Driven inside. Yes, believe it or not another New Jersey rainy day in the summer of 2009. You know my pond work is outdoors most of the time so I only get rained out by heavy rain with thunder and lighting, and that’s what we have today in New Jersey. So, it’s a good excuse to give the pond construction crew a day of rest, and the pond maintenance services tech a day to cool off too. But for me I just find another way to work, and this seems like a golden opportunity to talk about ponds and watergardens and how rain can affect them. Full Service Aquatics customers come to expect clear water in their ponds on a consistent basis, and that’s what we deliver to them, but there has to be an exception made when Mother Nature decides to drop that wonderfully precious, nutrient rich rainwater from the sky. Rainwater is one of our greatest gifts but water full of nutrient is not always great for our koi ponds and water gardens, especially in great quantities.
One of the observations that I have made over the many years of working in the pond construction and pond maintenance industry is that after a good rain, pond water gets a little mucky. Why is that? After torrential rains I always get the incoming calls about a customer’s pond water quality. Pond water most definitely gets cloudy after a good rain, most of this cloudy water caused by dust, pollen, dirt, debris, and other materials getting washed into the pond and as this material floats and circulates in the pond it gives a cloudy look to the pond, and typically it is just a matter of a day or so for the pond water to be filtered clear again. After your pond water has filtered clean, it is a good time to clean your pond filter too, as all those materials need now to be removed from your pond filtration system.
However, sometimes pond green water conditions can occur. Why’s that? Even in established ponds green water can obscure your view of your koi and goldfish swimming in your watergarden fish pond. The green water condition in your pond occurs because of the sudden introduction of nitrate and nutrient rich water into your pond; the nutrient levels spike, the planktonic algae in your pond has a sudden huge food (nutrient) supply available, so it can now reproduce like mad increasing in numbers exponentially and wah-lah! You’ve got green water, and green water is simply that….large numbers of floating planktonic algae that now are so densely populated that their green coloration from chlorophyll makes your water appear green. Good news is that green water in a pond is a temporary condition and if left to filter through with a properly constructed pond filter system, the green water condition should clear up on it’s on in a few days and you will see you koi fish, goldfish, and pondfish swimming happily about because green water does not bother them or affect them at all!
So, although it is good practice to call your pond service maintenance provider about sudden changes in your pond’s water quality, it is most often just a matter of patience until your green pond turns into a clear pond again. At least until the next major rain event!!
- Rainy Day Blog