Jalal, Based on what you have posted it appears you are on a municipal water supply. If you are then give them a call. You will probably find that they add about a half part per million of zinc polyphosphate, or something similar - it is used to reduce corrosion as well as suppress lead leaching into the water supply from lead soldered joints as well as from the bronze fittings in your faucets (sometimes as high as 15-20% lead!!!). In addition to the stump remover a bit of liquid iron would help green up your water hyacinths. You may also have stirred up sufficient sediments in your system to cause a brief algae bloom. It only takes approximately 0.15 mg/l to kick off a bloom.
---David

Thanks David for the advice. The water source parameters I listed came from our water source which is municipal. They also put in aluminum salts, potassium permanganate and powdered activated carbon in the spring which according to the website lasts until the mountain runoffs which is the end of June/mid July. We've had alot of rain this spring--8" in two weeks about three weeks ago so more stuff may have been added to the water supply then.
My brother in-law suggested that the algae bloom might be an increase in ph from water changes. I tested the ph right after the water change and it had gone up. I also notice that the bottom of my settling chamber which is a liner chamber is rust colored--don't know what that means. I do know that my hair turns turns red/brown from our water.
Less algae today but the water looks cloudy and have some docs and foam in the skimmer. I ordered some koiclay from Andrew as this product seems to work on my pond.

Can't find liquid iron anywhere. Have found iron fertilizer for garden plants but it also has copper and other stuff. The hyacinth is not as yellow today but it's been over 80F the last two days.

Do you add the stump remover weekly as a fertilizer for floating plants? Usually my parrots feather is growing well by now but it's also been slow this year. Mind you the iris just finished blooming so our cold spring has maybe just set everything back. According to your spreadsheet with my pond volume at 2500 gals not including filtration (which is another 400 gals) I should be using about 1.2 tbsp of stump remover. It's a little scary using it as it is a hazardous chemical.

Hi
I just got my annual algae bloom a couple weeks ago. I think that with all the weird weather the pond never quite settled. All the rain and up and down temps kept it from cycling right. My plants have all been doing great tho' the lilies and the irises are blooming like mad

Hi Jalal, when I add it (potassium nitrate) I put it in the intake side of the pump in the skimmer. It doesn't instantly dissolve (although it goes fairly fast) so it gets rapidly diluted as it dissolves. The levels that you are adding are not much different than would occur by feeding your fish with subsequent release of ammonia and conversion via your biofilter to nitrites then nitrates. However, if you're nervous about it, add a quarter of the amount, an hour or two later add another quarter, etc. You can also take your test kit, add some of the KNO3, wait about 15 minutes or more (to get it into the pond) and check the concentration. When I've done this I've been unable to detect any significant increase since the plants seem to assimilate the nitrates very fast. I add this about once a week for maybe two-three weeks. We had cool weather around here as well with the result things were growing a bit slowly. However, the water temperature is now over 75-80°F and the water hyacinths are growing like crazy - I'm throwing a bucket full on the compost heap about once a week!! I look at as pulling phosphorous out of our pond! :-)
As to the moderate change in pH creating the algae bloom...I would doubt it. It will somewhat change the form of the phosphate (H2P04= to HPO4-3 but not all of it) and this would, in itself, not be such a likely candidate for creating a bloom. However, active storms in your area resulting in splashing "stuff" into you pond can trigger a bloom; high winds which cause your pond water to mix in unusual patterns such that it stirs up phosphate-rich sediments can trigger a bloom. The zinc polyphosphate I mentioned above would be added, if at all, pretty much continuously but I'm not sure what the practice is with your municipality.
As to the "liquid iron": it is also called chelated iron, iron fertilizer...many companies put out a similar product, Bonide for one. The copper content is usually fairly low in all of these products, some don't even contain it. So if you were to add it the resulting copper levels would not affect your plants or fish. I prefer to buy the product that contains only the chelated form of iron. However, given what you mentioned regarding you hair and deposits on the liner I might suggest you hold off on adding any liquid iron - you may have plenty in your system as it is.
As to Koi clay: if you looked around on the various postings I think I recall (or maybe not! :-)) some discussion on what type of clay it is. It is essentially calcium bentonite (not sodium bentonite). There are various industrial suppliers for this material; it is often used in water treatment plants when working with surface waters to help with removing suspended particles. I won't bother to go into that right now but my point being you can usually get a 50 lb. bag of the stuff for very few $$ (or loonies!). The quality of the material is essentially the same as what is being marketed as "Koi clay" - many are claiming they mine it from secret sites, etc. I strongly suspect that quite a few of them are repackaging the material they can get very, very cheaply and applying their own "value added tax" to the price!!! If you lived near here I'd give you 10-15 pounds.
Hope all this helps.
---David

