How do you get rid of algae green water in a fish pond?

Question

I don't want to spend nifty bucks to get rid of it. It makes the water green, but there's no other kind of algae in my pond. The pond is small so I can't get any more fish. I'm planning to put plants in it, but i can't do it right away. is there any easy way to get rid of it? i only have 2 choices if i need to buy a product: petco and home depot garden center.

Answer 1

Large water changes are your best bet in the long run. The algae is feeding on nutrients in the water, so removing those will starve the algae. Once you get your plants that will help to as they will compete with the algae for the nutrients. Barley straw should be available at either place you mention and also helps prevent new algae from forming. I would HIGHLY recommend you stay away from algae water treatments, they generally cause more harm than good. Also, if you treat with copper you can forget plants for quite a while as the copper is very tough on plants and will stay in the pond for quite a long time.

MM

Answer 2

Green water can be a tough problems with ponds, especially in the summer and this is often amplified in smaller ponds in warmer climates (of which I had many on my maintenance route in So. CA.).

Good filtration and chemistry help a good deal. A simple Veggie filter (see this article: http://aquarium-answers.blogspot.com/2007/03/pond-veggie-filters.html )
Can help a lot and is inexpensive, the down side is it can take a while to get going.

Good chemistry includes a GH over 100 and a KH over 50 (at least), these contribute to a healthy Redox which in turn aids in algae control.

Barley Straw pellets or extract can help (it is the iodine there in that helps).
So can water changes, although that often just addresses symptoms. Where water changes are more useful is in an overflow system or auto fill that slowly changes out water.

Finally the king of green water control is a properly installed UV Sterilizer (see this article: http://americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumUVSterilization.html )

I recommend this pond article for more information:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/ClearPond.html

Answer 3

Green water is really bad its a sign of an algae bloom, too much food for algae to feed on. i work at petsmart and we have a concentrated does of Algaefix. that usually works. also if you have fish in there feed them less. if its small enough your probably best off emptying most of the water an algae bloom isn't easy to get rid of and new water + algae fix should give you a good start on the problem

Answer 4

an algae eating fish is your best bet... water changes work well in an aquarium but are less practical for a pond...

a little green algae is actually a good sign, that the chemical balance is healthy for your fish

Answer 5

You can slowly add one cup of chlorox a day, and after awhile, it will "kill" the algae. (But, I dont know how much chlorine the fish can "survive" in, so, I would 'nix' that idea).

Most plants cant survive in copper... Toss in a whole bunch of copper pennies, and that "may" kill the plants with out killing the fish... (we use copper flashing or copper wire when there are plants growing up along a house and they dont want it to grow any "higher", so the copper kills the plants, also they put copper wire on roofs to kill algae or mold on them when they dont get enough sunlight to kill the plant growth).

I wish you well...

Jesse