I vote for being patient. When I re-built my pond. It took it about 3-4 weeks to get really green and then it started clearing a little more every day until about another 2-3 weeks. It was then crystal clear and has remained clear ever since. Glenda

Don't drain the water and start over.

You will just have to go through the cycle again. You could have killed your beneficial bacteria in the filter when you washed the pads. You want to use pond water not tap water.

Try adding some quilt batting to the filter to sift out the suspended algae.

Add plants.

Have patience.

It is my belief that a bio-filter is very important to convert ammonia to nitrite, and then nitrite to nitrate. A good bio-filter will prevent toxic amounts of ammonia and nitrites from building up in the pond. That being said, I do not believe a bio-filter has any effect on unicellular algae. If you want to get rid of algae you need to get rid of phosphates. The best phosphate removers are plants, especially floating plants which get their nutrients directly from the water.

Do you have any floating plants? Are they healthy and growing rapidly? I'm guessing not.

I don't have any plants. The garden centers were already out of water lilies when I started the pond. What kind of plants do I need and where do I get them?

If you have fish in your pond, be careful of low oxygen levels during the evening hours. Suspended algae absorbs oxygen at night. Pumps or aerators are needed to maintain a safe oxygen level.

Suspended algae is very tiny and I think it would flow through most filter material. Once it starts to die out, it clumps together and can then be filtered out.

I don't see a problem with cleaning your filter pads with tap water. It's the bio balls in your system that were designed to promote beneficial bacteria.

Any plant will compete with algae for nutrients. You can purchase aquarium plants from a local pet store or buy plants online. Lilies are great because they also provide shade and deprive algae of sunlight.

It could take weeks for your pond to naturally eliminate suspended algae. If you want faster results, look into a UV clarifier. A properly sized UV lamp will eliminate suspended algae in less then a week.

Potted plants, like lilies, get their nutrients from the planting media in the pot, so they are not good choices for removing phosphates from the water. Floating plants like hyacinths, duck weed, and azolla will work well. Submerged plants like anachris and hornwort also get their nutrients from the water. One of my favorites is watercress. I put watercress in a tubing hoop with some bird netting lashed to it. Just throw the watercress on top of the netting. You can get watercress at the grocery store.

Larry, all of my potted plants contain gravel or small stones. Do they really get nutrients from rocks?

nutrients from the water not the rocks.

You can get pond plants from other ponders. There is an exchange here on Garden Web and there is also an active one on American Ponders. Many sell for lower prices than garden centers or online growers and many will sell for postage or trade for land plants.

Have you considered an underwater ultraviolet filter? I used to have big algae problems in my pond but not since getting one. That plus a barley pad for string algae has done wonders.

Good luck, Bill

Most ponders plant their lilies in clay soil so they can put lots of phosphate rich fertilizer in the soil to promote blooming without the risk of the phosphates leaching into the water. If you plant any plant in gravel you shouldn't put any fertilizer into the pot that you don't want in the water. I'm sure there are some plants that don't need supplemental phosphates, like hornwort and anachris, but I think you are making a mistake if you plant lilies in gravel. If you want them to bloom you have to give them phosphates, but if you put phosphates in gravel it will be in your water within hours.

Are you talking about the regular plant exchange here on GW? I don't see one just for aquatic plants.

It's closer to the top, Proud, just above What's New at GardenWeb. :)

Brenda

Here is a link that might be useful: Aquatic Plant Exchange

I had the same problem with my pond. I remade my bio-filter..much easier the second time..and much nicer now that I knew what I was doing. I used sponges from the dollar store. I added some more plants and algaefix. Two days later all is well and I can see my fish! I am getting ready to add another biofilter as well (this time using commercial cleaning sponges). I am hoping to post my first pics tonight for more ideas!

Midwestponder,
Just a suggestion, but I think your biofilter would be better if you used a material like plastic balls (bioballs) or a nylon webbing. I like a material that offers a surface for beneficial bacteria to grow without clogging with pond waste. There are many materials that are ideal for bacterial growth. The problem with a sponge is that it will get clogged up. You can clean the sponges with pond water, but the bacteria is still disturbed.

