green alge in Texas KOI pond *#@&#&#&

Sunlight and fish poo

You are having a lot of wastes from the goldfish and a lot of sunlight in a new pond where the biofilter is not yet cycled.

Try shading more of the water, even floating a styrofoam plank in it will help.

Then, stop feeding the fish, they will eat algae and so they do not need anything else.

You are likely to have green water until the lillies get thick enough to shelter the microbugs that keep green water under control. Of course, goldfish eat these critters and so until they can hide from the fish they cannot attack the algae very well.

You can try to segregate the fish somehow and try to locate a culture of daphnia to seed the other side of the pond with. The daphnia are wonderful fish food and they live on green water.

Or just be patient, in about 5 weeks or so it will magically clear, almost overnight.

I believe that by biofilter he is referring to the cycling of your filters; that is, it has not sufficiently matured itself with bacteria

5 weeks, 8 weeks....

Don't hold me to that 5 weeks guess, I really can't recall how long it takes, but that seems about waht I recall, maybe 8 weeks though. Really adding shade is important now, and reducing the food added to the pond. Keep rinsing the filter, but be sure to use pond water, not tap water to do it.

You can try adding some cheap poly stuffing from Walmart to the pump if you promise to wash it frequently. If it plugs up you will burn out the pump, so keep that area cleared up.

Mostly you need shade, less food, and more lilies -- try adding pond tabs to the dirt they are in, but be careful to not let it get loose in the pond for the fertilizer tablets are the fastest way to more green water!

while I always suggest letting things run their course a UV sterilizer could help, but it would replace (by killing) many small organisms that naturally keep the pond balanced.

ryan

Don't let them die

Well, don't let them die of starvation, so if they look thin you can feed them, but I let my pond fish go weeks without food when the water is still cool. I don't really feed much until the water is rather warm. 75ish maybe. If it is still cool at night then the pond is still cool most of the time now. I am feeding about once a week now. the fish eat algae off the side of the pond, eventually they will eat the parrots feather down to stems.

Search the koi forums for info on temps and feeding, I think at below 55 you dont' feed, at 55-60 you feed once a week, 60-70 you feed 2-3 times a week, 70-80 feed daily. Above 85 dont' feed for the oxygen content is low and wastes are a problem, be sure you have aeration and circulation. (Be sure to actually locate those numbers for I may be off here and there, but you get the idea)

So, you see where you need shade on the water, to keep the temps below that 85 point. If you have rocks along the top of the pond edge in the sun, you can transfer a lot of heat to the water, so add trailing plants to those parts if possible. My pond is a raised pond and is surrounded by wooden stakes so it does not get any sun on the sides and no rocks to catch heat either.

If you float a block of styrofoam, like the lid to a cheap cooler, on the water, you can shade the pond and not block the light to the lilly pads. Those lilies will try to cover the pond quickly if they have fertilizers.

Really a green pond is pretty much standard for just filling it up. Just don't think you need to scrub it down and start over! You have to grow the little critters that keep it clear.

Just noticed the Koi

Oh, I really need to tell you that 200 gallons is too small for koi.

They will be too large for that in a year. They require several feet of length for swimming room and then some depth for safety from herons and such. 800 gallons is about a minimum, then you could have about 5 or so. I dont think you can really have one in 200 gallons for long.

200 gallons is fine for the goldfish however. You can have up to 10 fantails or about 8 comets/ shubunkins. I have 3 big comets, 3 shubunkins and 3 fantails in 300 gallons. I tried koi a few times, but at a certain size they would leap overboard. It is just too sad to go out and find one stiff in the flowerbed, or worse, stiff but alive and worry whether it will make it.

And then there are the herons. A neighbor lost about 20 full size koi from a new, large pond. I suspect there was not enough cover to hide them. If you have herons around, you need hiding places for the fish. I used plastic milk cartons to support plants and the fish could swim in there if they needed to. Tip the carton on its side, put a submerged plant in the bottom shelf, a bog plant on the top.