Green Water

[Nlightfoot]

Hello,
My pond has been green now since May of 2023. I had it cleaned out August 2023. It turned clear for one day then went back to green. I’ve researched and talked to 3 different pond companies with no help. I’ve used all the right chemicals and put in aerators. I was wondering if perhaps our blue cedar tree is the problem. It drops needles and little pine cones into the pond. I try to keep it cleaned as quickly as I can. I’ve never noticed the pine cones or needles until the last 2years.

Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Nathan

[BWG]

You can either starve it or temporarily eliminate with chemicals. Continuous elimination with a good UV property setup. With sunlight and nutrients it'll always come back. Starve it by reducing sunlight and nutrients. Shade, less food, water changes and nutrient competition from plants and filters.

With excess nutrients and sunlight, get rid of green water and Mother Nature will replace with something else, such as string algae.

[coolwon]

Barley straw is reputed to be a natures way of ridding natural water of a pond with living pea green algae.

I could type all it's benefits out.

Rather do your own homework regarding the benefits of natures way.

It relies on the rotting barley straw releasing it's natural chemicals of hydrogen peroxide into the water.

Sunlight and oxygen helps it to break down and rot.

A dosage of 10 to 25 grams per square meter is recommended for home ponds and bales of straw for large ponds and dams.

I think the more straw the better.

It's natures way of doing things at it's leisure.

Water passing through a UV light does not discriminate what living organism it is kills.

The good,the bad, and the ugly.

This method starves the algae of it's growth nutrients.

Try a pile of barley straw wrapped up in a shade cloth blanket to keep it all neatly together and left in a corner to doing it thing.

The residue chemicals will leach through the mesh.

Place the bag next to a water inlet, this will allow the new rotated pond water to penetrate the rotting straw pile and allow the water adjacent to

rotting straw to be distributed and the algae to be starved by the

chemical compounds out into all the rest of the pond water.

[kdh]

You can try barely straw but dont be surprised when it doesnt work and that is the norm.

[aquaholic]

Has it only turned green this year? What were the other 2 years like?

UV's seem to be the most reliable method but you do need to pass the water through UV faster than the reproduction rate of green water algae which can be difficult if you have a wide shallow pond (lots of surface area). Having a high powered UV capable of single pass kill would also be needed.

[coolwon]

You can try barely straw but dont be surprised when it doesnt work and that is the norm.

Do you mean something like Montmorllionite?

The Montmorillionite I used, was not soluble in my pond water standing on the wall in a glass jar of the pond was not soluble at all.

How could it beneficial to the fish?

Good for what it used for,water proofing Koi mud dams in Japan.

At least you stand a better chance with barley straw.

It's soluble, breaks down and rots.

To the fish keeper!

Add more barley straw, and be more patient.

:shrug:

:rolleyes:

[UnkleTim]

Properly sized UV will make it crystal clear in less than a week.