Received the following mail to post on behalf of Rod

Help - my pond is and has been for some time covered in a thin foam which builds over night and dissapates slightly during the day.
Are there any suggestions.
Thank you in anticipation.
Rod




Advice will be appreciated.

I have been plagued by this since the beginning ... when it is colder there is more and when it is hotter there is less but it is always there.

This is how I finally handled the problem.



The floating pole is anchored to the pond sides with some black nylon string and I plugged the ends against the walls with some rolled up veggie bags.

I saw a picture on another site that gave me this idea. Another advantage of the foam barrier is that I do not have the ripples from the waterfall over the pond.

Pity we cannot see your whole pond but looking at the construction you could rig a foam barrier quite easily by glueing a strip of glass in that is around 100mm wide. Keep 40mm above the water line and let the balance sit below the waterline.

Be careful not to make the catchment area too narrow ... I made that mistake on the first try.

The Foam is a sign of a high level of dissolved organic compounds and protein. It is quite normal in new ponds and will dissipate as soon as your bacteria are in balance with your organic load. You can add bioboost or similar products to boost your bacterial activity. It will solve the problem sooner.

You can also install a protein skimmer. See all about protein skimmers on this forum.

The suggestion from Colyn will also solve the problem until your pond is more mature.

However, Colyn, I see that you use a log. That is excellent breeding ground for bad bacteria and I would never use wood in a pond.

Tell me more about logs please ... this is a treated pole CCA treated.

Your log is halfway in and halfway out of the water. It is full of cracks. Aeromonas (one of the bad bacteria) like organic matter which stay wet and they don't need oxygen. Those cracks in the wood form perfect breeding ground for Aeromonas and has no competition from good bacteria like Nitrosomonas and Nitro- Bacter(which needs oxygen)

Sooner or later, those bad bacteria goes into your pond and infect your fish.

Fungus (Saprolegnia) are also common in ponds where there are a lot of wood. They like to grow on wood. Keep a piece of wood wet and see how fungus will grow on them.

Do not even use nets with wooden handles. They get wet, bad bacteria grow on the wooden handle, and are being released in the water when you use the wooden handle again.

Wood are also often treated with toxic chemicals to prevent rotting and some kinds of wood are poisonous to koi. These toxic chemicals or other tanins will leach into the pond and might affect the koi.

Thanks for the info ... according to my knowledge gained from being in the wood construction business ... very few organisms will really grow on a CCA pole ... Copper, Cyanide and Arsenic is not beneficial to the health of lodgers

I have also constructed many decks for koi owners where the deck edges would be submersed or in direct contact with the water and am unaware of any incidents but that is just my experience.

I can very well believe that untreated rotting timber in water could be hazardous.

If you dont have a protein skimmer you can either add montmorilite clay to the pond or Organic Aqua General treatment

The Organic Aqua General treatment is an natural product, no chemicals and helps to breakdown all the organigics in the pond. The clay absorbs some of the organic waste and then the clay gets taken out by the mechanical filters.

In the end a protein skimmer is the best answer. My Protein skimmer runs daily between 2am and 5am.

Hi Paul

Hi, Can we not see more pics of Rods pond which looks very interesting?

Bobby wrote:

Hi Paul

Hi, Can we not see more pics of Rods pond which looks very interesting?

Have requested more photos and will post asap.