Algal bloom is the rapid growth of algae in youre pond,
making it look like green soupe.
Im the summertime algae reproduce in a very fast way,
making all other live , plant or animal impossible in
the pond. This is because the alga block the sunlight
and thus depriving the pond of oxygen.
what causes algal bloom
Basically high levels of fosfates and nitrates are
the cause of the bloom. Fosfates and nitrates are part
of fish food, dead leaves, fertilizer,etc.
The fosfate and nitrate will concentrate in the
mud on the bottom. Both algae en blue-green algae
thrive by high leves of nitrate en fosfate.
Basic rules for avoiding/removing algal bloom
Don't feed yout pond fish. Don't use fertilizer,
never, don't even think about it.
Remove the mud from the bottom of the pond.
Flush youre pond with clean water.
the natural way of avoiding algal bloom
Reed and Bulrush are the natural
way for removing a lot of nitrogen and fosfates.
Also Duckweed
is a very fasy growing remover of fertilizer.
If you want to speed up things remove Reed and Bulrush at the end of
the summer, Duckweed should be removed more often using a net.
Put waterplants in youre pond, the best are Common hornwortHoornblad and
Waterweed .
These waterplants produces an algae inhibiting substance.
other measurements
Koi dig for food in the muddy bottom of pond
and ditches, making the water cloudy and in that
way avoiding the sunlight to reach the lower
parts of the pond. Straw from rye contain an
algae growing substance and also produces an
enormeous amount of microlive especially paramecium
that feeds on algae. Floating waterlants like Waterlily
and duckweed shouldnt occupie the whole surface:
no more then 30% is enough. Tadpoles are big algae eaters but don't
combine with Koi and Carp Beam.
.
An Atlantic ditch shrimp is loking
for something tasty, on top of a pile of algae.
In between the algae on can see oxygen bubbels.
Below the algae no sunlight can penetrate the ditch.
The pond in the midday
On the end of a summers day, oxygen bubbels appaer
on the surface.
produced by algae
Oxygen bubbels are produced as the pond is acid,
so just a little bit of oxygen can be resolved.
The oxygen bubbels are trapped inbetween the algae,
pulling the algae mass to the surface.
This is the reason why youre pond looks like spinachsoupe
a the end of a summersdays.
Below the algae there is a deep darkness, an the water
contains no oxygen.
The pond of Liesbeth has a to high nutritional
level causing algal bloom. This is mainly due to
a chicken roost that produces waste water. But
mostly feeding the fish is the most important reason
for algal bloom. Another reason can be a large amount
of shrubs around the pond or duckweed or other
floating waterplants: That all blocks the sunlight,
and produces darkness on the bottom
of the pond and water with no oxygen.
Algal bloom has often more then one reason.
The same pond afther cleaning the bottom, flushing the water and
reducting of the floating plants and shrubs. The waste vwater of the
chicken roost has been blocked.
Two photo's of Liesbeth.