Whoops! Just realized where it reads: "...It will somewhat change the form of the phosphate (H2P04= to HPO4-3 but not all of it)..." It should read "It will somewhat change the form of the phosphate (H2P04- to HPO4= but not all of it)..." Just a technical glitch in yea ol' brain!!!
The website below will give you an idea of what's available out there industrially regarding "Koi Clay" - calcium bentonite.
---David

Thanks again David for info and links. Not to worry about technical glitch as formulas don't really register in my brain--it's like high school chemistry I just couldn't remember those symbols. I'm one of those artsy, music types where math and chemistry doesn't make alot of sense to me.

As for the koi clay I had read that many "pond" suppliers are selling the same stuff as used in industrial with the added label "koi" in front of. Will do a search on CD companies as shipping costs not involved or that wonderful duty tax. I went to the local health store which sells "pure bentonite clay" as a skin tonic and liquid mix to drink (have no idea why you would drink it). It was pale pink in color (looked like dry clay from ceramics) and selling for $35.00 a pound! Doesn't look anything like the koiclay I ran out of that I purchased from fishsempai 3 or 4 years ago. That stuff was grey like mud.

Plants are actually looking better today although I did find a small piece of water lily from a plant that I transplanted this spring. I think one of the 2 butterfly koi I have has been rooting in the pot! So that's a job for tomorrow--repot the lily and put a basket cover over it or lava rock (which I have both) to keep the koi away. I only have the two--Scoop and Shovel, big eaters. This is my third year of having them in the pond and the bigger one is about 12" long now. I think I'll have to sell them in the fall as my 300 gal indoor pond is not big enough for them and the 18 assorted goldfish, shubunkins and wakins I have--all are much smaller. The largest is about 8" long and they range in size from 5 to 8". Maybe too many fish for 3000 gals? I don't think so although koi keepers would probably disagree.

I am rambling so again thank you. Will try the stump remover later this week if plants don't pick up with the hotter weather we've been having. Patti

Patti,David and I had a discussion about "Koi Clay" this spring and he coached me ( a monumental task at the best of times!) about the uses for calcium bentonite clay and the differences between it and sodium bentonite clay.

I had one of our local plant/pond dealers order some in for me. I paid $30.00 Cdn, for a 4Lb tub of it.
(That part really upset the "Prof" when I told him about it..... Some thing to do with living in Vermont!)

It was produced by Ecological Laboratories in Cape Coral Florida. under the name of Microbelift, Calcium Montmroillonite Clay. (Koi Clay).

www.microbelift.com

It is, I suppose, a light brown pinkish coloured, fine powdered substance.
I used it in the spring to help clean up the cruddy algae that comes off the pond bottom.
I don't usually have problems around having clear water in my ponds. Though this spring, the ponds seemed to have more string algae in them, than I had ever seen before, plus there was the aforementioned crud, that breaks away from the bottom and is a bu--er to net out!

I used the clay as directed, the string algae was also netted out at the same time, the crud disappeared, no sign of anymore string algae and the pond water was crystal clear in a few days, but as I said, it usually is anyway, without the use of the "Koi Clay". But it may have cleared up sooner by using the clay, difficult to say really.
I don't think it does any harm to use it and the koi seemed to enjoy rooting into a ball of it, dropped into the pond.

I'm looking into obtaining calcium bentonite clay at a more reasonable price from a Canadian source. I'll let you know what I find out about that.

As to your question about why anyone would drink calcium bentonite clay? I have included a link below about some of the uses for calcium bentonite clay. I don't drink it myself but it seems that a number of people do for detoxifying their systems.

"Horton"

My New England DNA kicks in whenever I see something being marked up a couple of thousand percent! Specially when you can purchase it elsewhere for much, much less ... and it has an "infinite" storage life. My calcium bentonite is a light gray in color... no pinkish overtones. Maybe they were adding some Pepto Bismol to the other??
---David

Prof, the missus says that I'm colour blind,because it looks brownish pink to me???.
S.W.M.B.O. took a look at it and came up with "it is grayish white, sort of fawn, like a dirty off white"!
Case closed!
And I'm the colour blind one!!!

