Hi All well im away at the moment and my wife says the water has gone green on the pond. I do have someone who cleans my filter every week and does a 10% water change, He seems to think it is because I changed my filter to Ziolite 5 weeks ago, but why would it have taken so long to go green, he had checked the UV it is still working and in the 2 and a half years I have had my pond i have never had a green pond. he also says the crust on the Ziolite bed when he cleans the filter is a lot harder than the gravil used to be. any help here, what should i do or just leave it.

UV 2 years.... LOL .... change bulb Shawn.

Hi Shawn

As bobby say's change that globe.

Your filter is just getting dirtier from the hard work trying to remove all that algae.
once your UV is replaced the load will lighten. They should clean the filter during this period more regularly.

Doing water changes does not clear algae at all in fact it will assist in the growth.

Fortunately green water is only bad for the keeper.

Hi,

A sand filter is made for using "sand"!

If you disturb a filter system, the chances are good that the water will turn green.

Pieter J de Villiers wrote:

Hi,

A sand filter is made for using "sand"!

If you disturb a filter system, the chances are good that the water will turn green.

It is a gravil filter the one with the large slots I have a Neville air conversion on it, Just would it have tacken 5 weeks to turn the water pea soup thought it would have happend sooner, also how long will it take for the system to kick in again.

Hi,

Did you chance the “ fingers” on the sand filter to those that Neville suggested?
I have four green “Water flow” sand filters, with the same fingers and I am not very impressed with them!

The green water should go away within 3 weeks pending on the weather conditions.
You could use Potassium Permanganate (1,5gram per 1000 lt water) to help you clear it up.

well just about 6 weeks ago i changed my water wall to a 5 tray bakie shower, tray 1 jap mat cut into blocks tray 2, 1500 small bio ball tray 3, 1500 small bio balls tray4, 25kg 10mm to 12mm zeolite, tray 5, 25kg 10mm to 12mm zeolite.

then i kept my 25l biofilter as is, but changed my gravil in my 3 bag koi gravil filter to 5mm zeolite 75kg 3x 25kg bags and instaled the neville air kit with the fins he supplyed.

To be honest I have had my pond for just over 2 years and my uv light runs 24 hours a day 365 days a year and i had never changed it untill till the water went be green for the first time in 2 and a half years so im sure it was the uv.

I am away at the moment but should be home on friday will see how it looks should i still do the pp.

thanks have a great day.

Hi,

With all that change, it is like a new filter system!!!!!!

It will still be green on Friday..................use the PP first and then change the UV globe.

I am Away at the moment and got someone to change the globe already so the new one is up and running will istill need to do the pp if it is clearing up.

Hi Shawn

The fingers in your filter is perfect, they have been tested by many without problems and there is many ponds running crystal clear water using them and also using zeolite.
Your problem is only the UV clarifier that has run out of date.

PP and, or Volume 10 peroxide will just help to clear it sooner.

Hi,

I am still of the opinion that if a filtration system is working properly, there is no need for a UV light!

Neville wrote:

Hi Shawn

The fingers in your filter is perfect, they have been tested by many without problems and there is many ponds running crystal clear water using them and also using zeolite.
Your problem is only the UV clarifier that has run out of date.

PP and, or Volume 10 peroxide will just help to clear it sooner.

Please Neville understand I am not saying at all that it is due to my ugrade that my pond has gone green the new fins have no effect at all on the pond clarity. it was because I took all my gravil out my filter 3 full bags, so that knocked it all back, how long will it take to be back up and running. I did leaeve my 25l bio filter untouched.

Hi Shawn.

No I understand, but the fact that you changed from gravel or sand, to zeolite would not have effected anything on the sediment filtration or the fact that your water went green. Your Bio filter stayed in tact so you should be fine as far as bio filtration goes. The bakkie shower will also kick in quire fast to improve your bio filtration even further.
Shawn, your media in your sand filter will be doing Bio filtration within 3 weeks depending on temperatures.
As for sediment filtration immediately.

I agree that a UV light is only needed periodically.

Norm Meck, wrote a nice article regarding algae control, in which algae will control algae within a pond, once a cycle is achieved.

Sorry, but I have to disagree!

The density of sand, say 1-1,4mm is more then sand of 3-5 mm. The bigger the sand or gravel the density become less.
As Zeolite is of different “size” and weight, the density is much less the sand!
Your “mechanical filter” is therefore not that effective anymore, as water follows through the fewer friction areas, not “catching” the debris as effective as with sand.
This will cause your Bio filter to “overload” and it needs time to adjust.

