The Pond Digger Forums

Hi there! I'm new to the board and so glad that I found you!

I have a very small pond (preformed 35 gallons) with one 8" goldfish and 2 mosquito fish (2 males ). Not sure if this is relevant, but want to give as much detail as possible. My plants are in the water are a 1 iris, 1 papyrus, 1 taro, 1 mini water lily and a few water lettuce. Morning sun, afternoon shade. I live at the LA/Orange county line.

I have a filter that runs most of the time, and I clean the filter every 5 days or so due to the build up.

The problem that I currently have is I discovered that my pond was "off". Smelly, the water lettuce roots were floating and slimy, and there was a blueish green algae that was bubbly attached to all the roots in the water and around the plants. It turns out that my dog had somehow put her pigs ear chewy in the pond and it was disgusting!! After making that discovery I rinsed all the plants and roots, rinsed the filter, added algaecide every 3 days as the bottle says, added a new barley pad and it's not changed. After reading about blue green algae online and it's dangers (if this is what it really is), I fenced the pond off with chicken wire to keep my cats and dog from drinking the water.

Does anyone know what to do about this kind of thing? I'm concerned for my fish and I want a healthy pond again.

Thank you so much for your help.

Kittygirl

Kittygirl,

Sounds like you have a wonderful little waterscape.  I want to first calm your nerves on the blue green algae.  Typically, when you have floating algae you can assume you have low dissolved oxygen levels in your water coupled with heavy organics.

If in fact the water feature has too many plants, that could be a cause of low oxygen levels.  Water lettuce can definatley be a cause.  Too many fish could be responsible for low level oxygen readings leading to floating algae.  Certainly not a problem for you since you have a conservative fish load.

WET FLOATING PIG EAR! EWWWWWWWWW!  Give me an O, give me an R, give me an G, give me and A, give me an N, give me an I, give me an C, give me an S!  What does that spell?  ORGANICS!  

Do a 50 % water change, thin out the water lettuce a little, get on a routine of adding beneficail bacteria weekly to your water feature, pull down the chicken wire and start having fun again.  You should be golden! Smile and have a great day!

Peace,

The Pond Digger