I think I have my first taste of string algae!!

[Cinnamon]

I think I have my first string algae. It is streaming off my plant stems in long strings. Is this what it is? When I added water I took my leaf net and got the most of it out. Is this the cure? Oh boy here we go again!

[Jackie Ramo]

Welcome to the wonderful world of string. How nice not to be alone anymore.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie gee thanks! So how do you get rid of it? A closer inspection of the Texas Dawn in the deep end is scary. It is covered in it. I worked a bunch off of it but there is still more. Does it hurt the fish? It seems that the fish would get tangled in it ???? I don't like it yuck!

[Jackie Ramo]

Time and good filtration and warmer temps will get rid of it. Just grab and yank where it gets bad. I've been experimenting with adding lots of koi clay to the water and that seems to help for the short term. Soon as the temps dropped it came back, not as bad though. Did clay again last night but it takes a couple of days to work.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie so these cool nights we have had the last couple of weeks is the culprit? I am going to get in the pond this weekend and do a serious cleaning. Our cool nights are now officially over. So much for Spring. From here on out it will not drop below 60 at night and we are soaring to the upper 80s. They said no more cool snaps so we better have enjoyed it while it was here. So hot temps will get rid of it?

[GregBickal]

Thats the biggest complaint that I get from customers that I build ponds for. New pond, barely established, water crystal clear, except for some hair algae.

Do you think Nitrates go away by themselves ? Something has to remove them.

Customer tried pouring in some chemical that he liked called "GreenClean (http://www.pondbiz.com/home/pb1/page_1356_30/greenclean_algaecide.html)" that worked (I didnt recommend it)...

Active Ingredients:
Sodium Carbonate Peroxyhydrate 50%*
Other Ingredients: 50%

*contains 27.60% Hydrogen Dioxide

[Cinnamon]

Greg my water tested out to have just a touch of Nitrites. I use Tetra test kit. It isn't the color of the second stage. I have had a rash of the red worms in my filters. I thought that might be what is putting it in there. I have cleaned the Savio filter again today. I clean the floating skimmer filter every week along with the little Fishmate UVc filter. My DIY 180 gallon filter I have not cleaned. It is only been in operation for 5 weeks I think. I am going to vaccum the pond again this weekend and try to pull the string algae off that one plant. It seems the string algae is in the deep end and not much in the shallower end. I appreciate any tips!

[Cinnamon]

Greg maybe I should have posed another question. What causes it?? So I can fix it or get rid of it?? You see I am still a newbie and I have no idea what causes the string algae <sigh>.

[Jackie Ramo]

Sunlight and water :lol: It prefers moving water that is cool and has lots of oxygen but will grow just about anywhere.

The good news is, it is only found in good water and if you have string aglae you don't get pea soup algae.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie thanks for clarifying that question! I know my water tests are coming back okay. No ammonia at all and I feed 3 sometimes 4 times a day. There is a high O2. Between both waterfalls and the DIY filter it is well oxegenated. My water temps have been from 68F to 74F so far. But all our cool snaps are gone so it won't drop down like that much until fall.

[ozzyrockman]

Cinn, do you have a gravel bottom, is the water still clear and is the foaming gone? String algae isn't really a bad thing as long as your not harvesting it from the pond and bailing it for the local nursery. Wait a second maybe your on to something and should consider selling it to them for their plants :lol: .

You might want to consider giving that little filter :wink: a good hard kick with MicrobeLift PL. Unfortunately I did not note my perams or kept a log back then but I think I had to do that with Mr Green a year ago. However if the nitrites are up a bit by now that filter should have started working but it may need more of a boost to get it going.

Also I am interesting in seeing if you notice any changes after feeding the Hikari and Dainichi foods. However I would never suggest that food has an effect on water quality :wink: . Allen

PS where are your nitrates sitting?

[Cinnamon]

Ozzy no gravel bottom here. The water is crystal clear and the foam has been gone for awhile now. What I have had the last 2 weeks is larva sacks and red worms in the filters. I clean the floating skimmer and the FishMate UVc every week. I cleaned the Savio today and it was bad with them. So I imagine they are in the big filter also. I called Ralph Bates when I first found these. He said it was the little black flies eggs. He said everyone has them.

My Nitrates are just a little off 0. I use Tetra Test kit and the color is a little darker than 0 but not to the depth of the second stage. My PH is running at 8. No ammonia. When I started getting a little bit of Nitrates I figured the big filter was finally cycling. I started the Dainichi and Hakari Gold on Tuesday. I feed them 3 times a day and sometimes at night I give them some Shrimp or earthworms. I do give them 1/4 of an orange twice a day also.

[Jackie Ramo]

Pam, are we talking nitrItes here or NitrAtes. My nitrAtes alwasy seem to read 12.5. I'm always suspicious of folks reporting their 'trAtes are 0

[Cinnamon]

Jackie the Nitrates are reading just below 12.5. The color isn't as dark on the card. And my Nitrites is reading <0.3

[Jackie Ramo]

Those little i's and a's have a life of their own sometimes.... just like that tricky decimal point!!

