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Author Topic: green pond water  (Read 2252 times)

thegrimreaper

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green pond water
« on: April 14, 2013, 01:18:26 pm »

OK guys need to pick your brains abit on this one over at New Brighton we have just dumped all the old water out of the lake and put fresh water in over the last four to five weeks the water has been crystal clear now though is sdifferant matter its turned green question is how do we get it back to clear water without using poisons or chemicals that are dangerous to wild life been told about barley bailes another is willow twigs in the water any other ideas guys fish to eat the weeds algie is out of the question thanks for any info ideas you pass on

regards Mark.
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davidjt

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Re: green pond water
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2013, 01:30:24 pm »

at colwyn bay members helped put bales of barley straw in last year and it worked great you spread it out in smaller bags weighted down with bricks mostly in centre of lake  and it was crystal clear for season, i beleive this year it has just been refild at last and new barly straw put in again . any body that came to our mayors cup regatta last july  would have seen it.

 
 
david
 
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steam up

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Re: green pond water
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2013, 01:31:37 pm »

The green pond is a natural part of the cycle when introducing new water. Adding oxygen producing plants would help but could be very expensive.
I have used Barley hay in the past it does work well given time.

Subculture

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Re: green pond water
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2013, 02:05:48 pm »

The barley straw just contains hydrogen peroxide, in a less concentrated form than chemicals.

Ultimately the best way of controlling algae is to plant Norfolk reed in about 10-15% of the ponds area. That will leech out most of the nutrients which find their way into the water (ducks, geese and fish being the main offenders). But you do lose some of the pond space with this process. Also worthwhile encouraging water daphnia, these are tiny little insects that feed off algae. Fish love to eat them however, so you need to create hiding space for them, and the Norfolk reed helps with that too.
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scout

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Re: green pond water
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2013, 05:28:31 pm »

Hi we use lake shadow from dyofix.co.uk you can get it in black, blue fluorescent orange and fluorescent green they have a calculate on the site for the amount to use hope this helps Yours Scout
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Subculture

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Re: green pond water
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2013, 05:42:13 pm »

Problem with any additive, be it dye, chlorine, hydrogen peroxide etc. is that is dilutes when it rains, and gradually the performance is compromised. So it's an ongoing expense.

A natural system will cost a modest amount up front, but after that should be self-sustaining, and therefore cheap to maintain.
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kinmel

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Re: green pond water
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2013, 08:28:26 pm »

Our square lake at Colwyn Bay is 38metres along each side and about 0.6m deep and Like New Brighton is built entirely of concrete and there is nowhere to grow reeds.  Also being Council owned, it is difficult to get permission to use additives.

We have had crystal clear water for the last 3 seasons simply by using barley straw as we refill the lake in March/April.

We get two bales of fresh barley straw from a local farmer and the straw is shared equally between 25 or so of the orange net sacks that wholesalers use for carrots and onions. The sacks are weighted down with broken concrete slabs and spread about the bottom of the lake, this year they are all against the perimeter wall.  Total cost = nothing, the straw and sacks are donated to us.

The water will start off going green, but after a few weeks the enzymes from the barley starts to work and the water simply turns clear and remains so until the lake is emptied in early December. It is completely maintenance-free, we do nothing once the barley straw is in the water.

There is no simpler solution for keeping still, fresh-water clear.

 
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scout

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Re: green pond water
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2013, 09:16:14 pm »

the lake we use had a lot of blanket weed so much so that you could almost walk across it ten years ago working with the environment agency we used barley straw but then had different weeds that the straw would not keep at bay
we were then advised to use the dyofix lake shadow which is a consentrated food dye which is added to the lake when the weather warms up the water there are no fish in the lake and the only year that the lake shadow was diluted was last year     Yours Scout
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Norseman

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Stavros

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Re: green pond water
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2013, 10:51:13 pm »

Having Advised not only Colwyn Bay but Wickstead Modle Boat club to put in Bales of Barley straw to combat this problem and I do Know for a fact that this has Worked.....2 Members of hte Colwyn bay club have allready posted this fact.
 
I used to work Part time in a fisherey on Angelsey and we used to put Barley straw bales into the lakes to not only combat this problem but to aslo combat Canadian Pond weed and silk weed.I am NO chemist maybee someone with better knowlage can enlighten us WHY all I know is that my advise is CORRECT and WORKS  :D :-)) O0 O0 O0 O0 O0 O0
 
So in ans to your problem all I can say is BARLEY STRAW
 
 
 
Dave
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kinmel

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Re: green pond water
« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2013, 11:03:28 pm »

http://www.ceh.ac.uk/sci_programmes/documents/BarleyStrawtocontrolalgae.pdf

Dave

That guidance is pretty much what we do at Colwyn Bay, the advice we follow came 3 years ago from Waterland Management who specialise in weed control in water.
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tigertiger

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Re: green pond water
« Reply #11 on: April 15, 2013, 02:07:09 am »

The big advantage of using barley straw, from an ecological standpoint, is that you are not introducing new species to the pond's ecosystem. Introducing new species will have a knock on effect, sometimes unpredictable, and not always desirable.
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thegrimreaper

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Re: green pond water
« Reply #12 on: April 18, 2013, 07:20:07 pm »

looks like we are going for the barly route hopefully the council will give us the go ahead as usual the simple way is the best way

thanks for all the info guys

Mark
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