Beware the dreaded green stuff

9 comments

Hi All,

Just thought i would like to share my recent experience with all of you fish pond owners out there.

Over the past few weeks our pond has developed a very green look. Pea soup comes to mind.

This has obviously been due to the onslaught of the summer sun.

Our fish pond of course is out in the open and in a South facing garden so the sun is on the pond most of the day.

Anyway, the algae had been getting thicker and thicker by the day, so much so that we couldn’t see the fish swimming just below the surface.

Not being very well up on pond maintenance – (our last one didn’t need any as it was located in the shade) – i took advice from our local fish monger …. sorry …i mean fish shop ….

From their many products on the shelf, they suggested that we use something called Tetra Pond AlgoRem.

Well, i read the instructions thoroughly and mixed the contents as advised and poured it into the pond.

The mixture had the desired effect as it started to clear the colour of the water by the following morning.

Brilliant, i thought.

A couple of days went by and OH – who seems get up very early these days – came rushing into the bedroom at 5am ….. yes 5AM …!!!!!

Didn’t even know that time existed …..

“The fish are dead” she exclaimed in a tone of voice designed to wake me up.

Knowing by the tone in her voice that she was expecting instant response, i jumped out of bed and headed straight for the pond.

Sure enough …. floating on the surface there was one dead fish….

I gave her my “You got me out of bed at this time of the morning for one dead fish” look and headed straight for the kettle.

I always work better on a cup of tea.

I sent a text to friend of ours who is a pond maintenance person expecting to get a response during the course of the day.

He must have heard OH shouting at me because i got a response straight away.

He suggested that the algae, although treated, dying back and sinking to the bottom of the pond was also taking all of the spare oxygen from the water and starving the fish of their life blood.

He suggested that a change of water and a good clean up would probably do the trick.

By 6 am i had the pump in the water and the guttering in place to make a water run to the drain and started emptying the pond.

Bear in mind that i do have a full time daytime job and hadn’t given this a thought.

By 8:15 the pond was almost empty …. yes, it’s a pretty powerful pump to shift nearly 2,000 gallons in a couple of hours …..

I phoned work and told them what had happened and luckily they were quite ok with it and said try to get in by lunch time.

So i set to with the jet wash and gave the pond walls a good clean and shifted all of the dead muck and fish pooh out of the bottom of the pond.

By 10:am i was filling the pond up with clean water.

At this point i thought i might as well change the UV light as well so rushed off into town to get a new one.

So now my troubles began ……

On attempting to remove the old tube from the filter box, the glass tube that it fits into broke just on the end.

This meant that i now didn’t have a waterproof unit.

I looked on the internet to find a new tube and fortunately spoke to a company that said they had one and could dispatch it that day for me to receive it on the next working day.

Great … OH had a hospital appointment the next morning which meant she was out when the postman called.

When she returned there was card saying allow 24 hours before trying to collect…

Anyway back to pond filling.

After a couple of hours of filling the pond was reasonably full so i added the desired amount of chlorination/ distress liquid and eventually put the fish back.

There is nothing like a clean pond to appreciate your fish.

So, back to the the filter …..

Having collected the package from the post office sorting depot i presented the glass tube to the filter casing ….

Too big … didn’t fit … phone call to company ….

“Sorry sir, that model was discontinued so we sent you the replacement for that model …”

Words failed me.

I grabbed OH and we set off for the World of Water centre that sold us the filter boxs in the first place.

I advised them … politely of course …. that they had sold me something that was discontinued and that it was their responsibility to supply me with a replacement part..

My tongue was bit in cheek at that point, but if you don’t ask – you don’t get …

After about half an hour of to-ing and fro-ing they eventually came back with a glass tube in their hand which just happened to fit my UV casing..

and joy of joy they only charged me £14 for something that i know should have cost around £25 from my conversation with Oase.

So, home we went and after an hour of making sure that electricity and water could mix satisfactorily the filter box was in perfect working order.

So now when i look out of our loft bedroom window we can see the fish in the water …. just …

So you can see from this photo that i have now finished the pond area apart from the edging slabs and i have also finished laying the path to the top of the garden …. this being completed in a 103 degree temperature on Sunday afternoon …..

I did however take a break to watch the Grand Prix and the tennis – well done Murray ….

By the way did you notice the beautiful pale green tree in the 2nd photo in next doors garden.

She is an elderly Indian lady and the tree is from her home …. at this time of year it looks magnificent and yet so delicate ….

Now, i just want to sit back and enjoy the garden …… but wait …..

I see some weeding that needs doing …. and oh yes……. there’s the shade to erect for the fish pond so that the sun can be kept off it and my fish can swim in peace…

So that’s tonight’s job …..

Catch you all later …..

• 8 Jul, 2013
• 6 likes

More blog posts by tony1247