We have been having about ten days straight of 95-103 degree temps. I was having a pretty huge string algae bloom, but it seemed concentrated in the roots of the hyacinth. And the hyacinth was growing at a pretty incredible rate, too. So, I took out a couple of wheel barrow loads of hyacinth out, moved the lilies around a bit, had a bunch of trouble with the fountain. The pond was a cloudy mess for a few days.
Then I noticed that the string algae had disappeared and the water was taking on a green hue. Every day it has been getting pregressively greener. It's not pea soup, but it is definitely murky. Before the super hot weather, you could see straight down to the bottom. I want my clear water back
Here's what I have been doing....
I cut back on how much I was feeding the fish. I admit it...I was overfeeding.
I scooped out the bottom of the pond as much as I could (no bottom drain, a mistake I won't make on my
next pond.)
I cleaned out both prefilters.
Today I cleaned both the whiskey barrel filter (added more lava rocks and several big net bags of scrubbies) and the veggie filter (sort of like a skippy. It is about 200-300 gallons. It has a layer of gravel that sits on top of recycled bread crates, the plant roots dangle into the bottom and the water flows over all that from the barrel filter.) I kept all the filter media in a kiddie pool full of pond water while I did all this to keep the good bacteria alive.
What I am going to do...
Put all the pump power into the filter (I have some flow diverted to the fountain.)
I think I can add hidden layer of filter mats or net bags of scrubbies or something in the "spillway"...it is not a waterfall so much as a trickling effect where it flows back into the pond under and over the rocks.
I think the heat, removing too many of my shading hyacinths.... plus the fact that I really was overfeeding the fish just overwelmed the filters. I noticed the same type of bloom going on in natural ponds as well. There were a couple of fish kills nearby.
Am I missing anything? Does barley straw help? We are planning a stock tank waterfall/filter down the road, but I have to remove about 30 feet of fence before I can do that. Any advice or encouragement would be appreciated. I am feeling kind of bummed about all this green water.