Anyway regardless of the colour,I'm on the track of a more reasonably priced, fifty pound bag....stay tuned, I will probably have more information about it tomorrow.
Maybe it is the Pepto Bismol that puts the price up on the other stuff!!?? LOL
"Horton"

Pepto Bismol too funny. Horton I don't understand your S.W.M.B.O. abbreviation--assume it's your wife. It's like texting which I don't do although my daughter texts a mile a minute.

The stuff I mentioned came from a health food store and no I didn't buy it as was way too pricey. I checked the health food store out as know they carry "weird" stuff. Anything from a health food store is way over priced which is why I don't go there.

If you find a CD source for the real deal let me know--. I did order some from fishsempai. Andrew waived the shipping costs as I order ProGold from him all the time. I also got my wakins from him 4 or 5 years ago. He no longer carries them as the wakins he had from whatever breeder he orders from had those lumpy growths. Some of mine had those as well. He said he had lanced some and removed some but they just come back. Are a genetic defect on wakins. Won't kill the fish and aren't contagious just ugly. He sells koiclay at $29.95 for a 5 lb box. I know David will freak at that but in CD you only have some options for some stuff.

Gotta take my daughter to work.

Patti, to understand S.W.M.B.O. you have to have watched the BBC series "Rumpole of the Baily". Horton and I know all about S.W.M.B.O. ! It stands for She Who Must Be Obeyed! The series is great!

$29.95 for 5 lbs?!?!?!? Someone please call a cardiologist!! And I suppose that's BEFORE your Province gets done putting it's VAT to it! Yikes.
---David

Horton, I'm a Canuck too and very interested to know if you find a source of 50 lb. bags of koi clay in Canada. Please post if you do.

Thanks for the translation. Will tell my daughter to relay to her husband. Never seen the show so that would be why I didn't understand.
No sales tax in Alberta or the new tax that some provinces have. I do know that duty when having stuff shipped from the states is ridiculous which is maybe why Pond companies here will charge $585.00 for a Sequence pump that you'd pay half of that for in the US. (I got mine from the US and sucked up the duty).
Maybe David should start shipping stuff to us poor Canadian ponders.
On the bright side with my short pond season koi clay lasts a long time! It's already the middle of July. I have 3 mths left if I'm lucky before I shut down the pond for winter before the ice and snow comes again.

Marn_eh, I will certainly do that. I hope to hear back from a couple of sources to-day and will post the information here.

Patti, you said,

"Maybe David should start shipping stuff to us poor Canadian ponders".

Not a good idea!
I nearly went to jail for life, over a few seedlings that the Prof was kind enough to send me, a few years ago.
I guess they have a dog or person at the border that sniffs out Delphinium seedlings!

Anyway Canadian Customs did not take kindly to David's well meant gesture.
I received a phone call from a young snotty sounding guy, who rebuked me for trying to import plant material into the country and a warned me that I could be imprisoned, if I tried it again.
And I had not done anything!
I was innocent, I told them, I had been (cold) framed and
the evidence had been planted!!!

I should add in David's defense that he had washed off all trace of the sterilized planting medium the plants had been grown in, before he sent the seedlings out.
But that still did not impress the Canadian Customs guy.

"Horton"

No, no, no....David will NOT be shipping anything across the border!!!! That particular incident used up my allotment of "stupid things to do" for a few years!! I felt badly for Horton...at least for an hour or two. I felt specially badly that he wouldn't get to enjoy/kill some delphiniums! But ship bentonite across the border?? I can just see it now: Inspectors opening a bag. "Hmm. what's this light gray powder (with pinkish, Pepto Bismol overtones)??" Nope. Not into sticking my finger in that beehive! On the other hand we're close to the Northern tier so if you're in the area I'm happy to give any of you some Kaolinite - just get in touch.... and then you get to deal with Customs!
Patti, I essentially shut down the pond about first week in November. I look at the rest of the months as a time to relax from all the gardening which starts up again about late December what with ordering all the seeds, etc.
---David

Too funny. Busted for seeds! The duty on stuff going across the border is crazy so no we won't go there. I havn't experienced holdups on the US/CD border but did hold up a whole plane in Israel in 1985 with a knitting neddle--long story but true.
As for pond just sumppumped out about 200 gals. It's been raining for the last two days--3" so far. Now I get to go shopvac water out of my basement again as the sumppump can't keep up. Our water table is very high here and we've had alot of rain this year. But I won't have to do a water change!
Thanks for all the input. Will watch Horton to see if you find a CD source for the clay. You can email me if you do.
Time to go shopvac!

I found a source for Calcium Bentonite in Canada and in the USA, that is a hundred times more economical than buying it from Garden centers and pond suppliers.
Anyone interested can email me for more information.
"Horton"