I have a small garden pond only 350 GAL. I have a box filter with 2 foams in it and I have two small pumps with small foams in them , one is used with a small water fall and the other with a small fountain .
In the pond I have 10 small goldfish . I have no plants in the pond , never had any luck with keeping them living. I did the start up of the pond 3 weeks ago and all seemed OK till a week ago, my water has turned green. I have cleaned my filter box and other pump filters but it has not helped . A few days ago I put in a product called Barley straw pellets , a purely biological agent against green water but it has not helped and I have used Laguna Clear fast and it has not done anything , if anything the water is more green . I have used these products in other years and the water has been fine . Can you help me solve my problem, what should I do. Should I empty the pond a start again ?

Thank you .. William .

I assume your pond gets a good amount of sun? If so, then with no plants and those goldfish, the pond is most likely always going to be green. I don't believe in adding strong algaecides so the only real solution for your pond aside from live plants would be a UV sterilizer. That works for ponds without plants to combat the algae. Barley straw is a helper in fighting algae but its fight is futile if there is no shade and nutrient uptake by the plants. What happens to live plants? Do they turn yellow? Do the goldfish eat them? What kinds of plants did you try? Pond plants normally do very well if no one eats them unless something is really off in the water chemistry.

Emptying the pond will be a temporary fix, and, in fact, after a short while, the suspended algae would probably come back even worse. For your situation, I suggest trying plants again. If they still die, then get a UV sterilizer.

My page on algae is at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/plants/algae2.htm

Good luck!

The pond get sun from 9:30 am till 1:30 pm . I do not know my plants but have tried 2 or 3 different ones. The fish eat some and after a few weeks they turn yellow and die . If I was to try plants again what would you say is best for me .
What is UV sterilizer and where might I fine it .
Thank you for getting back to me here , I really need the help .

William .

I had green water as well. I bought a UV Filter at Home Depot for 175.00 and it cleared the water up in 4 days. Amazing product.

Here is one place showing some of the UV sterilizers (or clarifiers) that are sold:
http://www.aqua-mart.com/uv-clarifier.html
Click on the brands below on that page to see some of the kinds that are sold. UV sterilizers are sold at almost any place (actual store or on-line) that sells pond supplies.

Your pond doesn't get a lot of sun which may have been part of the problem. Pick plants that can tolerate shade such as sweetflag, arrowhead, arum, water forget-me-not, rushes, etc. Water lilies, submerged plants, floating tropical plants, etc. may not do well in your pond since they need more sun but I would still try to add some submerged and floating plants.

My plant list pages are at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/plants/hardy.htm

Find a local pond shop, or even the pond section at Lowe's/Home Depot will have pond plants. There's tons of varietys.

Pay careful attention to read the label and plant them at the proper depth. Make sure to get floaters too; a combination of water hyacinth and lettuce works great.

Oh yea, if you're adding salt to the water your plants won't do so well.

I would like to thank everyone for there help ..