The flowers are blooming and the allergy sufferers know it only too well: the pollen count! We can see the powdery yellow coating on our cars and on the forest paths. The pollen count and small leaves are floating through the air and reaching our ponds in huge amounts. This doesn’t only look bad, it also means an increase of nutrients in the pond water. Deposits from the atmosphere, from so-called diffuse sources, the nutrient concentration in starting water (e.g. well water or groundwater in the countrysite) or nutrients in water from the flowerbeds around the pond are also considerable sources.
Phosphates, which cause strong algae growth, are the main problem. If you don’t act now unwanted layers of algae (thread algae) or green water (floating algae) will cloud your view into the pond very soon. Many natural lakes are struggling with this problem right now.
What needs to be done?
1. Binding nutrients: the most important step is to bind the excess nutrients. They enter the pond throughout the sunny season, which makes a continuous binding necessary. The special filter material JBL PhosEX Pond Filter is particularly suitable for this. It is integrated into the water circuit of the filter and absorbs the phoshphate of the water as it passes. In order to quickly and effectively bind larger amounts of phosphate you can add JBL PhosExPond Direct as a liquid to the pond water at 5-7 day intervals to absorb the free floating phosphates inside the water. The nutrients are precipitated and removed from the pond bottom by the filter, or siphoned by a pond vacuum cleaner.
2. Mechanical removal: with the increasing entry of pollen and blossoms into the pond the filter media will clog faster. Therefore clean your filter media regularly to mechanically remove the nutrients, bound in the sludge before they can dissolve in the water.
3. Skimming the water surface: before pollen, blossoms and insects have a chance to sink from the surface to the ground they can be mechanically removed by a surface skimmer. Clean the pond daily and separate the phosphate sources from the pond system before they dissolve in the water.
To keep the risk of algae under control a water test ( JBL PROAQUATEST PO4 Phosphat Sensitive ) will help you to determine the unwanted algae nutrient phosphate. Only when you look behind the scenes to control your pond water can you prevent algae before they develop.
But be careful: a water test only determines the free floating phosphates in the water. The moment they are absorbed by the algae the test can’t measure them anymore. Only after their release, when the algae die, are they dissolved in the water again.
