Algae in Outdoor pond

Hello Sisira,

You do not give any location, or describe the particular algae which is troublesome for your pond.

There are several species of fish which actually eat algae

Try Mr. Google, and use Search terms: algae eating fish (Like I just did)

Of course you need algae eating fish which are compatible with your location, weather, and pond ecosystem.

Thus you are best to advise of your local situation, to a nearby supplier of those algae eating fish.

Remember the fish you presently have in the pond, will be excreting into the water, raising the effective fertiliser, causing the present algae explosion.....

I live in Sri Lanka. It is hot & humid over here with plenty of sun shine.. no dramatic temp.changes.. Ideal place for man, animal, fish, birds and also microbes to live in!

I really do not know the type of algae.

Nice images..I saved them for future use.Trust they are not right protected!!

Hello again Sisira,

If the algae is Spirulina species, it is normally safe to eat and very nutritious for people, being sold in Health Food Shopsfor high prices......

I also see that some algae species look promising as a source for fuel.

You are to use the images, as I "liberated" them from elsewhere, having long ago found them via Google Graphics Search, and saved them to my local system.

Neither the webpages the images were on, nor the graphics themselves, had © Copyright © symbols on them, so feel free to use them, just be grateful to the original image maker/s.

Hope you are closer to solving your algae problem.

Kind Regards from faraway.....

It sounds as though the pond has an excess of plant nutrients present; these are the nitrates and the phosphates. Tests might confirm this possibility. If so, then arranging a stream of surface water to pass through the pond so as to dilute and remove these nutrients is one possible solution.

I had a similar problem with my pond and used various filters, algae killers, clarifiers, etc. One thing that helps is the right balance of fish, oxygenator plants, water lilies (to help shade the pond; which also helps reduce evaporation);etc. However, the best method I have found is vigorous aeration (which I added this past spring and had no algae growth or problems over a very hot summer).

Depending upon the size of your pond, another effective method is to use appropriate sized bales of straw. I notice they are also now selling small bales in garden centers that feature water gardens. I believe the straw leaches small quantities of tannic acid which does not harm aquatic life or discolor the water.

Invite Shell to come to your house and make biodiesel out of it, that should solve the problem....

http://www.shell.com/home/content/media-en/news_and_library/press_releases/2007/biofuels_cellana_11122007.html

Sisera,

While some species of fish are sensitive to, and potentially harmed by it (especially some varieties of catfish), the presence of copper in the water will supress algae growth.

You could of course purchase copper based algicide (typically containing copper sulfate), or as an alternative, you could try adding some metallic copper to the water (e.g., a bunch of old pennies inside a porous bag such as an old stocking)... Place the penny-filled bag insude the housing of your filter, and see what happens. I've had success with this process on a smaller scale, treating multiple aquaria.

Removal of algae is a challenge. Stocking the pond with fish that consume it is potentially helpful though the cause of the problem could prevent this from working as well as it might under other circumstances. In some instances, using bacterial amendments can help by competing for nutrients with algae. We have a product that might be worth trying, google PRO4000X.

Shrimpdoc

Bioremediation (algae eating fish or snails) as a maintenance program, but to knock it back the copper sulfate works so well it has been effectively banned as a pool chemical here in the States. There are commercial oxygenators on the market about which I have heard good things from folks in the business, but I see mto recall them being rather pricy. Aeration (via a devorative waterfall?) seems like a good approach.

You can use barley hay to kill the algae. You can also grow plenty of underwater plants to absorb the excess nutrients, as well as floating plants such as water-lilies to shield the water from the sun. Sand filters by themselves will not be very effective without coagulants to force the algae to stick together.

Hi Sisira

I have had same challenge with big koi ponds in tropical Africa. Steps that made a difference were:

1. Filter design: Best was a gravity fed an-aorobic filter at least 1/4 volume of the pond. Run 5" drain from bottom of pond to upper third of Settlement chamber 1 then overflow to media filters, then to to the pump. pump after the filter reduces algea breakdown and makes filtering all debris more effective. Backwash into your garden or containers as a liquid fertilizer for sale.
2. From the pump to uv light tube and or a ventury sucking in ozone from an ozone genrator. Only use ozone for short runs to clear algea blooms or to treat bacterial and viral infections the fish may have. I always ran the ozone when introducing new fish to a quarantine pond. You need to watch the pH of the water when running Ozone and balance the acid content with bicarbonate of soda to keep it in the range best suited to your fish. You can go in directly to the pond with aerators and ozone as well, but make sure you have sufficient water plant filtration to clear the water of nitrates and nitrites.
3. As one of the previous contributors advised, use plenty of plants. Place plants in containers of coarse sand or even fine gravel. I like using small plastic baskets lined with plastic mosquito mesh. You want water to filter in as deep as possible for the roots to do their magic. This system is clean to wok with as you will be hauling the baskets ou often to split the plants, they grow like crazy (Business oppertunity - Hydroponics)
4. Check websites on koi ponds for more info. Dr Axlerods books on koi have always been a great source of help. Most all of the above advice must be credited to Dr Axlerod.

Good luck. Bushdriver - South Africa

Bluestone got this one right my friend......Aeration is the only proven method of avoidance for algae growth....

It works in all weather & conditions - best of luck!

Aeration will help reduce the algae growth. Reducing the temperature will help. Hook some kind of spray fountain up to the return from the circulator or filter pump.

Plants broad leaf types along the edges to help shade the water. Tall reed type grasses in the path of the sun. Aquatic plants that will help reduce the nutrients the algae is using to grow. These plants will all so help keep the water temp down. All so if the pond liner is of the plastic type which are usually dark in color. Cover the bottom with white sand to help reflect the light.

ZINC !

Check out this link

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4416854.html

Try using Chlorine it works great in my pond, in small amounts it will only kill the algae and won't harm the fish at all.

Some people will tell you it will kill all your fish, but my results were that it only killed the algae and the fish are still great