Hi I need advice asap. My friend has a huge pond with koi.
Its been fine up untill 6 weeks ago, it has now got a pea colour this hasn't happen before.
It has execellent filteration & so on.
When first happen we changed water a good half amount, & cleaned pond didn't help. So we cleaned filter didn't help. Changed UV bulbs didn't help.???
It hasn't any tress over it or plants in it, only around it also has water fall type fountain.
Could anyone help with any suggestion at all please its just been a nightmare!
Also could you tell me if a pond skimmer would hep?
Also what's the difference between UV clarifier & UV sterilisers?
Thanks in advance
pond "pea water"
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madhatter28
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pond "pea water"
Forget what you THINK you know, & consider what could be?
UV clarifier may be lower wattage or faster flow. Does not kill quite so many things.
UV sterilizer will be sized and flow rate so that:
a) slow enough flow & intense enough light that the organisms stay in contact with the UV light long enough to get killed.
b) Fast enough flow so all the pond flows through the sterilizer before stuff can breed again.
Pea soup water is a single celled algae.
Shade will help. With Koi it is hard to shade with plants, but anything that can shade the pond will help. If you could add floating plants a cover about 50% of the pond will usually stop it. (Koi are very likely to eat floating plants, though) If you can rig up some sort of shade cloth in the brightest part of the day this will probably help. How big is the pond?
There are dyes that you can add to the water that are supposed to help. I never had any luck with them.
Barley straw is supposed to help. Never tried it.
There are algacides. Read the label VERY carefully to be sure they are safe for Koi, and plants (if any).
Very fine filter media can trap it, but you need to have a very good filter set up:
Coarse, medium and fine media to clean the water pretty well before the extra fine media, or else the extra fine media will get plugged up with the other debris. It will need frequent cleaning even with a really good set up ahead of the very fine filter.
Whatever you do that kills it will result in a lot of dead matter that can clog the filter, and can cause a major spike in ammonia. Much better to remove as much of it as you can, and keep removing it frequently, so that as it dies there is not so much of a build up.
More plants that will use up the fertilizers (ammonia etc) can reduce problems from algae. In a Koi pond you usually cannot grow plants where the fish can reach them. There are a few alternatives.
1) Build an island in the pond that has open space in the middle. The plants grow inside, protected from the fish, but water flows through.
2) Fence off part of the pond with fish-safe material and grow plants in several protected areas. (Same idea as the island, but up against the sides of the pond)
3) Pump the pond water into another pond, often uphill from the main pond. This upper pond is devoted to plants that grow up out of the water. I have seen a sort of flow-through system where this refugium sort of set up is alongside a deck, and the deck was surrounded by the tropical water plants. Then the water returns to the pond, often via a water fall. The planted filter needs to be roughly 10% of the volume of the pond, and rather shallow, depending on the plants. up to 2' deep is about the maximum for most plants that grow with their roots in the water and leaves out of the water.
UV sterilizer will be sized and flow rate so that:
a) slow enough flow & intense enough light that the organisms stay in contact with the UV light long enough to get killed.
b) Fast enough flow so all the pond flows through the sterilizer before stuff can breed again.
Pea soup water is a single celled algae.
Shade will help. With Koi it is hard to shade with plants, but anything that can shade the pond will help. If you could add floating plants a cover about 50% of the pond will usually stop it. (Koi are very likely to eat floating plants, though) If you can rig up some sort of shade cloth in the brightest part of the day this will probably help. How big is the pond?
There are dyes that you can add to the water that are supposed to help. I never had any luck with them.
Barley straw is supposed to help. Never tried it.
There are algacides. Read the label VERY carefully to be sure they are safe for Koi, and plants (if any).
Very fine filter media can trap it, but you need to have a very good filter set up:
Coarse, medium and fine media to clean the water pretty well before the extra fine media, or else the extra fine media will get plugged up with the other debris. It will need frequent cleaning even with a really good set up ahead of the very fine filter.
Whatever you do that kills it will result in a lot of dead matter that can clog the filter, and can cause a major spike in ammonia. Much better to remove as much of it as you can, and keep removing it frequently, so that as it dies there is not so much of a build up.
More plants that will use up the fertilizers (ammonia etc) can reduce problems from algae. In a Koi pond you usually cannot grow plants where the fish can reach them. There are a few alternatives.
1) Build an island in the pond that has open space in the middle. The plants grow inside, protected from the fish, but water flows through.
2) Fence off part of the pond with fish-safe material and grow plants in several protected areas. (Same idea as the island, but up against the sides of the pond)
3) Pump the pond water into another pond, often uphill from the main pond. This upper pond is devoted to plants that grow up out of the water. I have seen a sort of flow-through system where this refugium sort of set up is alongside a deck, and the deck was surrounded by the tropical water plants. Then the water returns to the pond, often via a water fall. The planted filter needs to be roughly 10% of the volume of the pond, and rather shallow, depending on the plants. up to 2' deep is about the maximum for most plants that grow with their roots in the water and leaves out of the water.
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.
Happy fish keeping!
Happy fish keeping!
Hi,
I've had success with using barley to keep the water clear in my pond, but the way that I've found works the best is to starve the algae. Fast growing plants are great for this. Of course Koi eat most anything so you either have to put them in an area where the Koi cant get them or use something like http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=16852
Water lettuce works well as the Koi mostly eat the roots which dosen't kill the plant but seems to make them grow faster... If the Koi are full grown this might not work... Another possible option is anarchris. If you can manage to introduce a large amount of plants into the mix, the green water should clear up pretty fast. Good Luck
Batch
I've had success with using barley to keep the water clear in my pond, but the way that I've found works the best is to starve the algae. Fast growing plants are great for this. Of course Koi eat most anything so you either have to put them in an area where the Koi cant get them or use something like http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=16852
Water lettuce works well as the Koi mostly eat the roots which dosen't kill the plant but seems to make them grow faster... If the Koi are full grown this might not work... Another possible option is anarchris. If you can manage to introduce a large amount of plants into the mix, the green water should clear up pretty fast. Good Luck
Batch
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