Comments on: Does Having Too Many Koi Cause String Algae? – Water Garden & Feature Q & A – Week Ending May 23rd

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:59:45 +0000

Update: the aerator is causing MORE algae to grow. All four bubblers have tons of string algae growing up from where they are located in my pond. I thought more aeration was supposed to reduce algae.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:39:41 +0000

My pond is clearing up already! The snails have surprisingly cleaned up the bottom of the pond quite a bit. I’m pretty sure the fish have cleaned up alot of the algae around the top because I don’t see any snails up there. I also put an aerator in and that also seems to be helping. I know I probably have too many fish but I am planning on either adding on to my pond or building another one in my yard. Most the fish I have are pretty small and I know they will keep growing but for now they seem very happy and have enough room to move around.

By: thepondguy

thepondguy — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:05:48 +0000

Hi Bill – thanks for your reply. You would need to have 250 square feet of surface to have that many fish. To combat the sunlight, try adding some shade with Pond Dye and also floating/marginal plants. Our DefensePAC is also full of natural bacterias that will help maintain your filter and breakdown the excess fish waste in the pond. Be sure to keep in touch and let us know how these products work for you if you try them. Thanks!

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:09:34 +0000

I have a 1500 gallon pond with 2 streams and a waterfall. I have 10 goldfish (2-3in) and 13 koi (10 3-4in and 3 7-9in). I pull tons of string algae out of my pond every 2-3 days or so. My pond is also in full sunlight all day long. I actually just bought 25 trapdoor snails to try to help with the algae. I know they don’t prefer string algae but I am hoping that they will help stop it before grow out of control again. I will keep you posted over the next couple of weeks.

By: mary

mary — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:36:42 +0000

we have a pondless waterfall/no fish. We have string algae as well. We manage to take care of it.

By: Mike Loftus

Mike Loftus — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:52:11 +0000

I am curious as to, your geographic location?
Do you keep an eye on water temperature? if so what is your water temp right now (as a daily average)?
One thing about small volume ponds is they have a tendency to get very warm if in direct sunlight even for several hours. One of the benefits of larger deeper ponds is they tend to stay more temerature stable with increases and decreases occuring at much slower rates.
Mike

By: Dennis Desharnais

Dennis Desharnais — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:07:25 +0000

I too am having a problem with string algae. I have a 550-600 gal pond with about 125 sq ft of surface area, plus a waterfall with a 5 ft stream down into the pond. My fish load is a total of only 7 fish, with an overall summed lengths of about 40 inches, which I don’t believe is excessive. The pond gets maybe about 2-3 hours of direct sunlight during the day (rest of the time it’s shaded).
So what could I be doing wrong to get so much algae?
//Dennis

By: thepondguy

thepondguy — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:10:05 +0000

Meghan,

Maybe start out with a smaller fish load and slowly work your way back up. This is usually the best way to see how much your water garden can handle.

Thanks for the comment!

By: thepondguy

thepondguy — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:08:30 +0000

Thanks for the comment Elaine!

By: thepondguy

thepondguy — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:07:15 +0000

Debbie,

Like Janet mentioned above, if they are koi, they will thin out a majority of them by eating them. If you have no one to give them to and you do keep them, my suggestion is to look at your filtration system and make sure if can handle the extra load.