I have an outdoor pond populated with goldfish, frogs, toads, and the like. The water is always clear andin good pH but the algae gets to be an issue in the summer and its quickly clogging my filter during peak summer season. Is there a good fish or creature I can add to my pond that will eat algae?

pH is fine so the goldfish aren't making living hard for anything else, but its outdoor and gets top-frozen in the winter, so it would need to be somewhat hardy...

 

I am not sure finding another creature to eat the algae is the best solution. if it is plugging your filter you must have some nasty stuff.

What about running a UV light. Water passes through the UV light and it will kill the single cell algae. You should have the nasty bloom to plug your filters

Just a thought

 

off topic, i have three gold fishes up for sale one is a little over two feet long orange and white, the pther is amost a feet tall orange and last one is mostly white
i can no longer take care of them...

 

UV light is probably a good idea, but where to install it... I guess I'll call a pond place to see about that.

 

there are a couple of options regarding a UV light. You also have to consider the size of the pond.

Pressurized canister is what I have with an 18 watt UV light. Pond size is about 1800 gallons

The other option would be an inline UV light.

alage is going to happen, but it sounds like it is taking over your pond. UV will help, but maybe your pond is off balance.

 

Our HOA went with triploid carp fish before i got on the board. Go another direction is all i'll say.

 

Do you have bottom drains, rocks in the bottom?

Anything that holds the poo will grow the algae, no matter what you will have algae, you will either have green water, string algae, or what we all want in our ponds carpet algae. Carpet is the nice short stuff they looks nice and gives the fish some thing to nibble on but doesn't break off and plug the pump.

Best defense for algae is:

Shade ( Algae is a plant, plants like sun, more sun the more they grow)

Cut off the food, if its a natural pond don't feed the critters, I have goldies in my lilly pond that I've never fed, its 300gal. They eat the worms in the mud, bugs that drop in, and what ever else might be in there.

Add more plants, the plants should take more of the nutrients out and add O2. Lillies and Lotus are fantastic because they also shade the water so less light=less algae growth. However they can take over the pond in a minute so keep them in pots set in your pond if you don't want that.

Make sure its as clean as possible, even natural ponds need spring cleaning.

Just some ideas off the top of my head.

Any pictures?

Don

 

I can post some pics... I have cattails, lilies and a ton of lily pads in the pond, plus an underwater boa-looking plant. The pads and the water grass get so numerous in summer I have to thin them out by the bucketful.

I think the issue is I just need to vacuum the bottom of the pond and get the accumulation of muck up.

 

Here are some quick pics - middle of the day, so there's a good bit of glare. The water is almost perfectly clear, but there is silt or muck on the bottom. Should that be vacuumed out?

https://sites.google.com/site/1228pond/