smelly pond water

hi we have a wooden pond in back garden with water fall cascade the pump is cleaned regularily but the water smells we are putting in barley suger extract , should we be putting in any thing else as we would like some fish at some point or is smelly water a common problem with ponds thanks for your help and advice

 

Hi ... its shouldn't be smelly as anything fallen in and died ? Before you get any fish I would change the water 100% with fresh

 

many thanks for your reply i cant see anything falling in the pond as the whole area is netted , would there be a easy way to empty pond if i had to apart from a bucket as we are disabled thanks for your help

 

I'd go against the idea of replacing the water, especially if you are going to use tap water.

Although not smelly as such, pond water does always have kind of smell, I wouldn't say it is odorless.

As far as I know barley straw extract is used to stop algae forming, which really is a spring /early summer problem.

 

I read before that in establishing a pond it is worth getting a bucket of water from an existing natural pond and putting that into the new one that you build. This natural pond water will have microscopic and other life forms that are adapted to live off things that will grow in your pond like algae. Your water may be seeded with the wrong balance of life forms if you are just using tap water as the main way to fill it as this will have a lot of living things filtered out and killed when it is processed to make it suitable for drinking.

Not wanting to keep fish I did this with my own pond and although there is no filtering or additives I have not noticed it being smelly. It is cloudy at times but this I view as natural and I have no problem with. Here is a video clip showing some of the water skaters that were enjoying the pond within a few weeks of adding the natural pond water and there were also some diving beetles active very quickly. The type of fish you are keeping is also relevant to how much it needs to be filtered with some fish like carp and goldfish fairly tolerant of standing pond water while others like trout only able to survive in clean aerated water like you would get in actively flowing streams and rivers.

You could have some bacteria in your pond water producing gases that have bad odors like hydrogen cyanide. Introducing organisms that will feed on these before the numbers build up to be a problem by adding a bucket of pond water with an established ecosystem of pond life might be worth trying.
Happy gardening!

 

many thanks for your most helpfull response , with our pond apart from natural rain water there is tap water used to fill up pond , as we have no way of getting natural pond water how would we get the tap water additives out of our pond
i did read some where that taking things like frogs spawn etc is illegal but no conformation really but would this not be the same issue with pond water etc. can we use chemicals to establish our pond and woundering if the green slime algae is due to tap water , we would like to have gold fish at some point as we only have a small pond 6 foot by 4 foot by 2 foot high

 

Hi.
I was not saying you need to use just natural pond water for the full pond but just a sample of it to add in the basic ecological components to that pond that will be missing from tap and rain water. There are amoeba and a whole range of microscopic animals that swim about in an established pond and just a jam jar full would contain a good number of them. Could you visit a local park or wild area that has a pond and bring a jam jar to fill and seal up to bring back to your garden pond or ask someone to do this for you? I was lucky to have a small river within walking distance that has a few small ponds at its edge and just scooping up a bucket and carrying it back was fairly easy. I don't think there are any laws protecting the zooplankton that you might find in an established pond and a lot of these organisms multiply fairly rapidly in the right conditions so their numbers are not under threat like some types of frog.

I think I heard before that just leaving tap water sit out in the open for a few hours allows the disinfectant chemicals that can be harmful to fish naturally find their way out of the water. I think the chemicals just evaporate. I don't think chemicals to help establish your pond ecosystem could work in the same way as adding the living things found in established pond water. Seeing as your pond is a similar size to a large aquarium you might be able to get some help from a pet shop.

 

many thanks for your help and advice , we do go up to a park every morning that has a large pond but concerns over that we heard your not allowed to take anything from a public park
we will have to be sneeky i think , wouldnt rain water have the same response apart from the creatures from a pond

 

If the water in your pond has not been changed for a long time the water should be ok.
It tends to mature over time any way and the addition of the plants would have helped.
That is the reason I suggested you shouldn't change the water.
What kind of fish are you thinking of getting?

 

I'd be very surprised if someone gave you any trouble about taking a scoop of water from the public park pond but if it makes you feel better about it give a check about the place for the park caretaker before you take some. Rain water is not really the same as it is the creatures from the established pond that make the difference in establishing an ecosystem in the new pond. Hope it helps solve your problem with the new pond water smell and if not the place that sells the goldfish may have some other recommendations.

 

hi thanks for your reply i think as the pond is small 6ft x 4ft about having goldfish not sure if anything else would be suitable for the pond , i have also heard that the uv filter in the pump might be a issue with the algae all over the wooden pond

 

Yeah, make sure the UV is working well, you will get staining on the timber I don't think you can avoid that.
I'd guess goldfish would be best also, you can get fancy types but they are probably not as hardy as the bog standard version.

 

Just one useful tip to have an idea whether the water is being polluted. If it's green or brown, it could be rotting vegetable matter. Leaves, decaying pond plants etc. If the water's milky, that is a sign of decaying animal matter...drowned frogs, toads, hedgehogs etc. It shouldn't be too much of a problem with a raised pond, but you never know!
It wouldn't be run-off from the compost in the planter above, would it?

 

thanks for your reply the stain on the wood seems to be green dont think the issue would be veg matter but i will look at the plants in the pond as the pond is covered over with netting , with the planter at the top the planter has got membrane in for the soil and plants in the planter but there is alot of soil from the plants in the pond , i was woundering with the green stain on the wood would that be coming from the fountain as it is left on all the time even in windy weather so would it be better to change the pump to one that does not have a fountain connection and just have the waterfall feature running , thanks for your help and advice

 

I think unless you use an algaecide in the water, (something you dont want to do as it kills everything) you will get green staining on any wood that stays wet all the time.

Personally I would do away with the fountain, you should be able to just remove it from the top of the pump, it is usually optional.