Pond Algae Solutions Blog

We’re Going To The Birds And More

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What Do Birds Have To Do With Ponds?

It may sound odd to include the topic of birds and bird feeders on a pond algae website but I would be remiss to not mention the subject of bird feeders as we near the holidays.

You see a handful of years ago, my wife and I received a couple of bird feeders and seed as gifts one Christmas and I have to admit, they turned out to be one of the best presents we have ever received.

From that day on we have always enjoyed watching Gold Finches, Cardinals, and House Finches visit the feeders. Last year after we moved to a different location we discovered an entirely new world of birds that included Orioles, Nuthatches, Juncos, Woodpeckers…you name it, I think we’ve logged it in our bird sighting booklet.

With this in mind, and as Christmas time is near, we decided to put up a web page with some of our favorite feeders. Maybe they’ll turn out to be a great gift for someone you know. Anyway, here’s the link to our bird feeders page.

Visit our bird feeder page here…

Now on top of this, I wanted to mention a new development here at KLM Solutions and it does relate to bird feeders and other great home-based interests. And by the way, you can bet that ponds will be involved in this too!

Making The Most Of It All At Home

Like everyone else, our family experienced a tightening of the budget this summer. With gas prices at or above $4.00 a gallon, we didn’t do much traveling. As we move into the fall and early winter, it’s pretty obvious that the economy isn’t in very good shape and there’s a lot of concern for what may come down the road.

Still, despite the fears, it’s been important for our family to enjoy our days together and find new ways (or maybe discover old ways that are renewed) to spend quality time together. The term “staycation” was developed not too long ago, and we adopted that here, where we did more fun things either closer to home, or in some cases, right at home. We saved a lot of money by doing this, and still enjoyed the experiences. It was a nice discovery to make and a good lesson for us in the future. Although we may still take a far-from-home trip every now and then, we certainly don’t have to do that to make the most of our family time.

To us, this is a trend that will only grow to be more popular in the future, and whether you have kids or not, it’s safe to say that a person’s home can truly become an oasis and an escape from the daily grind of work and societal pressures.

With this all in mind, we are beginning work on a new website that we intend to launch next spring that focuses on providing resources, information, and when applicable, products that can help someone create a backyard getaway that provides opportunities for rest, relaxation, or recreational enjoyment.

We’ll talk about ponds and pond care of course, along with backyard birding, creative backyard recreational topics, landscape and design, flower gardening, and whatever else in terms of topics come up along the way. We think it will not only be great fun to work on a project like this but we hope it helps to provide useful ideas to everyone that visits so they can enjoy their own “oasis” right at home.

Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted as things move along.

What’s Your Favorite Pond Plant?

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For anyone who has read much of our material at Pond Algae Solutions, it’s widely known that we like to use and recommend pond plants to help balance out a pond. This is obviously one of the most natural and cost effective ways to keep algae from developing, and plants provide a number of other asthetic and practical benefits to most any pond.

So with this all in mind, we wanted to ask you, the pond owner, what your favorite or most useful pond plant might be?

You can enter your response in the comment section below and in the process you’ll be helping other pond owners expand their knowledge and understanding of the positive aspects of adding plants to your pond.

Feel free to share any insights or information that pertains to plants and ponds here. Let’s try to keep the posts on topic, which will make it much easier for readers to locate the useful information.

Thanks for your help and input!!!

Ultra Violet Filtration vs. UltraSonic Algae Control – Technologies Compete

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There’s no question that emerging technology over the last few decades as helped pond owners create better looking ponds. Unfortunately along with all of these advances comes the inevitable confusion of what’s best for a particular pond situation.

Today I want to address two very useful tools in pond algae control, and cover their benefits along with their drawbacks in relation to one another. One has been around for a good number of years, and the other is emerging as one of the most useful tools for any size of pond.

More specifically, looking at the merits of UV filters and Ultrasound might help clear up some confusion, and a few ponds along the way, both of which are good things.

Let’s cover ultra violet filtration first.

UV filtration works by using ultra violet light to damage the cell membrane of the algae. Usually this light is housed in a tubular structure that is placed in line where water will pass through the filter and be exposed to the light.

The strength and primary benefit of a UV filter is the control of planktonic algae or green water issues. It also helps to minimize viruses that may affect fish populations. Unfortunately because other types of algae can’t pass through the filter itself, things like string algae, or pond scum will be left unaffected. With this in mind, it’s essential that a UV filter not be the only method of filtration in your pond. They can work in conjunction with a good bio-filter and between the two systems it should cover a pond’s filtration needs quite well.

