Bubbling green algae taken over pond?

[Insect Direct]

My mother put in a pond a couple of years ago, in a wet area of there property, swamp/stream further down.

Anyway been looking good utill about 2 months ago this algae started appearing, only thing thats changed consideralbly is i stocked it with goldfish last spring and they bred as was full of fish and babies but cant see that many now jst algae :-?

had heaps of rain over the last 2 months and theres farm land around them (mainly sheep) so maybe run off feeding the algae?

any opinions ideas would be great, cher cher :lol:

ps also wundered if its tht toxic stuff u see at the lake which aint gd 4 dogs

[RochelleMay]

Hey there, I cant help with how to get rid of it or anything sorry But i can add my few cents worth about Algae Bloom.

We have a house at Lake Rototiti Just passed Rotorua and for many years no one has been able to swim in the lake. It occoured from having all the boardering trees cut down and now all the farm Debris and manure run straight into the lake. It isnt "bubbling" like you said whenever I saw it, it was just more like tiny lilly leaves everywhere like tinee tiny round circle things.

And as for dogs swimming in it our weimerana swam in it constantly as theres no stoping her. And shes alive and well.

But for your sake I do hope its not Algae Bloom as that will kill most of your fish and it smells and can take ages to get rid of.

Thats just IME though

[FreedingFrenzy]

If it's algae bloom I know that it has a bad effect on birds... So if there are some wild birds around that have been feasting on your goldfish then they will likely end up dead and scattered around...

Have a look at this and see if it helps:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algal_bloom

[imsweet]

just one of my ponds gets something similar, not as bright tho. only in certain times too. i did read somewhere it had something to do with the oxygen levels but i cant remember exactly what. I just scoop it off and fill up with the hose but a pond that large i'm not too sure what you'd do. Perhaps Caryl has an idea? being a pond champ and all.

[kiwiplymouth]

Ive heard that putting a bale of straw in the pond will clear it up.

[Caryl]

I thought that sort of algae was an indication of lack of oxygen and stagnation but not sure. Not sure if the straw treatment helps that type of algae either but worth a try.

[whetu]

Looks like a classic case of too much nutrient + not enough oxygen and/or surface movement.

For the nutrient problem, you could try to

a) stop nutrients reaching the pond

b) absorb/remove them once they get there.

You might try planting some nutrient-loving marginal plants on the side of the pond where the run-off is arriving in the water. There are some beautiful bog plants around that will offer shelter for fish, frogs and birds as well as helping with the nutrient problem.

You could also implement some kind of swale system to slow down the water entering the pond. I've seen people put a row of straw bales uphill from ponds to work in a similar way to a filter in a tank.

Oxygen exchange might be a little more difficult if the pond is in a sheltered area. I'm assuming there's no way to run a little pump/fountain/water feature to keep the surface moving?

[Insect Direct]

thanks for the input everyone - appreciated

It doesnt look as dense as the algae bloom on wiki, havent noticed a smell but didnt try to when i was last there tbh

have suggested a bale of straw but thought id ask here first just to check

they have got a fountain down there i wundered about putting that on, they only use it on special occasions haha :roll: i think it gets blocked up from the muck in the pond but will see if i can get them to turn on for a few days and see what happens i think.

water - comes from the roof on there house and runoff from the surrounding land and ive got a fealing there could be a pipe running in off the private road which i cant see it been of any good except keepin the water level up, so i wunder if tht should go to as may pose risk to fish?

there is some sort of oxygen weed and an aquatic grass that just appeared prob from the ponds further down, also mums planted some lillies which are just appearing again and surounding the pond is all planted out in flax, grass, and some low growing shrubs etc and not too sheltered would get all but late afternoon sun id say, and she doesnt feed the fish so shouldnt be too much nutrient but must be i suppose

[Insect Direct]

see the little tuft of grass in the middle of the first pic, thats there little island haha maybe they should plants some nutrient thirty plants out on that?

[whetu]

...they have got a fountain down there i wundered about putting that on, they only use it on special occasions haha :roll: i think it gets blocked up from the muck in the pond but will see if i can get them to turn on for a few days and see what happens i think.

I would suggest running the fountain as much as possible to ensure there's plenty of oxygen in the water. Maybe they could put it on a timer to run it for a few hours every day if they don't want it running constantly?