The sponges do make a good mechanical filter.

The pond water is still green! I found a nursery today that sells water plants and they go on sale Saturday. I'm planning on getting quite a few. Today I bought AccuClear pond clarifier and barley straw bales. Has anyone ever used either of these?

Patience. I know it is frustrating..I was in the same position for nearly two weeks. This is a process your pond goes through. I tried everything I could to clear it up. Definately buy plants. I posted a thread "my first pond pics" last night if you want to take a look. I still need to add more but the ones I have added have helped. I have not used AccuClear but algaefix is great! Hang in there it will get better.

Save the hassle and just buy a UV filter. You can get one on ebay for $50 and you'll be glad you bought it. They work wonders on green water and also on pathogens in the water. Plants will help, especially ones that block out light such as water lilies or floaters. But you can't cover the entire surface of the water because you need to leave open spaces for gas exchange.

AccuClear is a flocculant, which will cause the unicellular algae to clump up a bit. This clumping will make for better filter capture of the algae. I once added AccuClear daily for four days. Each time the algae clumped up and filled the filter very quickly. So I cleaned the filters a lot, but the algae multiplied faster than the clump/filter process could remove it.

Bottom line is it won't hurt anything to try the AccuClear, in fact it is kind of fun to watch the algae clump up, but in the long run I don't think it will help. As long as the conditions are right for algae growth, you are going to be raising algae. If you can get rid of the phosphates, the algae will go away, and it will stay away as long as the phosphate level stays down.

I have never used it but I think Algaefix is an algaecide. Again, if you do not fix the underlying problem, you might have to reapply the Algaefix on a regular basis.

***feeling antsy*** My pond has had a pea-soup look since mid-May. Before that, I had no problems getting the algae out with Algaefix. I heard adding barley would be good for a pond and as soon as I put some in...the pond went green. I left it in for a month, hoping it would break down and help the pond which it made no difference. No amnount of chemicals have helped clear the water. I DO have lots of plants that are growing very well, and the lillies are blooming. I also have fish in the pond.

Without necessarily having to buy "yet another chemical" what else can I do for this pond to clear it up? The water has been tested and the Ph level is down. I'm ready to scrub out the pond altogether, which I know will not fix the problem entirely. Help!

My pond water is not green anymore but it is not clear yet either. Will it ever be clear enough to see the bottom?

There are manymanymany (did I say, "Many?") threads in this forum about algae in all its forms and how to attempt to control it.

Pea soup search results (52)

String algae search results (138)

What do I do about algae or green water or string algae? (from the FAQ section here in the Ponds forum)

Brenda

amydian,

Still too many nutrients in the pond water. The potted plants are in heavy clay, right? If you use fertilizer spikes, make sure they're pushed way down and covered with clay so the fertilizer doesn't leach into the pond water. You could probably cut way back on fish food, too, since fish poop will also act as fertilizer. Elsewhere, Horton described how to rig a small kitchen trashcan filled with polyester quilt batting as a temporary mechanical filter. It won't get all the algae but will remove enough that the rest can be controlled by nutrient deprivation (plants consuming the nutrients so algae can't).

Algae Fix is a temporary solution. If you don't remove the dead algae it will just feed another bloom. Then you'll use it again and then you'll use it again and then your desirable plants will start being damaged as algae is of course, a plant and then maybe your fish will start dying......

Patience is very important to ponding.

I filled my new pond (approx. 3500 gal) on the 4th of July and by the 12th of July I was experiencing new pond algae bloom. I have a bio-filter falls. I went to Walmart and purchased quilt batting (not pillow batting) and put it (stuffed it) into my skimmer and once a day pulled the dirty batting out and cleaned it with my hose (not pond water as advised) and put it back in. Within 5 days my water was no longer green - could see the bottom and my fish ... no longer am using that Walmart quilt blanket batting. (I did clean, dry and folded it and am storing it if ever needed again - perhaps next spring).

