Frequently Asked Questions
Questions The Doc Hears Quite Often!
Green Water is caused by algae, a free-flowing microscopic plant, that feeds on fertilizer in the water. Whenever the water heats up and all of a sudden you have pea-green soup instead of pond water it is referred to as algae bloom. There's basically 2 different ways to get rid of algae bloom. The first way is to achieve a natural balance where the fertilizer is taken up by plants. The second way (and most effective way) is to put in an ultraviolet water clarifier, or "UV Light" for short. Learn more about this by reading our articles entitled, Those Low Down Green Water Blues and Principles of Crystal Clear Water.
This opens up a whole chapter on fish health. The most important thing to do is to immediately follow the steps to emergency first aid if you're currently experiencing fish deaths. Go HERE now to receive emergency first aid steps. There's a whole list of articles we've done about diagnosing and treatment of fish disease in our online What's Up, Doc? newsletter. Click HERE to go there.
Most of the time the answer is yes. It depends on where you are and how deep your pond is. Fish cannot survive in water temperatures of 36 degrees and below. They become semi-dormant in temperatures between 36 and 50 degrees and just hang around the bottom until the water temperatures begin to rise. If you are in a climate where the water freezes down several inches you definitely want to place a de-icer unit on the pond. De-icers switch on at 42 degrees and keep a hole in the ice for gases to escape. For more information on wintering the pond read our articles, Preparing for the Plunge and Pond Heaters...Use Them Wisely.
The little red worms that you find in the filter material of your bio-filter are perfectly natural and a sign that your system is CLEAN. Do not get rid of them. Enjoy them and allow your fish to eat them. Read more on the subject in our article, Don't Kill Those Red Wigglers, Freeze Dry Them.
No! Not if you have fish. Nightime is the absolute worst time to turn off the pump. During the day plants take CO2 from the water and give off oxygen. At night, however, plants turn into Mr. Hyde by stealing oxygen out of the water and giving off CO2. Aeration is vital to your fish and lack of aeration will kill. Learn more about aeration by reading our article entitled Do You Have Enough Aeration In Your Pond?.
The answer may shock you! You probably have too many now. With "normal" bio-filtration we say about 1 (one) 12" koi - including fins - per 100 gallons of water is pushing it. What we mean by "normal" bio-filtration is at least the bio-filtration capacity of a Doc's Box gravity bio-filter on a 1000 gallon pond. Then, you must take into consideration that these 12" koi will grow! The more you beef up your bios the more fish you can put in, however, be aware that overcrowding the pond, no matter how much filtration you have, can be a major factor in causing gill disease and other fish health problems. You may rock along for a year or two with an overcrowded pond then one day walk out and see that Mother Nature has thinned your pond out her "way" and taken your largest and most prized fish. It's best to thin out the population yourself before Mother Nature decides it's time for her to do it.
PROTECT IT! There are glass components inside the unit that will break if water freezes inside it. Read up on it by reading our article entitled "UV Protection for Winter".
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