautiful Koi pond in the park. The water was tinted an artificial light blue color, but crystal clear and clean. I read that the blue dye stops the sun from causing algae growth. It looked so much better than my green pea soup water. Does anyone know about the blue stuff to put in ponds?

Thanks so much for all the advice, I really do appreciate it.

[MMAX]

I've heard of black pond dye which is supposed to reflect the sun. Also if there's a way to maybe soak a bag of peat moss in the water, the substance called tannin will seep out and give the water a tea stained color. I'm just guessing on this one though. Alot of creeks in the northern part of the province are spring fed from muskeg sloughs and they're all tea stained but clear.

[gobies et al]

I haven't used barley straw but I am aware of the principles involved. It is best used at the start of the season as it takes 4-6 weeks for the straw to deteriorate and release adequate amounts of chemical to affect the algae. There is barley straw extract that supposedly works faster. Here is a site that gives more information about using barley straw.

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/plants/barley.htm