A UV filter works best by having the proper size of filter for your pond’s needs and the proper flow rate of the water passing through it. Ideally you want to allow the pond’s volume of water to pass through the filter multiple times and have the UV light gradually affect the water through these numerous exposures. Issues like “dirty water” or inadequate filter size for a pond’s volume will reduce it’s effectiveness.

UV filters are relatively affordable when compared to other forms of filtration. There is the need to replace the bulbs, usually on a yearly basis is recommended, but other than that there shouldn’t be any residual costs.

So, all in all, if you have an ongoing problem with green water in your pond, ultra violet filtration can be a useful tool. It’s not an overly expensive option to add to a small pond, however the cost goes up as the pond gets larger. It’s important to remember that to get the best results, you want to install a filter that is more than adequate for your pond’s size and needs. UV light will not clear all types of dirty or murky water unless it’s coming from an algae problem, and it will not work with all types of algae you may have to deal with in your pond.

Now on to ultrasonic algae control.

Like UV systems, ultrasound has been used in a variety of industries and applications for a number of years. Sonic algae control began about ten years ago in Europe and over that time, it was inevitable that this technology would make it’s way into ponds and water gardens.

Also like UV, ultrasound works to damage or rupture the cell membrane of the algae and the simplest way to look at the process is to compare how an opera singer can literally break a crystal goblet with her voice. When the resonating frequency hits the perfect pitch the crystal shatters into pieces. Ultrasound can be targeted in the same way towards algae. When the frequency is modulated and tuned very specifically it can travel through the water and break the membrane of the algae cell.

One advantage of sonic algae control is that it can work on a variety of algae types. Green water issues can be controlled pretty quickly, usually in a matter of days. Mass types of algae such as string algae, will take longer to eradicate, but over time, the algae gets reduced and has a much harder time to develop and take off once it’s brought under control.

Ultrasound has proven to be very safe for fish and it’s easy to install into a pond. Installation might not even be right best word to describe it. One simply plugs the control box into a power supply and drops the transducer or ultrasound emitter into the water and your treatment is underway.

Ultrasonic systems can work in most sizes of ponds. There are units designed for small backyard water gardens and others which work in larger ponds and lakes.

In a cost comparison with UV, ultrasound is more costly for smaller ponds. However as the ponds get larger, ultrasonic units become more and more affordable in comparison. For example the largest sonic system available will treat a multi-acre lake and cost around $3,000. Similar UV systems to treat the same body of water may run more than ten times as much in cost!

Another potential benefit of ultrasounds is unlike UV, the ultrasonic wave will not hinder or harm beneficial bacteria in the pond. This element (bacteria) does a great deal of the legwork in terms of cleaning and balancing a pond. Ultrasound can actually help stimulate or ramp up the vitality of the existing useful bacteria which is a very positive thing in terms of overall pond health.

It should be noted that neither system will provide increased oxygen levels in a pond. Only some form of aeration can do that, but on a positive note, both treatments will work well right along with an aeration program.

So in the end, how do these two technologies stack up with one another? How do you decide which one will work best for your needs?

To be sure, if you have a small pond, say anything less than 6,000 gallons, and green water is your only problem, then ultra violet clarification makes a lot of sense. It’s considerably cheaper than ultrasound and will often take care of planktonic algae when the filter is set up properly.

If you have a small pond with a variety of algae issues, then ultrasound would tend to be a more viable option since it can take care of a wider variety of algae species. If the price is too out of line for your budget, then the use of a beneficial bacteria supplement may help reduce algae growth in all it’s varieties at a much lower cost.

As one moves into larger ponds, or those greater than 6,000 gallons, the cost of UV will climb, making ultrasound look more attractive for treating large bodies of water. Due to the fact that it treats many types of algae and helps bacteria perform better, it becomes even a stronger candidate for larger ponds.

Installation of UV often involves installing it inline with the current pump and filter system. Therefore some degree of handy work will be involved in getting the system operational. As for ultrasound, the pond owner simply has to plug the unit in, preferably mount the control panel, and drop the emitter into the pond. So if you’re into the “plug and play” routine, ultrasound would win out on this count.

As pond owners we’re fortunate to have all of this great technology at our disposal. If algae in one form or another is the main issue plaguing your pond, be sure to do a bit of research into both of these treatment options and ultimately you’re sure to find the best one to suit your situation to a tee.

Solving The Cloudy Water Problem In Your Pond

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For many pond owners, there is an issue that can really frustrate the most diligent spirits. And why shouldn’t it. Afterall, cloudy water makes it hard to see your fish, or enjoy the clear and pristine water that we all dream of.

As I tell folks time and time again, every pond is different and dynamic in it’s own unique way, so that needs to be kept in mind. However I’ll cover some of the more common causes of various kinds of cloudy water and what you can try to resolve the issue if it’s plaguing your pond.

