green water

[julia22]

I installed an Alpha One, Aquabead filter 2 months ago here in Dallas. The water went from brown to green. The pea green is still present. I have not purchased the UV light to accompany the filter, yet. I am holding off till spring. We had warm weather in November, but currently, the nights have been as low as 20 and average around 40-50. I thought for sure once the temp dropped the green would disappear. But, it is still pea green. Shouldn't it be clearing up by now? Any suggestions?

[koiczar]

Julia

The answer to your question is NO. If all you have is a bead filter, your water will not clear up. What size is your pond (how many gallons)? How large is the bead filter (never heard of an Alpha 1)? What size/type pump are you using? Do you have a bottom drain and skimmer? How many and what size are your fish? These are all basic yet very important questions that need to be answered before help can be provided.

Mike

[dick benbow]

In additions to mike's sage questions you might add how often your backwashing your BB.....and please could you tell us your water parameters like ammonnia, nitrite,nitrate, PH GH KH. I think we tend to want one item that does it all but the truth of the matter is fish waste needs to be trapped and disposed of daily so that water introduced into the Bio-filter is mechanically cleaned to allow the bacteria to do their job. Keeping the biofilter clean allows the bugs to do their job without disturbance. By combining a mechanical trap with a bio filter you get a compromise that doesn't do either job very well. Most pond starts take 6 weeks unless other measures are taken to speed it up, so yes if your facility was doing the job it has had a long enough time to do so. Once you get your bio-filter in and working, the next best think you can do is a constant 24/7 dechlorinaded drip of new water that forces out used water out the overflow.

[dick benbow]

Julia,
I noticed you hadn't responded to our request for information. I hope you understand that we are trying to help not overload you with a bunch of things to do.....it's akin to going to the dr's when you don't feel good. he'll probably want to do a blood test to get the chemistry....and it tends to be that way with the water in our pond.

[Danjols]

Julia,

I have met and talked with both Mike and Dick. Both of these guys are like "The old men of the sea" when it come to koi and koi hobby. Really great they both give of their time and energy to keep us all headed in the right direction, so hand over the information and watch what happens!

[julia22]

sorry for the delay.... Ok, I had a Cyprio filter, sponge and brush filter. It worked pretty well, green water in spring, but used a UV light. It wasn't crystal clear thought. I which to 2.5 Alpha One by Aquabead a couple of months ago. Ran filters simultaneously for about week, then strickly the bead filter. Pump is a Sequence 6000. The water went from brown to green and stayed there. The pond is about 2000+ gals. No bottom drain or skimmer, but the intake hose sits close to the bottom. No leaves or debry. Fish= 9 about 12-15" long. Just did the tests on chems: Ammonia= 1.0 to 2.0, Nitrite is somewhere between 2-5. Nitrate is 0. I have been backwashing once a week. Called Aquabead and they said no need to backwash anymore than that because the filter has not established. They also said the green would go away as the temp dropped. I stopped feeding the koi about 3 wks ago. The temp did dropped, but I live in Texas, This weekend we are going to hit 80. Last week it was 50 and down in the 20's at night. I hope this helps. Thanks for all your help.

[KoiCop]

most new filters take about 6 weeks to fully cycle; bead filters sometimes take longer. Based on that, and your water readings, I can see that yours hasn't. I certainly hope you're adding something like AmQuel or Clor-Am-X to bind the ammonia and salt to prevent nitrite uptake?

As for green water, UV's can help by masking the problem in the short term (like during new pond syndrome and/or spring startup).

The long term answer lies in achieving a balanced, mature pond. When the green algae loses the competition for available food to more beneficial algal forms it will go away -- and stay away, unless conditions are ripe for its return.

So hang in there and give it time.

[mitten]

Was there a reason to not keep using both filters?

Mickey the windowman

[julia22]

I didn't keep both filters because the new pump was too large for the filter.

[mitten]

Do you have any plumbing skills, Julia?

The weakness that is found with bead filters is that they are closed, sealed from leaking and then pressurized by the pump's flow. Convenient way to push water through, but the most successful filtration is usually not pressurized but entirely open to air exchange, flowing because of a change in water levels (gravity).

Your Cyprio (green machine?) had water pumped to it which flowed through all the media and then out. It may have been too small, I don't know. It may have needed too much yukky maintainence, I don't know. But it had some advantages over the bead.

I asked about plumbing because putting the cyprio AFTER the bead improves the function of both. The Cyprio would gunk up and clog less because the bead has strained the water for it. The bead would have supplemental bio filtration following it, a big help. BUT, because of the new Bigazz pump all of the water can't go through the Cyprio, it can't handle it. Plumb a Wye into the line to divert some water to the cyprio. You might be lucky and size the pipe just right to limit the flow but adding a valve instead, on the pipe that would go to the cyprio, would be better and easier to get right.

Hook it back up and you might be surprised how much the old filter helps.

Mickey the windowman