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Right - update on this...
Got all the luminous green water out of the pond, cleaned it out and filled with hose water. Then left it a few days. Pretty quickly seemed to become a home to many mosquito larvae - but this seems an important first step as other stuff likes to eat them.
The game changer was getting some pond weed (elodea i think). I (probably illegally) scooped it from a pond in Richmond Park using our spaghetti scoop and brought it home in a dry bag. The King's pond weed is now thriving in our little garden in Ham and has kept the water crystal clear. On a sunny day you can see the streams of photosynthesis bubbles oxygenating the water. Very satisfying.
The pond is now home to all manner of creepy crawlies. Pretty sure there is a whole load of dragon fly larvae in there, plus lots of smaller crawly / swimming things. For a while we had a proper pond skater, which was lovely. The best bit though was finding a frog under one of the stones we put in. Success!
I'm over the moon with how well it's progressed through late summer and early autumn. Cant wait to see what the spring and summer bring considering the amount of creatures now bedding in for winter.
The one thing I cant identify is in the picture below. Two of these appeared looking like spidery things, under the water holding onto the weed. Since then they seem to have semi coccooned themselves / detached their legs? Whatever they are up to, it's taking days. Any ideas what on earth are they?
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Scrabble
Google green water. Too much nitrates/crap in the water.
Get some oxygenating plants and do a water change if you can to dilute the nitrate. The plants will use the nitrate for food/fertiliser. If you have enough oxygenating plants in there it will balance out and the water will stay clear.
Fish and water boatmen will eat other insects/tadpoles etc. best not to introduce either if you can. Or duckweed as you will never get rid of the stuff.