String algae will help the filtration to get rid of the trace nitrItes.

Don't be making those fish pudgey now. With the nitrites even at a trace I'd cut back the amount fed. Feed the same number of times just a little less. They only act like they are starving.

[Cinnamon]

It is funny how the i's and a's make so much difference! :lol: Heck my fish you can feed them and go back 10 minutes and they think they haven't eaten! !rofl They try to trick me. I will cut back on the amount. I never feed them more than what they can eat in 10 minutes. I smoke a ciggie and that is my gauge. I will take them down to half until all this clears up. Thanks again for your help! You are the bestest :smile: This is the first time I have had a trace Nitrites.

I thought it might all the fly larvae and red worms they produce in the filters. I know the DIY had to have them also. The rest of the filters have been full. I told Heiko I will probably flush that one this weekend.

[Jackie Ramo]

Yes, the new filter is probably ready to be flushed. 10 minutes is long for the little guys, big ones take longer to eat.

Yeah mine are in cold water but they think I should feed them anyway. I'll give them some peas this afternoon. They got a few slugs yesterday...

[ozzyrockman]

Cinn, if you do decide to clean it don't get carried away with cleaning the filter material and make darn sure you don't use tap water to clean it or it will never mature. Has the string algae started developing on the top of the matting in the big filter yet and has it been wanting to try and push itself out of the stock tank? The reason I suggested the microbelift pl is simply because I don't feel the system has enough good bacteria growth yet or has had a chance to keep up especially if you have any nitrite spikes with that amount of media and the sizes of your kids. Allen

[Cinnamon]

Allen the only place I have the string algae very bad is around my lilly in the deep end. I have not seen anything in the big filter at all. I wasn't going to wash the filter material. And you are right NO TAP water :) I never do. I was going to flush it to get rid of the red worms and the larvae is all. Just pour some pond water over the filter material and let it drain. No radical clean for sure. There has been no string algae in any of the filters. Just the worms is all. The string algae has just started the first of this week.

[ozzyrockman]

As for the worms and larvae I really don't know what to say about that other than I guess I have been lucky and never had to deal with that. The only thing close I get are the snail and my little rascals do a rather effective job of keeping those under control with the exception of the ones in the filter and skimmer but those eventually seem to get washed into the pond and eaten too. Is it possible to get a good pict of them, I'm not sure how a pict would turn out but I would be interested in seeing it b/c I find it odd that you where told everyone has it yet personally I have never seen this issue with any of our ponds or maybe I just haven't paid close enough attention. :frisbee: Allen

[Cinnamon]

Allen I will try to get a pic tomorrow. I will pull out one of the smaller filters and try to get a pic. The worms are small, probably 1" long. I had thought there were mosquitoes swarming on top of the water for awhile. The fish would jump to eat them. They were laying eggs apparently. Ralph said the fish must love them because you never see any worms in the pond. So I figured that is what is giving me a small trace amount of Nitrites. I could be wrong.

[Jackie Ramo]

If one looks carefully you will see all kinds of things in the filters. Mostly caddish fly larvae of one type or another, or red worms which are apparently a midgle fly larvae, I've even found earth worms in mine. Obviously one that got away from the fish!!!

I have caddish fly larvae called green worms in mine. If you are getting tons of them I'd clean the filters more often. They are eating the sludge so you don't want to over feed them or the fish.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie I have cut down the amount of food in almost half. I did a water test again yesterday and it was the same. The Nitrite was not any higher, just a trace. No ammonia, PH - 8, Nitrate just off the lowest level. O2 is running between 8 -9.

Allen here is a pic of the red worms.

Jackie I have been cleaning the 2 little filters every weekend. I am going to flush out the big DIY filter today. We let about 60 gallons out of it and caught some to see how dirty it was. There was a lot of stuff plus worms. Do these things ever go away? The worms eat the sludge??

I came up with a better vaccum I don't have to get in the pond. I cleaned the shallow end with my MucVac. In the deeper end I couldn't get it to suck. I didn't know why. So we hooked the MucVac hose up to a shop vac. It works well. I didn't realize the MucVac took water out also. It was Sunday. The Muc Vac has a long extension pole and hose on it.

[Jackie Ramo]

Red worms, every one has them in the filters.

I'd still keep the food cut back for a while. Let's see if the filters can catch up. Remember a hungry fish is a healthy fish :)

I think now that the big filter is clean it should be good to go in a day or so.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie once again you save the day! Thanks so much.. geeze do I say that enough??? :lol: I have cut them back to half the food and only feed them twice a day instead of 3 times. No late night snacks for a little while either. The shrimp and the worms will keep :)

[Jackie Ramo]

Actually I believe shrimp and worms are less hard on the filters than pellet food. Some one can jump in here and disagree with me.

