Hey everyone,

I drained and cleaned my pond earlier today and it contains 6 goldfish and 2 red eared slider turtles. After filling the pond back up I added some water treatment like always and also added Algaefix to control the algae growth, turned the pump on and put the animals back in and everything seemed to be fine... I come outside a few hours later and there is white foam on the surface of the pond and the water is a little cloudy/milky... I have looked for answers on this but none of them mention the foam appearing after JUST cleaning the pond.

One of my turtles was also bleeding and I fixed him up but I dunno if that could have caused it or what might have caused it, I cleaned the foam out and took the fish back out and left just one turtle in there and the foam is still being produced.

If anyone has any ideas as to why this foam appeared it would be very helpful

Hey fugazi121,

First off, welcome to the board.

Foam is typically an indicator of organics in your pond. Even after cleaning your pond you may very well have some left over organics. Could be held up in your aquatic plants, your bio filter, or a number of other places. Without knowing your set up it's hard for me to pin point something.

It's not impossible somehow a bucket used for washing the car got used somehow in the pond cleaning and got some residual soap in the pond. There's something to think about but without knowing your personality, how would I know if you wash your own car or not. I'm just taking a stab at a couple things to make you think outside the box a bit.

If the fish are acting normal you are probably out of hot water.

If it is organics in the pond the foam will usually settle out after a day or two. There is a foam away product you can track down but by the time you get it, the foam will likely be mostly gone.

Did you ever have a foam issue in the pond after a heavy rain? Ponds with heavy organics will typically deal with a bit of foam after a good hard rain.

Hope that helps.

The Pond Digger

Hey!

Thanks for responding to my post.

I am kind of a novice at pond building, I bought a kit with a filter and pump that connects to a waterfall and waterbell. the filter is connected to the pump, its not a very large pump. The filter sits on the bottom on the pond. Its a 600gph pump the brand of the kit is Beckett.

I have never had an issue with foam before, this is the first instance since I installed the pond about 2 months ago. It was just strange because the water was crystal clear and everything seemed fine and then it was foamy and milky.

I had some hornwort in the pond for a little while but it liked to fall apart and turn the water green and essentially disappeared so there hasn't been any vegetation in the pond for a few weeks. I was going to buy some anacharis plants soon to have vegetation again.

I read somewhere that an animal that is injured releases some kind of chemical that can cause foam/milky water, but I don't know if that is true or not.

When I cleaned the pond, I scrubbed away the algae and dirt and rinsed the pond out several times and used a shop-vac to remove the water after each rinse.

Bingo we have some important information.

The pond is TOO NEW to do any major cleaning to it. It's still cycling. Let the algae do it's thing as your pond's ecosystem and filters become established. Once you have an established biofilter then we can tackle the algae head on.

With heavy ammonia and nitrite it is very possible to experience the foam. Milky water is a sign of ammonia and nitrite spikes.

I would suggest doing some water testing to check the levels of your ammonia and nitrite. Don't do any major cleaning for a couple of months. Only do water changes if needed to reduce toxic levels of ammonia or nitrite and ADD BENEFICIAL BACTERIA.

If you are in the contiguous United States we will gladly send you some samples of Beneficial bacteria. Just PM me your mailing address.

Stick around, ask questions and we'll do our best to guide you through the new pond stage.

Run the tests and give us an update.

The Pond Digger