Posted by LGR on July 08, 2002 at 01:23:19:
Hi!
I just moved into a house that has a 3000 gal above-ground pond (no joke, it's 16 feet x 16 feet x 2 feet tall).
It has about 6 water lilies and an island of dwarf papyrus. The previous owner installed one 16 foot long algae mat, and it looks like there is a bit of anacharis floating around.
The big problem is the filtration. The pond is so green with algae that you can't even see one whole inch into the pond. The past owner SAID there were comet goldfish in the pond, but I've never been able to see any. There are a bunch of inch-long silver minnow-looking fish and a bunch of tadpoles on the surface.
The pond itself is built in the dead-center middle of the yard in full Texas sun. There is NO shade whatsoever, so the algae is having a field day.
There is one tub-looking filter (also in the sun and filled with algae). The pump is TINY, I don't think it moves more than 150gph. There are two more same-size pumps that I'm now using just to push the water around so it doesn't stagnate (as it was previously).
I have dumped a ton of AlgaeFix into this pond, but I think I would need several more gallons (!!!) of it before it even approached the algae bloom in this pond. It is not my normal style to dump chemicals into a problem, and I don't know what else to do.
I am planning on tearing the pond down and making a much much smaller in-ground pond (IN THE SHADE!!), but I want to know if there is anything I can do in the meantime to help this poor pond I inherited. I know the filtration and pumps are inadequate for the size of the pond, and I know the placement of the pond is all wrong, etc. etc. I am simply wondering if there are any temporary measures I can use to keep this pond from becoming a cesspool before I can fix it.
Thanks,
Lorraine
