Caryl Posted December 17, 2008 Report Share Posted December 17, 2008 I was just reading through a club newsletter in which one of their members was concerned about the high alkalinity in his concrete pond and wanted to know how to lower it. Since I had never checked the pH on my own pond I went out with the test tube and testing stuff - WOW what a gorgeous shade of deep blue! Now, obviously the fish don't care about the high pH (way off any charts I have) and have been merrily living and spawning (and being abducted by aliens to go Christmas shopping) in there for almost 3 years now but it might explain why the plants haven't taken off as well as I expected. When first built the pond was painted with some sort of coating but it is possible the concrete is leaching at the top edges. Anyone any ideas of naturally lowering pH in a large pond? Perhaps if I can find some barley straw this might help. I am curious to see if a lower pH makes the plants grow, since they prefer slight acidity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cichlid7 Posted December 17, 2008 Report Share Posted December 17, 2008 lots of driftwood or use peat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted December 17, 2008 Report Share Posted December 17, 2008 Get a whole bunch of peat in a big bucket and pump water through it? Will turn the water brown though, but it's already bright green, isn't it? May not be noticable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted December 17, 2008 Report Share Posted December 17, 2008 only works if there isn't a heap of carbonate buffer in your water. Rain water would be fine, tap water tends to have lots of carbonate. My mudfish tank is 1/4 peat but the water is just below neutral. If it was rainwater it would make more of a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted December 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2008 It has had a lot of rainwater in in recently :lol: How much peat would be required for a pond this size? I have a large filter I could stuff full of it. We have calculated roughly 6,600L of water. I think I would need a whole tree if I relied on driftwood :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted December 31, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2008 Everyone seems to be out of peat at the moment so it will have to wait. I threw in some JBL CleroPond today. It says it quickly produces crystal clear pond water and eliminates green water discolouration. We will see. I was going to add barley straw extract but the shop sold the last one yesterday. Seems I am not the only one with green water at the moment but with the sun and heat lately I am not surprised. There seemed to be a number of products to remove algae but I chose one that specified green water (and it was cheaper ). It was also the right amount to add the whole container full so no measuring required 8) It warns not to use if your water is under 7pH as it can cause a drop in pH so it will be interesting to see if mine drops from the 8+ it is currently :-? Will keep you posted! :bounce: Just checked pond temps. Paddling pool filled at the weekend is 26C (same as air temp which is finally dropping) and big pond is 23C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted December 31, 2008 Report Share Posted December 31, 2008 I could be wrong but I thought barley straw was to get rid of cyanobacter rather than green water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted December 31, 2008 Report Share Posted December 31, 2008 Go raid the local oxydation ponds and put in a bucket full of daphnia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted December 31, 2008 Report Share Posted December 31, 2008 Getting rid of greenwater will get rid of food for the fry wont it>? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted December 31, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2008 As far as I know the barley straw gets rid of green water, not cyano. It will get rid of fry food too Dixon1990 but they are quite a size now and able to eat flake food. There seems to be a shortage of daphnia this year. I usually have plenty but not this year for some reason. :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonnaM Posted January 1, 2009 Report Share Posted January 1, 2009 I cut out a news-paper article last Aug about straw in ponds, but never ended up using it myself as have those UV/bio filters on the turtle ponds. Its from the 'gardening section' and theres a ph number for Wally Richards (author), if you want more info on 0800 466 464 Anyway, article says....The simple tmt for control of algae in ponds with fish is to place either wheat straw or barley straw into a plastic bag with a large stone (so bag sinks). Tie off bag, punch lots of small holes in the sides and toss it into pond. This works well after cleaning the pond first which can be done by removing fish,,,,then it goes on to talk about applying moss and liverwort control product to kill off algae...will rob water of O2 so cant have fish in there...blah blah, turn on pump...replace O2 with aquarium air pump or stone for 24 hrs, try one fish, if happy put others back,,,, Now, with the pond clear of algae, you can use the straw method to keep it clean. This works because the straw absorbs the nitrogen, which the algae needs to grow, from the water. Do not use pea straw as it works in reverse and increases the nitrogen. Same with hay. Only use wheat or barley straw. I thought there might be some useful info there for people , tho haven't tried it myself. The UV/bio filters are the best investment I ever made!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted January 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2009 Well the JBL stuff has done absolutely nothing as far as I can see. Hard to get the dose right as we don't know exactly how much water is in the pond but we calculated 5,600L and the bottle treated 6,000L so we emptied the whole bottle in. Interesting your article appears to say you have to get rid of the algae first. Defeats the point of adding it in my case :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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