[OttawaPonder]

I think I have my first taste of string algae!!

I never knew one could eat string algae :lol: I for one will pass....

Speaking of string algae I was not able to do my fall pond clean out and my pond this spring is over come wiht string algae..

Looks as if it will be an all day job draining and cleaning out the pond - If I ever get around to it.

[Rembrandt]

Call me "Grace" :(

Shut one of the pumps down yesterday for feeding purposes and forgot to shut the drain valve on the new 180gal filter. Only until after the feeding was done was it caught. Guess where all the stuff drained? So much for the clear water! Anyhow, I know I have to get a check valve.

Rembrandt

[Jackie Ramo]

Be prepared for green water blues.... A water change will help somewhat.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie he went to plug the floating skimmer back in and the GFI popped thus shutting down all the pumps :( Tomorrow I get the task of trying to clean it up, plus all the filters. Fun Fun. I was busy all day today getting my wireless internet hooked up! YEA!

[Jackie Ramo]

Checkvalves are you friend!!! Also remember the check valves need to be cleaned from time to time as in mine anywya the caddish fly larvae like to build nests.... how they can even attach there with a 3,000 gph pump pulling at them but they do... So when cleaning hte filters check the valves when the filter is empty.

Also watch the fish for problems, mine got ICH when the filter drained back into the pond... see and here you thought you had hit the enjoyment stage!!!

[Cinnamon]

Oh man Jackie. Here we go again then? So how do I tell if they get ich? Isn't that the white fuzzy stuff? How do you treat it? Tell me now so I can order what I need before we get it!

[Jackie Ramo]

Salt will do it but water changes to clean out the debris will be a good start. ICH looks like salt grains rather than fungus that looks like cotton wool.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie I changed out 477 gallons this morning. I cleaned the Savio very well. I rinsed the mat with pond water, then I beat it on a tree, then I blew it out with air. We have a compressor in the shops. Any worms left on that filter were dead. I watched them die out of the water! YEA! Is that sick me excited watching the die? :frisbee: :lol: I rinsed the Big DIY filter. I pulled back some of the matting. Oh man was it a mess. So tomorrow when Heiko is home we take the monster apart and throughly clean it. One good thing is the matts I used are denser than in the Savio filter so they can't bury as deep and rinse easier.

I also came up with and neat little thing. Ever since I was dxd with MS I have found that I have to look for easier ways to do things. AFter 12 years it is almost second nature. I can't lift a full 5 gallon bucket. I have 2 buckets marked just for the pond. I usually dip it off the side. I got this brainstorm this morning. We had an extra 170 GPH pump. I hooked enough tubing to fill my bucket and rinsed the filters :smile: It wasn't enough pressure so I called Heiko at work and asked him to stop by Lowe's and get me a 400 GPH pump. To heck with all the lifting, small buckets and many trips!

[Rembrandt]

:lol:
After getting caught up on all the recent posts, I think I am going to pass on this weekend and go straight to Monday!

Rembrandt

[Jackie Ramo]

I use a sump pump to do water changes and hook up a hose to it for rinsing the mats and its handy for using the pond water for watering the garden. I also hook up a short hose to it if I am using meds or PP that require more air to be added to the pond.

Now, don't over clean the filters.... you'll end up going through the cycle again!!!!

Not being there, this is a guess, but I think you are overfeeding those fish... small meals more often is better for them. Many people back flush their filters daily.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie I have cut them way back. I time the feedings and I only put in what they can eat in 5 minutes. I put a little at a time. When they eat all of that I put just a little more. I am only feeding the twice a day now also. They only get 1/4 of orange as well. Is that too much? Every couple of days I feed broccoli in the morning.

As far as cleaning, the Savio I pour 3 5 gallon buckets over the media to flush it. The matt is where I work it over. Tomorrow I plan on laying the material out and use the pump Heiko bought today and rinse it. These will clean up a lot easier as it is dense material. The egg crate foam is horrible. I thought I would leave the tubes in the filter and try just rinsing them with pond water. I don't want to kill the good stuff! Will this be okay?

[Jackie Ramo]

It should be ok, Pam, using pond water help preserve the good bugs. As you use the system and get used to how much it needs to be cleaned things will improve. Each pond is different as each setup. You want the filters clean but not spotless I guess is the way to describe it.... Checking the water parameters for a couple of days after cleaning will tell you if you were too hard on them or not.

[Merlin]

I too have string algae but as Snowplough seems to be happy that it is there, I am just gonna control it for a while with a pronged twizzle stick . As allready mentioned it won't harm the fish and it will only grow in good water, so that is a plus sign :). ( if you use submersible pumps it is not a good thing to let it get out of control)

[Jackie Ramo]

String algae is not such a bad thing as long as it doesn't take over the pond. Mine seems to want to do that but I've been beating it back by vacuuming and hand gathering. Now that the filter is clean... !bonk I hope it will stop rampaging