Pond Issue

[Yvonne G]

This was my pond prior to the road widening:



It was a big hole in the ground dug out by a backhoe, no liner, no bentonite, just dirt. There was a dedicated hose turned on to a drip to allow for seepage and evaporation.

This is my pond AFTER the road widening project. The foreman figured seepage would harm the block retention wall at the street frontage, so they added a pond liner:



The water is so green it's almost thick. ANd yesterday I saw it is TEEMING with mosquito larvae. There is a filter that circulates the water. A couple days ago I pumped out 3/4 of the water and then added fresh water. The filter medium is coated with silt. So tomorrow I plan to dump it out and rinse it off. Today Mosquito Abatement came out and sprayed a bit of oil over the water. She's going to come back in a couple weeks and give me some more mosquito fish.

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[wellington]

Wow, I never had mosquitoes with my ponds, my koi and gold fish took care of them.
As for the green, the sun is causing most of that most likely. You can get some of those straw bails that is suppose to take care of that. Otherwise try to get a bunch of plants in there or shade.
I have a filter that is probably for a pond three times the size of mine and I still get the green. Mine is in full sun. It's a pain.

 

[SinLA]

Wow, I never had mosquitoes with my ponds, my koi and gold fish took care of them.
As for the green, the sun is causing most of that most likely. You can get some of those straw bails that is suppose to take care of that. Otherwise try to get a bunch of plants in there or shade.
I have a filter that is probably for a pond three times the size of mine and I still get the green. Mine is in full sun. It's a pain.

Can you share a photo? Curious to see yours...

 

[wellington]

Can you share a photo? Curious to see yours...

Mine is crap. I threw it together in 2019 when I lost my dad. They were his fish and my mom couldn't take care of them. I didn't want them to die too. So I threw the pond together in the only spot I had to put them.
My old pond at my other place was purposely done and big. But I don't have pictures on this phone of that one.
But here is my sorry little one.
Luckily they are still going strong and even had babies a couple years ago, ugh, didn't need more.

 

[mark1]

don't know what you can take from this, my ponds have never had anything less than crystal clear water, even with a couple years of no care......oxygen and surface area for bacteria, plants rooted everywhere they'll root, and waterfalls....... i dug a 3'x4'x 8-10"deep pit at the far end of each pond before i put the liner in..... i put a laguna submersible pump in the pit, i covered the pit with a homemade filter plate, i covered the filter plate with gravel, this is an undergravel filter, ...... i discharge the water from the pump under the gravel into a 55 gallon garbage can full of filter media , biological media covered with mechanical media ...... weeds/plants are rooted in the mechanical filter, i'm careful not to kill them when i clean the filter , i just rinse the media ....... from the 55 gallon garbage can the water is discharged over a bunch of rocks , moss covered , weeds/plants growing in between them, and the water falls into the pond, or a lower pond causing aeriation.....

under the gravel in the pics is a pump pulling water through it

 

[wellington]

don't know what you can take from this, my ponds have never had anything less than crystal clear water, even with a couple years of no care......oxygen and surface area for bacteria, plants rooted everywhere they'll root, and waterfalls....... i dug a 3'x4'x 8-10"deep pit at the far end of each pond before i put the liner in..... i put a laguna submersible pump in the pit, i covered the pit with a homemade filter plate, i covered the filter plate with gravel, this is an undergravel filter, ...... i discharge the water from the pump under the gravel into a 55 gallon garbage can full of filter media , biological media covered with mechanical media ...... weeds/plants are rooted in the mechanical filter, i'm careful not to kill them when i clean the filter , i just rinse the media ....... from the 55 gallon garbage can the water is discharged over a bunch of rocks , moss covered , weeds/plants growing in between them, and the water falls into the pond, or a lower pond causing aeriation.....

under the gravel in the pics is a pump pulling water through it

All the plants and running water over rocks etc and some shade is what does the job along with the huge filtering being done, does the great job for yours. I believe also because it's not deep.
Looks great but would love to see a pic of the whole pond from further back.

 

[TammyJ]

Yvonne, it seems that the pond liner is the problem.

 

[wellington]

Yvonne, it seems that the pond liner is the problem.

The pond liner doesn't cause the problem. They are always black. I have never seen another color.
It's lack of shade and plants and possibly filtration.
Also a flowing pond stays cleaner. My pond at my old place had a small water fall and a flowing creek area. It also wasn't in the sun quite as much as the one I have now, but still a lot of sun and the water was always much clearer.
Getting the balance right of plants, shade, movement and filtration is the hardest part of having a pond.

 

[NancKj]

This was my pond prior to the road widening:

View attachment 370697View attachment 370698

It was a big hole in the ground dug out by a backhoe, no liner, no bentonite, just dirt. There was a dedicated hose turned on to a drip to allow for seepage and evaporation.

