Sunday, December 27, 2009

Introduced by our Nusajaya customer Mr Dass to Mr Mohd Taib of Seri Alam whose 1 year old koi pond continued to have green water. Mrs Mohd Taib was very upset for having spent the money engaging her landscape contractor to design and build the koi pond and not able to appreciate her koi due to green water.

An assessment of the pond by Kohaku Koi House revealed the following:

(1) Filter ratio to pond was at 25% (at least 5% short) and filter media in the chambers not adequate.
(2) Water circulation not adequate as given the size and the water features built, having one water pump was slightly short.
(3) Installed UV light orientation (across filter water flow is better as opposed to along)
(4) Water surface skimmer not built to clear off surface debris contributed by the nearby plants and shrubs.

Above shortcomings were corrected except filter size to create 30% ratio. Pond water turned clear and koi are now in clear view and Mrs Mohd Taib became our very satisfied customer.

Algae contributes to green water. Algae grows when (1) sunlight (2) nitrate (3) phosphate are present. So shading (Sunlight) of pond helps. Nitrate comes from the koi waste and when you over feed (and not having constant water drip as a standard practice for your pond) nitrate level is raised. However note that you have no control over Phosphate which is present in tap water.

We need a big enough filter box of at least 30%, completely filled with filter media (filter brush, filter mat and coral) and have pond water continuously flowing through the filter media guided by the filter chamber partitions. Unnoticed by our naked eyes, the filter media's millions of bacteria 'clear' the water of algae including Ammonia and Nitrite which are harmful to your koi.

Should you have green water problems, feel free to get in touch with us.