Ten Tips to prevent Green Pond Water

A backyard pond is a lovely thing to enjoy, especially when it is full of colorful koi fish.  Watching them swim around your pond is one of the best parts of having a pond.  In order to admire the fish, however, it is important to have good water clarity.  We get a lot of calls from people who are unhappy with the green water in their pond.  Fortunately, we are very familiar with this and have learned how to efficiently deal with it.  

As we've said elsewhere, the easiest way to avoid green water is to set up your pond correctly from the start. To see what we mean by that, read this article.  If you are well-beyond the initial set up, read below for some tips on what you can do today to clarify the water in your pond.

Before we begin making adjustments to our pond, we must first determine the cause of the green water.  It could either be single-celled algae, or it could be tiny particulates (dead string/carpet algae) suspended in the water.  

(This part is very important) Take a sample of the pond water in a clear container and place it against a white background:

• Do you see bunch of little particles and bits of stuff in otherwise fairly colorless water?  If so, then you don’t have a planktonic algae problem, and you’ll just need to remove the suspended debris from your water through filtration or cleaning.  (A fine filter pad inserted in your skimmer between the basket and the pump will catch those finer particles that slip thru the net.  The pad will need to be hosed clean every hour or two to over the course of the day; it tends to load up rather quickly in poor water conditions.  These pads can be folded in half to double the efficacy, and you can reuse the same pad until it starts to fall apart.  When used in combination with flocculant or S.A.B. this method should make a healthy difference in a day or two.)
• Does the water appear green like kiwi juice?  If so, then you have planktonic algae, a microscopic, single-celled plant that is too fine to be filtered out like those larger bits that can be seen with the naked eye.  In that case, the rest of this article was written just for you!  

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