Way to go Bunik!
Quilt batting traps the fine particulates in the water that the algae feed on. It also traps the green algae and stops it from reproducing.

If it is used as you did, by placing it in the filter, where the water can freely run through it. It will do, as you found out, a great job of cleaning up the water.
Then as the plants grow in the pond, the nutrients in the water will be used up, out competing the algae for a food source.

Brenda, good post, making it so easyeasyeasy, for folks to obtain information on the perennial problems of green water and string algae and how to deal with them.
But alas and alack, will manymanymany, if anyanyany, read the information that is theretherethere??? LOL
"Horton"

Horton, we can only hopehopehope. :D

Brenda

Horton and Brenda,

Awwh, be fair- the FAQs are far from inclusive and don't have all the little tricks that have proved successful to others. I don't work so I had lots of time when setting up my pond to read the volumes of past posts. Even so, I still run across methods that I missed (but luckily didn't need.) For someone busy with a job, kids that need to be shuttled to one event or another, spouse that needs quality time, etc., finding the right answer can take more time than they have. They may have even been given answers by their local pond store "expert" that would be different than advice given here leading to confusion.

I think it is harder to get rid of the greenies in mid-summer-the higher water temps are working against you. Advice given in early May is probably not sufficient for July. Patience alone during an all-out algal bloom could lead to a precipitous O2 drop and a dead pond.

Yes, there are manymanymany posts about green water. Ideally, everyone would have time to read all the old posts and come up with the correct answers for their unique pond. On the other hand, it is possible to skip over threads you don't want to read and this one was clearly titled.

HortonHortonHorton
HowHowHow can III Use the batting with my box mechanical filter and pump. I dont have a skimmer but seems this batting thing works pretty well.Here the basic pump and filter set up.
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mrubinsnewpond:

Hey, I have that same filter, I've used it in my little pond since last week, and that pond is clearing of algae by itself so far, but near 100% surface plant addition may be the key there.

I use batting in my pondmaster filter, not in this one, but it would be similar. Cut a piece or two to cover the top layer of the filter inside the cover. You'll want to cut a slot to get it around the vertical water pipe. I use two layers as some stuff gets thru 1 layer but little makes it thru 2.

To change it, pull the whole pump/filter from the pond, be careful as there will be a layer of stuff on top, so slow and steady to keep that stuff there. Place it next to the pond and snap the top cover off. Then I replace the dirty batting with clean.

You can either toss the batting or hose it down and let dry. I clean mine 2-3 times a week now so I'm hosing.

Don't touch the lower filter layers, let them get full of nice undisturbed bacteria.

I just started a 7x7 koi pond with three levels. I thought all I needed was the liner, and a pump with a fountain. I eventually got some plants, but I couldn't find pond plants. Luckily I looked on line and knew what to look for. The nurseries I went to didn't have "pond plants", but I noticed they had the plants I needed listed under "tropical plants". I found a few aquatic plants from the pet store. I have 3 koi and 2 goldfish so far. But a week after setting up my pond it turned into pea soup. After trying out different products on the shelf and nothing seem to be getting better, I looked up different pumps and filters. The biological filters were so expensive, so I checked out how they were made and had my husband help me make one ourselves instead. I think it's prettier, and heavier duty. The fountain sucks up the water and shoots up at the top so you can see the water above the vase (which was green but has gotten really lighter..lol), then it falls back into the vase met by a layer of those barley squares, a two inch thick wide webbed filter, then another thick tight webbed filter, and at the bottom of the vase are bags of charcoal filter rocks. There is a contrast between the green water shooting up at the top, and the clear water spitting out from the bottom of the vase. The pond so far is getting cleaner every day. I am just waiting for it to get clearer like it was when we first started the pond. Luckily I didn't give up and kept trying, or I wouldn't have come up with that convenient and money saving idea. I would love to hear more about money saving ideas. Or if there is anything else I am missing in my vase to filter. Oh, I also added a scoop of that enzyme powder with algae. I think that is everything other than getting a UV light filter. Any suggestions or tips that won't harm my plants or my fish?