Pea Soup

[Ed Matysiak]

This is my loverly garden pond of pea soup .

 

 

With no filter or even pump how could i try to get the water clearer? :confused:

 

Cables and eltricity are out of the question

[MrWiggly]

Hi Ed ...

 

This is an algae problem caused by to much light getting into your pond, made worse by near-stagnant water.

 

More surface plants definately needed. Approx 1/3 of your surface area or more should be covered by shade (plants). This will help to keep down this problem.

 

An old favourite is a small bale or bundle of Barley straw submerged underwater in an unseen corner of your pond. Seems to work for some people. Avaliable at most fish centres.

 

If you really must you can go down the chemical route .. here again your fish centre will advise.

[davidP]

Barley straw certainly works on lakes so no reason why it shouldn't work in a small pond. Be aware however that the cost of a barley straw pad at an aquarist shop will cost you almost as much as a whole bale from a animal feed shop - the markup is extortionate. There are some non-chemical poducts available that claim to help cause the algae to clump and hence sink. I've used one called Pond-Zyme and it certainly appears to work, but I have a pump & filter going 24 hours. If you're going to use it in an unfiltered pond I'd go very easy in the applications as you don't want all the algae to drop dead all at once. If this happens, when the algae starts to break down it can cause a massive deoxygenation of the water. I've seen this happen on a lake after a major thunderstorm (cold water influx seemed to kill all the algae) and within 4 days we had to mount a massive reoxygenation of the water. The guy from the EA actually thought his meter wasn't working because the oxygen level was so low! So if you go this route then be prepared to do some pond cleaning at the same time.

[Ed Matysiak]

Cheers guys, i will get some more plants sorted and give the straw a go.

[chesters1]

barley straw only prevents algy ,and dont use tapwater to refill it, collect rainwater theres a glut at the moment

[Ed Matysiak]

lol the pond is now brown , at least its not green anymore

[Moody]

If your after barly straw take a visit to your local farmer and offer him a fiver for a bale he,ll be more than happy to take it off you.

Im an ex farm worker and last time i remember a bale costs around £2.50-£3.00 and that would proberbly last you a year or at leats six months.

[misterstix]

Hi,

I got a pond in my garden in Mallorca, you think it goes green quickly in England? try it with the sun here, it takes two days from fresh to sludge!

What I did, as I could not get electric to it was.... buy a solar panel, a car battery.. no more problems.

Misterstix