The first logical step in this process is to try and figure out what the source of the cloudy water might be. What I mean by this is that if the water is cloudy with a greenish tint, then there’s a very good chance what you’re looking at is planktonic algae.

The water with a planktonic algae issue can vary in color and in the density of the cloudiness. We’ve seen everything from a light, almost pleasing greenish tint to a thick pea soup like consistency that’s not pleasant at all.

Green water issues can be dealt with in several ways but our favorites include using beneficial bacteria, and this is often combined with adding additional plants in the pond. Many ponds that have consistent green water issues also get a great deal of sun exposure through the day, so adding floating plants is a very good step to take. When plants are used in combination with bacteria, a pond owner can often cover 1/3 of the pond’s surface with plants and get good results.

Many pond owners also get good results on green water by using an ultraviolet filter of some type. It’s important to get a filter that’s adequate for your pond size and volume and be sure to circulate the water through the filter at the recommended rates to get the best results.

Green water can also be a problem in very large ponds and in this case, the treatment methods will vary a bit. By far the most useful tool we’ve come across has been the ultrasonic algae treatments that can work on multi-acre ponds with ease.

Moving on, and this is important…if you see milky looking water in a backyard pond with fish, you’ll want to test ammonia and nitrate levels right away. Many times you’ll see a drop in clarity as these readings rise and consequently, as they are lowered the cloudiness will improve as well. Obviously for the sake of the fish, you’ll also want to bring these issues in line as quickly as possible as well.

New ponds and those being restarted in the spring can show cloudy water for a short time as the bacteria levels are building up. Sometimes even an overabundance of beneficial bacteria can create this phenomenon for a short time but this will usually clear up on it’s own after a few weeks.

If you find the cloudy water to be brown or “tea colored” in appearance, this type of issue could be coming from simple dirt in the water or something like suspended organic sediments that have built up in the pond. Organic sedimentation can come from uneaten fish food, decomposing matter like leaf debris and other natural sources.

You can improve the clarity of the water in this case by increasing your filtration systems in various ways or there are additives such as alum or montmorillonite clay or products such as Phosclear that can bind to these particles in the water and pull them down to the bottom of the pond. Over time this sediment (if it’s organic in nature) can be broken down by the use of beneficial bacteria.

The instances noted above are some of the more common issues related to water clarity and cloudy water. If you’re able to identify what type of issue you’re dealing with, you can then begin to apply the various methods to rebalance the pond or begin work to rectify the root of the problem. By working in this way you should see improving pond clarity as the days go by.

How Do I Know What Healthy Pond Product Is Right For My Pond?

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So how do I know what type of Healthy Pond product is right for my pond?

This is a common question for anyone considering using a natural bacterial treatment or more specifically any pond owner who is either using or wanting to use the Healthy Ponds line of products.

The first key to choosing the appropriate product, whether it’s for a small backyard pond, or a larger commercial or farm pond is to know the overall gallon size of the pond itself. You can use our pond calculator to figure this, and by inputting the length of the pond in feet, the width of the pond in feet, and the depth of the pond in feet, the calculator will provide the details you need.

Ideally when using the pond volume as a gauge, smaller ponds are fairly straightforward. If a pond is 2500 gallons for instance, then the small pond dispenser, and 2500 refills would suffice in most cases. At the very least, this serves as a minimum dosage level to work with.

Larger pond estimates can be rounded out as follows. For every quarter acre we assume there’s about 250,000 gallons in volume. So a 1/4 acre aquasphere pro would work in ponds up to 250,000 gallons, a 1/2 acre sphere in ponds up to 500,000 gallons, and a one acre aquasphere in ponds up to 1 million gallons. They key wording here is “up to”…as the spheres will likely be adequate for anything smaller than this gallon size.

There is one caveat (an important one) to dosage requirements when you’re using any type of beneficial bacteria product, and this also includes the healthy ponds systems as well.

As we noted above, if someone is treating a 2500 gallon pond, most likely they would use the 2500 dispenser and the 2500 refills to do this. Normally this would provide adequate results and would serve as the very minimum dosage required for management. However a number of ponds may have various factors that are contributing to this algae growth and these always need to be considered when your working on dosage calculations.

Let’s say this same 2500 gallon pond has a number of large fish in it and algae is presently growing. Since the recommended limit for fish stocking is about 10 gallons of water for every inch of goldfish and about 25 gallons of water for every inch of Koi, if we find ourselves heavily stocked with fish and near these limits, it’s very likely that this strong influence will require more than the recommended amount of bacteria to control any algae growth.

