Green Water

[3ndl3r]

At the moment, my pond looks like pea soup

Whats the best way to remedy this and prevent it in the future? Other than a UVC unit?

Thanks

 

[saltynay]

You could add some amano shrimp...

 

[three-fingers]

Because that's a useful suggestion... .

Barley straw works, you can buy extracts too. I'm not keen on the idea though, just adds more organics to the pond, and I don't know enough about how it affects other organisms to trust it.

I cleared green water in my pond by adding a load of hornwort stems. Fairly robust, very fast growing plant. If you pond is very heavily stocked with koi or large goldfish though, it may not work, I would just get a UV steriliser .

It's always worthwhile to try different plants though .

 

[3ndl3r]

Amano shrimp

Anyway, at the moment, stocking is fairly low. There are a few Elodea's in there, but they're only small.
I was told straw works, might give it a go

 

[chr15_8]

my dad tried barley straw before and it never seemed to work.

easiest way is a uv but you said you don't Want one so that's out the window.

Only thing i could think of is either Kusuri eco pure. its the best thing for blanket weed and starves it of nutrients so it might starve the free floating algae meaning it will die off. its a long shot and might not work.

green water is good though and is more natural for the fish however its not good for use hobbyist.

 

[three-fingers]

Personally, I'd chuck in loads of plants first .

You need a decent amount of plants to begin with to effectively overwhelm the algae and out compete it for nutrients.

I suggested hornwort because I've heard it has almost legendary green-water clearing abilities, and it worked for me, I also had some Elodea before and it never helped.

It's just best overall for the pond ecosystem, with the straw, your just curing the symptoms rather than the cause, and it will add more nitrogen (ammonia...nitrates) to the pond too.

 

[3ndl3r]

hmmm, well i visited my LFS today and none of them stocked any hornwort. I used to have loads but i lost it all over winter. Where can i get the stuff?

 

[three-fingers]

eBays a good bet .

Other plant websites stock it too, but you will probably get less for you money, I just got some from plants alive.

Plants alive have terrible packaging, but luckily hornwort is fairly tough .

Go for £15-£20 worth to make a decent impact.

 

[saltynay]

Daphnia eat green water add them in large quantities strangely they seem to be surviving in my tank for the past 3 weeks the largest are to big for the fish to eat without irritation (the fish gobble them up then spit them out). My tank has 3 guppy females, 2 endler males, 1 CT betta and 6 hybrid fry. Also as I said amanos will eat the algae which makes green water so its not the most ridiculous of suggestions.

 

[three-fingers]

Daphnia eat green water add them in large quantities strangely they seem to be surviving in my tank for the past 3 weeks the largest are to big for the fish to eat without irritation (the fish gobble them up then spit them out). My tank has 3 guppy females, 2 endler males, 1 CT betta and 6 hybrid fry.

Daphnia wont eat all the green water in a pond unless you have millions, maybe even billions of them. Not a practical solution.
And impossible with goldfish/koi anyway.

Also as I said amanos will eat the algae which makes green water so its not the most ridiculous of suggestions.

Sorry, I thought you were joking .

Amanos a) wont eat free floating algae and b) wont do well in an outdoor goldfish/koi pond in the UK

 

[saph.st24]

hi 3ndl3r
green water is caused by a bloom of algae which is feeding on all the excess nutrients created from fish poo, uneaten food and rotting vegetation.

barley straw/extract should be added to the pond in winter or early spring before the algae takes hold and should be redosed through out the year,
barley straw and extract is harmless to all vascular plants and all water born wildlife

you dont want a uv which will clear it quickly, so you need shade, green water will happen in early spring because plant foliage hasnt grown enough to give shade yet. the plants compete with the algae for sun light as well as food so if you can shade you pond and remove all the plant, uneaten food and other debris and and a few doses of barley extract the algea should die off

oh and avoid doing any big water changes as this addes fresh nuitrients into the water

 

[saltynay]

Amanos a) wont eat free floating algae and b) wont do well in an outdoor goldfish/koi pond in the UK

Amanos will live in water down to 2C they just get very slow and lethargic but they do live for a longer time when at these temperatures so swings and roundabouts to doing it. Ponds in the UK normally rach around 4C during the winter even when covered with ice. Sorry I should of phrased my statement alot better, rather then giving you a single insight to my brain fart also I got a bit muddled myself. They will eat the algae that forms on the side of ponds and the cause of the algae which is rotting vegetaion. You could use cherries if you wished but the pond would need to be very well planted for them not to be all eaten with a few days.

 

[three-fingers]

• Very lethargic at lower temperatures, not good for them at all.
• Absolute pain to get out before winter kills them.
• Koi/goldfish would make very easy snack of them.
• You would need hundreds to make any impact, very expensive.
• They wont eat the "rotting vegetation" your saying supposedly creates the free floating algae.

 

[saltynay]

1) How do you know its not good for them they survive longer when kept at lower temperatures due to a slow down of their metabolism so it can't be directly deadly for them. My pond for the majority of the year would be at a very good temp for macro shrimps.
2) Why would winter kill them? They survive at the absolute minimum temperature of -1C before cold directly kills them by freezing their internals just leave them in there all year.
3) True but they would be ok with juvenile goldies and with sufficient planting I think they would be ok
4) Contacting a wholesaler or you could breed your own (I realise how difficult that would be) don't know how many the OP would need as he hasn't said the size of the pond
5) They will eat any decaying matter in the bottom I have seen my amanos doing so and this vegetation with excess food ect is giving the nutrients for the algae bloom to occur.

You could also chuck in the pond keepers holy grail plant anacharis which should out compete the algae

 

[three-fingers]

Seriously saltynay, I appreciate you were trying to help, but there's no need to keep defending a seriously flawed and impracticable solution.

Amano shrimp are not huge eaters of detritus, they nibble on all organic matter, but mainly eat things like hair algae and even worms...
Aside from that, even if they did eat ALL of the "rotting plant matter" that you think is causing the algae bloom - what do you think happens to it after? It wouldn't dissapear - you would just be left with loads of amano shrimp poop that would be just as bad .

I know they will die in the winter because the UK can get very harsh winters, and most of the year the temperature in the pond would be in the lower limits for the shrimp, and at the very lower limits and below during winter. Not healthy at all. Just because something can survive low temperatures doesn't mean its acceptable to keep them there year round.

As for "how do you know....survive longer" that's just blatantly not true. Biology doesn't work like that. There's so many enzyme controlled reactions to consider that it varies from species to species, but keeping animals at a lower temperature with claims it makes them live longer is just stupid. It's true in some cases where a species has a wide range in nature, some guppy keepers keep their guppies at 18-22*C instead of higher average tropical aquarium ~26*C temperatures year round for this reason. But that is entirely different from keeping shrimp at the lowest survivable temperatures for a good part of the year and then keeping them at the lowest acceptable range for the rest of the year. It's just asking for the shrimps immune and other systems to give up.

I'm not talking about being "directly deadly" to them. Take fish for example, you can have discus survive at room temperature. It's not directly deadly to them, and many experiance it when shipping and the like. But it would be deadly to keep them at this temperature indefinitely, it makes them much more susceptible to other conditions.

All that said, I'm not sure the amano shrimp we can buy for aquariums are at all suited to lower temps anyway. I ended up keeping them at 10*C for a while while I looked for a heater, and they were very lethargic and unhealthy looking, not eating much.

Cherry shrimp are a better option for keeping outdoors, but then, this still does not help the OP in the slightest.#

Anarchis (modern name Elodea) has already been covered .