Regarding the mentioned filter “fingers”:
As the holes are situated at the bottom of each “finger” and the build up of crust is more rapid and it clogs the “finger” holes quicker when using zeolite, and therefore it should be back washed more frequently.

I have tried this, but I have changed back to 3-5mm sand.

Look at the end of the Day I have never in 2 and a half years had a pea soup pond yes i might have had algie on the walls and string algie for the first time this year but never green water it has been crystal clear top to bottom, so somthing has changed after i replased the sand to zeolite it has been 6 weeks now so surely it should have kicked in. if it has somthing to do with the UV then i should have had the same problem last year but did not, lets see what the new UV does and i have not been home to comment on the crust of the zeolite as ive been away, it is just what the guy said that cleans my pond. he said the crust is really hard everytime he cleans the pond (one a week).

Your honor, I have stated my case!

Shawn

The change from sand or gravel to Zeolite very very definitely has no effect on algae growth. The hardness of the crust neither, I think that it is a bit of imagination or as said the fact that the zeolite is actually catching a lot of algae presently.
Chris Neaves has studied this subject extensively and if you like E-Mail him, he will certainly respond.

Anyone taking bets!?

Guys if you think about it surely all that 3 to 5 mm sand in the filter would have had it's own bio filter going with loads of good stuff keeping the pond clean well helping the hole system clean and when I changed it to zeolite I took all that good bio out the system and with the UV been so old it did not help things and the pond has gone green. So when the new bio kicks in with the zeolite all my problems will be over. I hope. Think the reason the crust is so hard is because it is trying to take out all that pea soup. So I will do a clean twice a week when I get home till my pond is clean.

Please let's not let this get out of hand and I do appreciate all the comments.

But let me get home first and I'll beable to update you first hand.

Hi Shawn,

I think that your summary holds a lot of weight as to why your water went green Shawn

The fact that you replaced the sand with the zeolite is not the reason but the removal of all the dead algae definably helped to disturb the cycle. Your aging UV is definitely also a factor.


Don't worry I won't let it get out of hand from my side anyway.

Thanks for the link have saved it and will give it a good read on my 5 hour boat trip tomorrow back to the Congo before I fly home Thursday yippy can't wait been a long 6 weeks.

Shawn,

Let us take this to a test.

Leave the system as it is for another week. If there is no improvement (I don’t think there will be any ) then replace the zeolite with sand. That's easy enough!

Ok i got home today and my pond is pea green, I mean i have not seen my koi untill i through a few pelets in even when they 2" under the water you can only see a shadow, i did a full 15% water change and a filter clean, the crust was not as bad as i thought in the zeolite, , I took a pic of the green pond and will post, then i did a 1.5g per 1000 liter pp treatment and anoher 15% water change will let you guys know how it goes, I will leave the zeolite in for 2 more weeks give it a chance to get working. well lets see what happens should i do anothere pp treatment in the next day or so.

Hi Shawn

Yes you should, I would do one everyday for at least 3 days.(doc johnsone does 2 or more the same day. as soon as it goes brown he adds more PP) on day three after the water has turned brown, I will do a 30% water change. Then I will add Peroxide volume 10 at 20Ml per 1000 Lt.

I would increase the PP to 2 gram per 1000 Lt. (even then it is not a strong dose).

Did you also change the UV globe?

Unless your pond is terribly polluted with algae, this will clean it.

Shawn, fortunately green water is only bad for the keeper.

Shawn,

Wait, first read this.......

The first day the color of the water turns violet. The next day the water becomes brown and a little foam is seen on the surface of the water. After two to three days, the color of the water turns to normal again, or becomes ever clearer. ( Do not add PP when water turns brown..........you are not treating a parasite’s condition or another disease!)
This is because the product is able to break down algae and organic material. As a consequence PP should be used be used in a higher dose if organic material abounds in the pond.
Please take note, the lower the pH, the more active and toxic PP becomes. PP increases dissolved oxygen levels in ponds and will irritate the gill in higher doses.

I will suggest that you do not increase the dosage as you are not treating parasites and it will only stress the Koi.
By using Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) more load is placed on the gills, and as it stays in your pond water for sometime, it also effect any repeating PP dosages.

Rather do two 15% water changes three days apart after the water turned brown, if necessary re-dose with 1,5g per 1000lt following the same procedure, not exceeding three treatments within 21 days.

Only replace the UV globe after the PP treatment.