This is my pond AFTER the road widening project. The foreman figured seepage would harm the block retention wall at the street frontage, so they added a pond liner:

View attachment 370702

The water is so green it's almost thick. ANd yesterday I saw it is TEEMING with mosquito larvae. There is a filter that circulates the water. A couple days ago I pumped out 3/4 of the water and then added fresh water. The filter medium is coated with silt. So tomorrow I plan to dump it out and rinse it off. Today Mosquito Abatement came out and sprayed a bit of oil over the water. She's going to come back in a couple weeks and give me some more mosquito fish.

Any suggestions are welcome.

May I suggest a few things:
Algae control pond blocks. I use them in my koi pond and they are safe for fish and I am pretty sure turtles as well, but you would of course double check this. They will probably kill any plants living in the pond however
Shade. I have a 10x10 slant leg canopy over my 1500 gallon pond.
More filtration and water movement. A guick way to start is an underwater box type filter with fountainhead. About 100 bucks Pondmaster. I had to substitute a bigger pump in terms of gallons per minute flow, and had to extend the tube to reach the surface of my 3 and 1/2 foot deep pond. You need to clean filtration media once a week in summer.

 

[MenagerieGrl]

What sort of aeration do you have? If you had a pump that not only circulated but also sprayed your mosquito problem would be taken care of. This would also add oxy for any fish that would possibly work on the algae problem....

 

[Yvonne G]

I use a 3/4 hp sump pump that carries the water to a Skippy filter and the discharge is about 2' over the pond, so it makes a pretty good splash. A good circulation current is noticeable.

 

[MenagerieGrl]

I use a 3/4 hp sump pump that carries the water to a Skippy filter and the discharge is about 2' over the pond, so it makes a pretty good splash. A good circulation current is noticeable.

I have a small pond, 100 gallons and a small box filter with a pump. It creates enough agitation to keep any skeeters from being able to breed & produce young. I clean the filter once a month to keep the flow up.

 

[jeff kushner]

Wow, that looks like c**p Y....LOL. Guess you know that?

I'm just a plumber but It seems to me that you have a balance issue caused by the interference of the liner. Prior, you had a good balance between the algae eating stuff in the dirt on the bottom and the growth in the pond, plus the factor of new water from the total-loss "irrigation system"(hose). Now you don't, nothing is eating the algae! Water tests and chems could get you right but I have the feeling you avoid the chemicals when possible.

 

[EppsDynasty]

You can add the greatest filter known to man shoot add 3 and you will still have algae and green water. You are only making it worse every time you add fresh water. Even with the greatest filter(s) you have to "build" up beneficial bacteria to equal out the "Non Good" bacteria. What was happening with no liner was you were adding fresh water constantly to keep it full due to seepage, this is why your water was cleaner. Now with no seepage your water is having to go through the cycles just as an aquarium would. The green is algae bloom, this has to happen in order to get the process kicked off. Now it has to go through the the "Building" of beneficial bacteria. If the water is to clear up you need enough surface area for enough beneficial bacteria to grow on. Mechanical filtration aids in clearing the water by trapping large particles (debris) but to keep it clean it takes Bacteria to do the job. If you had a 1000 liter (265 gallon) IBC Tote full of gravel and pumped water through it at as little as 500 gallons an hour the pond would be Drinking Water clean in as little as 6 weeks. The liner can actually help you have cleaner water by allowing the bacterial process to happen.

 

[mark1]

and established plants....... rose of sharon grows well rooted between rocks in water without soil, it will compete with the algae for food, provide shade, and you can also feed it to tortoises and turtles......

 

[TammyJ]

Wow, that looks like c**p Y....LOL. Guess you know that?

I'm just a plumber but It seems to me that you have a balance issue caused by the interference of the liner. Prior, you had a good balance between the algae eating stuff in the dirt on the bottom and the growth in the pond, plus the factor of new water from the total-loss "irrigation system"(hose). Now you don't, nothing is eating the algae! Water tests and chems could get you right but I have the feeling you avoid the chemicals when possible.

Right! There was no problem before the liner... right?

 

[TammyJ]

You can add the greatest filter known to man shoot add 3 and you will still have algae and green water. You are only making it worse every time you add fresh water. Even with the greatest filter(s) you have to "build" up beneficial bacteria to equal out the "Non Good" bacteria. What was happening with no liner was you were adding fresh water constantly to keep it full due to seepage, this is why your water was cleaner. Now with no seepage your water is having to go through the cycles just as an aquarium would. The green is algae bloom, this has to happen in order to get the process kicked off. Now it has to go through the the "Building" of beneficial bacteria. If the water is to clear up you need enough surface area for enough beneficial bacteria to grow on. Mechanical filtration aids in clearing the water by trapping large particles (debris) but to keep it clean it takes Bacteria to do the job. If you had a 1000 liter (265 gallon) IBC Tote full of gravel and pumped water through it at as little as 500 gallons an hour the pond would be Drinking Water clean in as little as 6 weeks. The liner can actually help you have cleaner water by allowing the bacterial process to happen.

But what about the mosquitoes?

 

[Yvonne G]

But what about the mosquitoes?

Mosquito larva and pupae are gone. The coconut oil on the water did the trick.