"Twice I have had the whole pond (a 9000 gallon ex-swimming pool) scraped clean, as well as the filter completely hosed and cleaned. The 2nd time was just last weekend."

There's your problem right there.

Each time you scraped the pond sides and bottom plus the hosing out of the filter, you started the natural process of conditioning the water, all over again.

You are not giving the "good bacteria" time to build up and colonize your filter and pond surfaces.

Patience is the key, allow your pond to mature in it's own time.
A UV may help kill off some of the algae, as long as the UV is sized big enough for 9000 gallons of water going past it.

"Horton"

OK, here I go.....

I, too, have a Savio waterfall biofilter/skimmer. My pond is approx 5000 gallons and just a little over a year old. I have used consistantly quilt batting both in the skimmer and the biofilter. The water has ALWAYS been clear and I didn't get the algae bloom others did in the spring. I rinse off the skimmer QB everyday and the biofilter every 3 weeks or so. This stuff catches alot of "particles" (whatever they are). I'm very impressed with it. It may help you too.

Jeannie

Listen to Horton he knows what he's talking about....my experience has found that once the bacteria and plants are established the water stays clear without doing anything to the pond but throwing out excess plants :) I have water lettuce and hyacinth..Happy Ponding! Dave..pictures of my pond are under the recent title as I'm a little rusty...meaning messing up the other posting where the pictures didn't turn out :)

I have to second, or is that third, what Horton said. And come to think of it, there's a natural pond, well, a hundred year old man-made pond nearby my home. It is planted and has all sorts of creatures living in and around it. But it doesn't have a bio-filter box and it takes runoff from every which way of a few hundred acres.

I was thinking about this pond in relation to my own 2650 gal pond. This natural pond is a thousand times bigger but lacks aeration and gains contaminants from all around. Currently my pond is crystal clear running a small Atlantic FilterFalls and the large Savio skimmer with two 3700 gal/hr pumps circulating things. I don't use quilt-batting as the stuff that I tried just disintegrated and got sucked in by the pumps. I use the pre-filter that came with the Savio skimmer.

This time of year the natural pond is at its height of ugliness. Yes the willows around it naturalize the setting but the green muck algae floating on the water is like a thick cappuccino foam. The water is green-ish brown and you can't see two inches below the surface. I can't believe the fish and turtles survive with no aeration.

It sounds like you have it all fixed and ready to go. Just stop the water changes and let it settle and bio-filter. Keep the contaminants out and I bet with the So-Cal climate you can enjoy year 'round vegetation filtering your pond setup.

I don't know if you have string algae forming yet, but in early spring around here when nothing else is up and growing, I get hit by the stuff pretty good. You know what though, the water is really clean once that stuff comes on. And if I start early enough getting my plants UP that over=wintered in deep water and if it's not too cold then by the time my plants get going, esp the first of the Water Hyacinths, I can have most of the string algae torn-out (a laborious process).

That's how I've developed the cycle around here. Maybe you can talk to some other people in your neighborhood who have ornamental ponds and see how their cycle differs, and then see where you want to go. Some people clean and some people don't.

Happy Ponding.

Hi Hawkiefriend,

Every pond is different, and you need to really investigate you whole system to find out what you are lacking. UV sterilizers, clarifiers are great, but if you count on them and don't address the extra nutrients your pond may have then you will get tons of string algae. So be careful about looking for one solution when you might need a couple interventions.

Most ponders need to check their source water,their fish to pond gallons ratio, their pond water turnover rate per hour, their pond plants that get rid of your nitrates or a trickle tower to do the job, if they are overfeeding their fish, and the removal of organic debris in the pond with skimmers, bottom drains or pond vacuuming.

For the most part ponds need organic debris removal either from bottom drains or vacuuming, some partial water changes, pond plants in the pond or filters and patience. UV lights are nice and I have a 57 watt UV light as part of my system. I think you are lucky to live in where the ponding season is so much longer then us zone 5 ponders. I am thinking of winter prep already. lol

Regards,
Lisa

If you plan on adding koi, you probably need to look into a second filtration system.
If I am not mistaken, you are only turning over the water about once every 2 hours. Koi need more filtration than goldfish.

I think you are right; it's probably turning the water over about every 1.5 to 2 hours. Is that not good enough for a very few koi (4 maybe?) in such a big pond? I do want the water to clear up first.

Your advice is very sage, Horton. And I had read something like this at the Skippy site. I kept telling my "pond guy" who works for a koi guy that one is supposed to leave the filter alone and not clean it. The bacteria is supposed to settle in that filthy filter.

I was glad he cleaned the bottom of the pool -- he did not scrape the sides. Glad to see that it really wasn't that bad, but there was some sludge. Now we can start anew.

We have a handful of small goldfish and a bunch of mosquito fish in there now, and that's all. Every once in a while we see a frog. That is all the marine life.

We have tested with the little test strip that tests for 4 things, and the water tests normal.

So should I just wait about 4-6 weeks without any filter cleaning and see what happens? Maybe it was good to clean it that twice because the pond had no aeration for many many months. Now that it's quite aerated and hopefully filtered, maybe the bacteria collection can start.

All my previous floating plants died off (when there was no water filtering). My lilies are very happy though, and some other plant that is reed-like with violet tiny bottle brush flowers is enjoying it too. I am starting to order more plants -- ordered some hyacinths this week and will attempt them again.

I can't imagine starting to "winter" one's pond. Poor cold climate ponders! :( But then you get the beautiful seasons. I don't suppose we will have to ever do any wintering like that. I am curious how cold the water will get in the winter, but of course we never even have FROST here with our marine layer of cloud coverage. It keeps us pretty mild.

We have not seen any of this stuff you all describe, this string algae. It always sounds so horrible. All we have is something clouding the waters. There may be a few inches of visibility but I'd hardly call it clear at this point. It used to be that the steps where the plants are would be actually clear, only around the plants. No longer.

I will try not cleaning the filter. My "pond guy" will not agree, but hey - I can try this. I'm the boss. Though he is pretty wonderful and a very hard worker.

Just trying to help.

You should allow him to clean any pre-filters.

The fact that your floating plants all died tells you something. They were probably nutrient starved. Because they were starved of a critical nutrient they couldn't use up other nutrients that were abundant. The abundant nutrient was probably phosphate, which encourages algae growth. The deficient nutrient was probably potash or maybe iron.

Much has been written on this forum about floating plants and nutrient deficiency. Search for hyacinth, nutrients, potash, and iron in various combinations and you will find a ton of information.

Thanks, Pondbucket! I don't have a pre-filter. We had the pump encased in this mesh pump basket but it was hard to get it on and off each time and there was nothing in there. So I took it off.

Larryl - I am trying again with hyacinths. I put some stump remover in. I need to add iron.