Why is the water green?
You have performed the spring clean-up of your pond, cleaned the filters and a few weeks later the pond is green and filled with algae.
There are several things that cause the over abundance of small algae and plankton that will cause your pond to become green! Whenever there is a surplus of available plant food (nitrates), Mother Nature will step in and fix that with something to use it, in an attempt to achieve balance and harmony. The result, green water.
Your pond should have a pH o between 6.4 and 8.4. Make sure that you have enough plant life in the pond to take up the excess nutrients. That is usually all that is required to achieve balance.
There are a couple key things to keep in mind when creating your landscape designs and waterfeature design.
- Fish~ While fish will help eat some of the algae that is causing the “green water” in your pond. Overfeeding them is the same thing as throwing a handful of fertilizer in your pond every day! Also, too many fish in a small environment will produce an over abundance of fertilizer as well. Finding the right balance of fish in your pond will go a long way to making sure that your pond remains algae free!!!
- Plants ~ Plants will add interest and color to your water feature. They also add cover for fish and will use the nitrates in the water limiting the availability for non-beneficial plants (aka Algae)!
- Beneficial Bacteria ~ Adding a quality bacterial product blend to eat and convert the organics usually helps as well. A liquid blend will act faster than a powdered form which is usually a freeze-dried blend. Liquid goes to work immediately while a powder form usually takes as much as 5 days to get “resurrected” and start working. Powder has a longer shelf life while liquid should be used withing a year of packaging (not purchase).
- UV Clarifiers ~ While UV clarifiers will kill mico-organisms that pass through it (by damaging their ability to reproduce, eventually they will mature and die without reproducing). While this is a fine band-aid for the short term, in the long run will result in a lot of dead algae decomposing and releasing their nutrients into the water to feed more algae. While this will result in clearer water in the short term this may result in string or mop algae which UV clarifiers will not get rid of.
There are only a few basic reasons for green water in your water feature. With a properly balanced pond or water garden green water should not be a problem you have to face.
One of the most important things to remember is that like all things in nature your pond will take a little time to reach its perfect harmony. Too many people take a shot gun approach and throw everything but the kitchen sink at their pond in order to try to clear up the water. A steady, methodical approach will not only usually lead to a quicker solution to the problem, it will ultimately lead to a much healthier pond or water garden.
If you need help designing the ultimate water feature or water garden for your back yard contact a landscape professional that can help complete your project for you. Capital Landscape is always a great choice when you don’t have the time to “do-it-yourself”
To schedule your own consultation give us a call at 916-783-5080
