It hadn’t cleared appreciably, and new green algae started growing. Arrgh!f
This is where I put on my water chemistry hat and bite the bullet and get the (fairly expensive) phosphate remover. Or, as we say in the marine reef biz, don’t bother getting a test for phosphate. If you’ve got algae growth, you’ve got excessive phosphate and no ordinary test will show it, because it’s bound up in the algae.
So we killed off a megadose of algae, and here is bright green new algae within 12 hours. Speed of regrowth tells you something.
So rather than have this nastiness (nothing likes phosphate except plants: it’s not good for any motile creature) endlessly looping through the system, I bit the bullet, as aforesaid, and poured one more dose into the pond, which immediately turned it milky bluegreen.
The fish, however don’t seem to mind it, and are running around in it, which is better than they were doing in response to the other stuff, which I think must have stung, or stunk, badly.
This is not a case of filtering it out, but chemically wiping it out, as best I gather: in the marine hobby we use ferrous oxide granules, but this freshwater stuff is a liquid. And here’s hoping.
Jane opined a rabbitfish would be a great help in the pond with the algae situation, and then caught herself and grinned, and said: “I don’t suppose it would be very good for the rabbitfish.” Naturally no saltwater creature can work in there. 😉
We’ve had to top off so much because of leaks in the waterfall (now fixed) and we’ve had overflow, and then that huge influx of rainwater, and with a high phosphate level in our local water, well, it’s not a great surprise. So next year we get some water hyacinth (messy things) and hope to do a natural uptake, but it’s late in the season for that.
Here’s hoping.
Have you thought about some type of snails? I keep horn snails in my aquarium to keep the tank clean. They’ll reproduce faster then your koi can eat them for sure. Also I seen a article in a gardening magazine about using bio-safe food dyes to color your water a dark blue. It will diminish the sun light reaching thru to the bottom and will cut back on the green goobs.
😆 if it dyed the koi, they’d never trust me again…
But snails, maybe. I’ll have to ask at the pond store we have locally.
Just be glad you aren’t dealing with this: http://www.adn.com/2835/story/864687.html
It’s a 12-mile long gooey blob that has been identified as an algal bloom off the coast of Alaska.
Ha—I think we know one of its components, at least. Hair algae gone mad!
…it creeps…and leaps…and glides…and slides…
Cyanobacteria, often called red algae, actually does crawl. Ugh. But it’s responsible for us having oxygen in the atmosphere. It’s comforting to know that if we really screw up the planet, cyano will assuredly survive—and reoxygenate the atmosphere for the cockroaches.
I’ve often thought of writing as a license to learn a bit of everything I can get my hands on, if not an actual responsibility. I did not know that cyanobacteria could actually crawl! Now, despite the ick factor, I have to go read up on red algae. Thanks, she commented wryly. :blink:
Whoops, that blink emoticon did not quite make it through. maybe?
Guess not! Oh well…
😆