Pond life

[John Rumm]

No, not another thread about some of our regular posters....

The other day a couple of ducks took a fancy to our pond, which for once was actually looking quite clear at the time. Alas after they departed, we noticed a few patches of green foam floating on the water that had not been there before. That seemed to rapidly spread and multiply, and within a couple of days pretty much covered the whole thing....

Said guests, swimming in green foam before it covered everything:

close and gloopy:

pond experts out there that know what this stuff is, and what would be a suitable treatment to deal with it?

The water under the foam seems relatively clear. The same pair of ducks keep returning so obviously are not to fussed by the goo. I suppose this means whatever treatment I go for, it probably needs to fix them as well! (assuming they were the vector in the first place)

(violent or culinary solutions for the quackers would probable meet with a veto)

[Newshound]

Looks like spirogyra to me. Gardening newsgroups may have a solution. You can remove it physically by twirling it up on a piece of stick but, as you have discovered, it grows at a good rate when conditions are right.

[Chris Hogg]

Algae. Probably only coincidental with the arrival of the ducks, and much more likely to be due to the current warm sunny weather. It's quite a common phenomenon, particularly at this time of year. Algae are a primitive form of plant life, and as such they absorb CO2 and give off O2 when exposed to sunshine. The bubbles in the goo are bubbles of oxygen, which rise to the surface carrying with the algae along with them.

Algae are everywhere. Any water left out in the fresh air will soon start to show a green tint, provided there are nutrients in the water. Just like other plants, algae need nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to flourish, as well as trace elements. In ponds, nitrogen, in the form of nitrate, is usually present in abundance, especially at this time of year as it builds up slowly over the winter. As soon as the water warms up and the sun comes out, the algae grow, in your case, vigorously.

There are proprietary algicides available if you must use them, but I never have and I don't know how effective they are, and they may also harm some of the other pond life. Other than that, there's not a lot you can do other than keep skimming it off with a net. Once the source of food is used up, i.e. the nitrate in the water, it will be less of a problem. If you have fish in there that you feed, their crap will be an ongoing source of nitrate, as will discharge from a septic tank or other drains if it reaches the pond, or even any run-off from adjacent flower beds.

[Andy Champ]

Looks like spirogyra to me.

barley straw. (not a pond expert)

Andy

[The Natural Philosopher]

blanket weed.Too much nutrient, not enough oxygen.

Buy oxygenation plants:add fish.

[The Natural Philosopher]

sort of works, but fish eat it and high O2 buggers it so other plants compete- plant plants add fish

[Tim Lamb]

In message , John Rumm writes

Too late! The shooting season ended 31st. Jan.

You need shade!

Green algae is sitting in all water waiting for adequate minerals and sunlight. Duck crap may have helped with the minerals.

You can effect a temporary cure by spraying the surface with a hosepipe (if permitted). This liberates the bubbles of oxygen and allows the green gunge to sink.

In theory, once all the nutrients have been used, the pond will stabilise and clear.

IANAPond expert:-) but have some experience.

regards

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Tim Lamb writes

regards

[Tim Streater]

You need to put < and > around the URL. Then line wrap doesn't matter.

[John Rumm]

Nice planting ;-)

To answer a bunch of questions here... yup algae is a perennial problem in that pond - often goes quite green, however I have never seen it foamy like that before.

Its definitely nutrient rich, since there are loads of fish in there (hundreds or possibly thousands of gold fish and possibly the interbred offspring of a couple of carp like things!). The filtration system[1] was designed for the previous owners koi, but does not seem that effective...

There are a couple of lilies that perk up for a few months of the year and then vanish. Alas there is not much shallow shelf around the edge to place baskets on before it gets quite steep, and deep (its probably about 9' at the deep end)

[1] Four deep cylindrical chambers. The first is basically a large empty vessel - bottom fed from the bottom and side drain of the pond. That overflows into the base of the next, which has a pile of brush type affairs not unlike a sweeps brush. Thence a couple with koi mat, but that has large cutout sections, so is not a filter as such. Finally thought the pump and out via UV exposure tubes.

[Tim Lamb]

Switch the Sun off! Plant some shade on the South side.

In 15 years we have had:-

The years of Duck Weed, Blanket Weed, Water Soldiers, Mallards, exploding pond lilies, floating pond liner.

I wonder what this year will bring?

regards

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Tim Streater writes

Yes. But you are all clever chaps and can copy + paste to your browsers:-)

regards

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

the year of global freezing?

[Martin]

Dot "Green Fingers" Cotton forecasts Plagues Beginning of the curses: Ex. 5:1?9, 7:8?13 . Plague of blood : Ex. 7:14?25 Plague of frogs : Ex. 7:25?8:11 Plague of lice or gnats : Ex. 8:12?15 Plague of flies or wild animals : Ex. 8:20?32 Plague of pestilence : Ex. 9:1?7 Plague of boils : Ex. 9:8?12 Plague of hail : Ex. 9:13?35 Plague of locusts : Ex. 10:1?20 Plague of darkness : Ex. 10:21?29 Death of the firstborn : Ex. 11:1?12:36

[www.GymRatZ.co.uk]

The brushes are to stop more solids getting to the matting which has a large surface area for the bacteria to grow. The greater the available surface area for the bacteria to colonise the greater amount of bad stuff the bacteria can get rid of.