For the most part, when people see too much algae, foam build up, coloured or stinky water causing their pond to look unpleasing, they rush down to the pond store to buy the best cure for the issue. Although stores are happy to sell you these products, they are temporary solutions at best, and at worst may be acting to conceal the underlying problem. This allows the problem to grow.
Algae Growth
The amount of algae you have depends on how much organic matter and/or fish poop is in the pond. This rotting muck can quickly build up and act as an amazing fertilizer for algae. I sum it up this way: the more undesirable symptoms you see, the more muck that is in the bottom of your pond your pond and throughout your water feature.
If your stream has a lot of algae, the pockets in the stream have collected lots of muck or the pump continues to keep sucking the muck up from the bottom and continuously running it through your feature. If you were to pick up some string algae, you can actually see the nutrients trapped inside the algae.
If you think about it another way, Mother Nature’s filtration system uses algae, good bacteria and plants to process nutrients. A pond will always have a bit of algae as it is a living ecosystem and a little bit of algae means it is in balance. A lot of algae and the ecosystem is out of balance, but trying hard to get back to balance. This is why treatments designed to get rid of the “problems” you see are not really doing anything to deal with the real “problem” you don’t see.
Quick Fact: The bottom of a pond that has lots of organic matter and a higher fish load tends to smell like an outhouse when you get to the bottom.
Lots of algae issues tells us that there is an issue of excess muck and the pond needs to be drained and the sludge we have access to, pumped and vacuumed out. If the pond has fish, we have large bins, air and a metal grate covering the bin so the fish are safe while the cleaning takes place.
Dragonfly Ponds has come up with many innovations over the years to make the cleaning more efficient and thorough, including last year’s addition of a high water volume/low pressure washer that we use to loosen the muck in the stream and gravel areas so that it can be removed.
When necessary, a pressure washer can be used to remove excess algae on rocks but we don’t use it for washing gravel or streams as it just pushes the muck further down into the rocks. If there is rock on the bottom of the pond, the organic matter and waste is packed into the rock so all of the rock needs to come out if you want to properly clean the pond.
Quick Fact: Rock that is on the bottom of a pond should be removed and cleaned every couple of years.
Pond cleanings start at $480.00 plus GST (3 hours with 2 people and equipment) with each additional hour $160.00 plus GST. Pressure washing is available. If there is lots of rock to be removed from the pond and disposal, additional hours and disposal fees may be required.
We do a lot of pond cleaning, which is a big help in getting your pond back in balance. When we clean a pond, we will recommend changes to help keep the pond easier to maintain.
