Hello everyone.

My current concern is a 'scummy looking green film' on the pump, hose, and wall of liner.

Had a pond kit for almost two years before deciding to build. My hard work produced a 9x5x1 pond. In certain areas a few inches deeper in others as little as 6" deep.

I has a bio filter pump producing a small fountain and waterfall. Label says it does 300gph. After building it, I added some water leveling treatment to the water (had high PH and water was very hard). I later rushed to purchase a few plants. A couple of water lilies and cat tail. How often should a filter be cleaned, once a week? I just did it after two weeks and it was awfully yukky. It did have some of those little bloodworms mentioned in another thread (glad to read it is ok, and fish might feed on them).

I apparently had a night visitor that came to my oasis and used the pond and destroyed the plants (took them out of their net enclosure and dumped all the bulbs all over the pond). Thinking the plants were destroyed I have now removed them and thrown them out.

I will add that at the point of construction the pond did end up with a very very small amount of dirt at the bottom prior to filling it up.


So I am back to a plain pond. The water does not look green, i think it looks pretty clean, it is just this scummy looking thing that I keep thinking is algae.

Is this coating algae? How should i proceed to plant something that gives some water coverage. I currently have none but the pond does not really get direct sunlight untill after 1pm till sundown time period.

i would also like to introduce some mosquito fish for larvae control before I put a comet or something simmilar in the pond.

I am pretty resourcefull, and have read alot on it but I just seem to be stuck on my next set of steps.

Thank you all any for help.

There are many species of algae. There are some slimy green ones that will grow on hoses. Your pond is a bit shallow which tends to make the algae grow more as the pond is warmer, and the sun doesn't have to go down as far.

Your pond is about 300 gallons. I run a 700 gph pump on my 153 gallon pond, and it's often barely enough. I suggest having at least a 700 gph pump on your pond going through a filter. The mechanical part of pond filters should be cleaned about once a week. If the filtration is not adequate, you may see the flow slow down before then.

Raccoons love to rearrange ponds. They un-potted many of my pots. If you can then repot the plants, they should recover although repeated un-pottings will do them in. If you still have those plants, I would try to rescue them. Pond plants are too expensive to toss if they're alive. Raccoons will have more "fun" in shallow ponds like yours. They don't swim too well in deeper ponds.

A little bit of dirt in the pond is no big deal.

For more on natural methods of algae control, see http://www.fishpondnfo.com/plants/algae2.htm
If you have green stuff, it's probably algae.

You can try adding floating plants like water hyacinth (a tropical) to the pond for faster surface coverage. The raccoons may dump some on land but just toss them back in the morning. At least those don't need to be repotted.

If you plan to later add goldfish, I wouldn't add mosquito fish. They can be nippy and often bite goldfish. They are also good at eating fish and amphibian eggs and fry. If you need to wait to add goldfish, you can add some Bt bacteria in the mean time to control mosquitoes (see http://www.fishpondinfo.com/mosquito.htm )

Good luck!

Thanks Robin, you sure know how to welcome a new member. Your response is very helpfull and assuring. Take care.