One of my concerns would be that if the algae is such a problem this early in the season, then later in summer it might become a really nasty mess. Better to address all the issues now and see if it can be kept looking nice instead of turning into something they will be disappointed with later (and needs much more work to correct it later).

water - comes from the roof on there house and runoff from the surrounding land and ive got a fealing there could be a pipe running in off the private road which i cant see it been of any good except keepin the water level up, so i wunder if tht should go to as may pose risk to fish?

It depends how much use the private road gets. Any oil, coolant, tyre rubber, etc will have to go somewhere so it may just end up in the pond unless the water gets filtered through some other system before it gets to the pond. NB: I'm talking about a 'natural' system such as reeds, grasses etc rather than an actual 'filter' being installed.

Is the road sealed or gravel? A sealed road will have more rapid runoff and is more likely to have petroleum products run off into the pond. Runoff from a dirt/gravel road is slower but will carry more sediment that can block things up.

there is some sort of oxygen weed and an aquatic grass that just appeared prob from the ponds further down, also mums planted some lillies which are just appearing again and surounding the pond is all planted out in flax, grass, and some low growing shrubs etc and not too sheltered would get all but late afternoon sun id say, and she doesnt feed the fish so shouldnt be too much nutrient but must be i suppose

By 'nutrient' I was thinking of the nutrient running off from the surrounding land, rather than from feeding the fish. In the photo it looks like the lawn comes right down to the edge of the pond - I was thinking it might help to have a slightly more planted buffer zone around it. Doesn't have to be all around the pond, but just on the slope that would carry most of the run-off from the farms or any compost bins or vege patches or anything else that might be up-stream from the pond.

Also I was thinking that the pond might be sheltered from the wind, which would minimise the ripples on the surface which is where most oxygen exchange comes from. It's a bit of a balance between planting on the margins of the water to absorb nutrients while still allowing enough breeze to come through the planting to ripple the surface.

[whetu]

Oh by the way if the algae is 'bubbling' this might indicate it is rotting and letting off nasty toxic gasses. I would suggest trying to physically scoop as much of it out of the pond as possible, to remove the nutrients already contained in it, and take them out of the pond system.

The algae you collect could be used as a garden mulch - just make sure you don't put it anywhere that the nutrients will run back into the water.

So that's three steps:

1) remove as much algae as possible

2) aerate using the fountain

3) try to prevent nutrient-rich water running into the pond.

In my opinion those three steps should solve the problem quite effectively.

[new zealand discus man]

Ive heard that putting a bale of straw in the pond will clear it up.

Has to be barley straw..Only from asburton...

It will remove the agea but not over night...........Phill

[I_am_Elmo]

Apparently there is also a place that sells the special straw in the Thames region. I heard it was something like pea straw or something?? And that works well for duckweed, so I assume would work for most things that dig high nutrients

[Dougstark]

Not totally sure but looks like what I call net weed ( my name for it) that I see in ponds ands streams regularly. As far as I know its not toxic but quite invasive. It does not seem to like shade. When it gets thick and weather is sunny it produces oxygen which gets trapped in it and makes it float. High nutrients is probably the cause. Easy to remove but can grow back quite quick. Looks like some in this pond as well. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/water- ... 33729.html

[Caryl]

Where? None that I can see.

[Dougstark]

Top edge of first photo.

[Caryl]

Nope, that is a thin layer of green algae over rocks.

[Dougstark]

Happy to take your word on that. A bit hard to tell from photo.

[Insect Direct]

Yea no comparison to Caryl's sparkling pond :lol:

Have suggested they rake out excess algae and put fountain on which theyve been doing and looks to be clearing up even saw some 1-2inch comets buzzin around so thats kool, lets hope it stays that way with summer around the corner

thanks for the advice

[Caryl]

Here is the same bit of the pond from a different angle...

No bubbly algae!

Here is the whole pond as it is now

Remember, it was started February 27th '06. Oxygen weed was added in September '06 along with 9 large goldfish and 40 or 50 fry we had from them spawning in the old outdoor bath in which they had previously lived. This wasn't how I remembered it but there you go. It was what I wrote at the time so must be correct.

I counted 56 fish the other day but some were still under the deck and others at the other end of the pond. A mid summer count in Feb '08 came to 73 but there may have been more (we took a photo while they were feeding and counted the number in the shot. That doesn't mean all were feeding at the time).

They have been spawning madly all week so I am sure the count will rise! :bounce:

[Caper]

Caryl is your pond deep enough so that you can leave them in it all winter?

Caper

[Caryl]

The pond freezes over in winter Caper but goldfish don't mind that. They semi hibernate over winter months.

The barbs can only go outside over summer otherwise it is waaay too cold