How much more is a matter of degree, but some degree of experimentation may be needed to find the balance between the adequate dosage to control algae growth and controlling the cost of such applications. At the very least we would probably recommend one 2500 dispenser and two of the 2500 packets in this single dispenser for a pond like this.

In another example, we’ve treated a 1/2 acre farm pond, which is surrounded on three sides by old oak trees and it’s also located at the bottom of a ridge with farm lots above it. These lots provide some degree of nutrient runoff from fertilization of crops and the trees around the pond deposit a number of leaves in the water throughout the year but especially in the fall.

When we first started treating this pond, we went with the logical set of using a 1/2 acre dosage. By the end of the first 30 days, it appeared we had some minor reduction in algae. Some of the algae turned from bright green to brown as well. Yet, overall there was no significant reduction.

In the second month of treatment, we went up to a 3/4 acre dosage using a 1/2 acre and 1/4 acre aquasphere together. In the following two weeks, we saw a decrease in the algae growth and more open water which was encouraging but by the end of the month, there was still some algae present.

In the third month we finally applied a 1 acre aquasphere pro and this did the trick. From that point on, and in a matter of days, the algae was eliminated completely and it would stay that way in the months that followed.

We’ve treated this pond now for over five years and since the nutrient influences (leaves and runoff) will not go away completely, we need to use a one acre sphere every month throughout the summer, from March through October. If the pond owner forgets to apply a new sphere, he’s reminded in a matter of days with new algae growth.

This pond represents a unique situation but it’s a good example of maintaining the balance in a pond which is what bacteria does. Every pond may be different but ultimately your goal is to provide a way to offset the nutrient influencers, whatever they may be, and in doing that you can often reduce or eliminate algae growth in a very safe manner.

One of the biggest mistakes a pond owner may innocently make is underdosing with a natural product. This simply cannot provide adequate results and it’s important when you’re working on rebalancing a pond, to take all the factors that may be contributing to algae growth into account.

If you have a high concentration of fish in a pond for it’s size, or prefer to feed them quite regularly, or you have a large pond with a lot of organic sedimentation at the bottom, or a good number a trees around it, or a large amount of runoff going into it, then these issues must be factored in.

In the end, working with natural algae control often has a very safe buffer against overdosing or using too much of the treatment product. The clearing of algae happens so gradually and well, “naturally”, that there is a wide margin of safety. This is directly opposite of using chemicals where the real risk lies in using too much of the product or treating too much of the pond at one time. So when you’re using a natural control, it’s best to never underdose and always use more than you think you may need for your pond’s management.

With bacteria specifically it’s also a good idea to check things like the pH of the water to make sure this is reasonable and not too high or low. Optimum results with bacteria are often obtained when the pH is right around 7.0 to 7.5. This is why we include free water testing strips with every order of Healthy Ponds as it’s just one more small thing that can help a pond owner get better results.

Is Pond Algae Removal An Olympic Event?

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I’ve never minded a bit of manual algae removal from my backyard pond. It sort of goes with the territory. If I keep having a problem with algae outbreaks I think I’ll get in touch with the current experts on the topic.

I may have to go to China to do it though.

If you’ve kept a close eye on the news lately you’ve no doubt heard about China’s problem with algae growth.

Now normally this wouldn’t be such a big issue as to warrant world wide news coverage however it just so happens that China will be hosting the summer Olympics in about a month. Sadly, sail boats and other water craft, and particularly those on a time clock, don’t do that well floating amongst algae growth that’s reported to be up to two feet thick in some places.

Talk about string algae problems!

It’s not an unusual thing to hear about string algae being removed from a pond with rakes, pitch forks, or fancy gadgets specifically designed for the task. Little did I know that industrial sized end loaders, dump trucks, and barges could be useful too.

But then most of us don’t have 5,000 square miles of the stuff to deal with.

As amazing as this story might be, what I found even more unbelievable was the comments made by the chinese when they were questioned on it. Their response was interesting. Officials in Qingdao said in recent days that pollution and poor water quality did not have a “substantial link” to the current outbreak, according to Xinhua. Instead, scientists blamed the increased rainfall and warmer waters in the Yellow Sea for the bloom.

And there’s no doubt that these things may be factors.

However what they refused to acknowledge is what most backyard pond owners already know. That high organic nutrient loads lead to more algae growth. Many chinese coastal cities dump raw sewage directly into the ocean and most rivers and streams are loaded with high levels of nitrates from agricultural and industrial operations. Sounds like a perfect recipe for algae to me.

In the end, I hope the chinese get their algae problems figured out. It certainly won’t be for a lack of trying by the common man, woman, and child over there. News clips show many people trying to remove the string algae by hand. And if one ever needed a quick fix for algae control, this would be the place for it.

I’m just glad it’s not all that bad in my pond.