If the algae bloom is continuing you might want to try some additional temporary filtration. There are lots of discussions you can find with a search. Here is one example from one of them. Posted by pat_c 5/ N W OHIO (My Page) on Mon, May 19, 08 at 17:48 Here's an old trick Horton taught me years ago. Take a clean tall kitchen trash can. Cut a series of holes in the side at the bottom. Do this on only one side of the trash can. Get a box of poly batt at walmart. Unwind it and stuff it in the bottom of the trash can and set the trash can at the edge of the pond with the side with the holes facing toward the pond. Then run a hose from your pond to the top of the trash can. The water will fill the can and run down thru the batt and filter. Then it will run out the holes in the can back into the pond. Run this for 2-3 days and I promise the pond will clear. You will have to clean the Batt evry so often but it will trap all that suspended algae. I only had to do this once and my pond cleared and stayed clear. I do agree with the others that rocks on the bottom only invite trouble. They look good for a week and then spoil the pond beacuse they WILL get covered with algae. Then, you can't see them anyway so what's the point? The only other product I ever had good luck with is ALgaefix. But Once I used the Horton method, I no longer had to use that! Good luck, we have all been where you are." I suspect more poly quilt batting is sold to ponders than to quilters.LOL! Don't get the bags of stuffing, the rolls of material work better than the stuffing and is worth the extra money. The stuffing material can cause more problems if the short fibers work their way loose and wind up in the pump impeller. Sandy

Okay, once I made my pond substantially larger last year I had the obligatory algae bloom and then Clear Clear water. That was until I had an early autumn here in the midwest and a maple tree filled my pond with leaves (prior to me netting the pond). Since that time I've only had tea-colored water (!!!), and it has confounded me! I've cleared the leaves from the pond long ago but I still have tea colored water, it is now almost June of the following year. The Professor has pointed out that a nearby mulched garden bed could be fouling my water. It's a long shot but maybe. I'm working on curing that now by introducing a larger rock-lined edge around the pond. But I'm interested in some things that Sandy has said in another post about anerobic bacteria / die off of good bacteria / sulphur smell and lack of oxygen. It has made me think of this above posting by Watershaper talking about flocculent (sp)-- I think I know what this (flocculent) is but I'll have to do more research-- and activated carbon, as well as oxygenation. My setup is a 2800 gal pond focusing on aquatic plants, I have about 8 large marginals, and 8 hardy water lilies. I have a large Savio skimmer and an Atlantic Bio-Falls. The plants in the bio-falls are starting to root now. The other plants are doing so-so; larger ones have gotten fertilized with Highland Rim tabs for the first time this spring ( I didn't do this last year), but smaller plants seem to struggle. Of my overall 2800 gals most of this is in the lower pool, where I have the water lilies. The depth is about 34 inches with several shelves. I have a wide but short height falls between the upper and lower pools, only about six inches of falls by 40 inches wide (weir). The upper pool is approximately 200 gals. This is where I've put most of the marginals, the depth is only about 18 inches (deepest) with about 12" the norm. I have everything in pots in sandy-clay soil with pebbles or sand tops. I have the bio-falls up stream from the upper pool and about a five foot quick descending stream between them. It is lined with rounded cobbles. I have been fighting string algae all winter and spring. Again, I've been fighting STRING ALGAE ALL WINTER & SPRING! While I've gotten a hold of it in the lower (larger) pool, the stuff is still forming anew in the upper pool around the plants and rocks of the stream... this is coming right off the bio-falls! I haven't been able to figure this out. Why would the water coming off the vegetative filtration be the most prone to develop the algae?! I'VE ADDED SOME HYDROGEN PEROXIDE TO THE MORE STILL WATERS AND IT SEEMS TO KILL THE ALGAE, AT LEAST IT CLUMPS AND I CAN SCOOP IT OUT IN A DAY OR TWO. But why would my bio-falls and stream bed coming off the falls be so prone to algae just when the vegetative filter is starting to really grow? This should be the exact opposite, should it not! :( Next, I actually have two pumps in my Savio skimmer basin. One I have going to the Bio-Falls and the other I have going to a pipe with cut out holes that discharges just under the weir of the bio-falls to create a rapids effect. Both pumps are Laguna 3500 gph (I would estimate a 12 foot head, so they what, discharge about like a 2800 gph pump). Okay, so that's the setup. A few fish, 12 to 15. Mainly Fancy Goldfish of medium size, less than four inches. I test the water chemistry almost weekly. Here it is, without fail: pH: 8.5 ( I no longer try adjusting pH down ) KH: 9.25 degrees or 166ppm ( I buffer with Baking Soda as needed) GH: 3 to 5 degrees Nitrite: Nitrate: (hard to read the scale but no more than this) CO2: (not sure if the chart the Tetra Pond Test Kit gives is good for ponds because it says for aquariums on the CO2 sheet, but given the pH and KH it would be 0.8mg/lf Water Temp.: fluctuating this spring between 64 F and 73 F. The above results were from yesterday (almost any day) at 73 F in the late afternoon. So... Okay, I've had the "rapids-creating pump" off for a few days just to save electricity dollars. But I turn it on today after a good 2 weeks off. I get a huge plum of fine muck like sediment discharged thru my rapids pipe and into my stream & upper pool and there is a very strong sulphur smell that lingers for about 4 or 5 minutes, it makes me think of Sandy's previous post about anerobic bacteria creating the smell and killing the beneficial bacteria. Would this account for why my bio-falls is not "eating-up" my excess nutrients that cause my string algae (occurring IN and close to the falls)??? I have a lot of fine sediment on the bottom of my pond. It is only about quarter of an inch deep sediment but it seems to be stirred-up quickly by any kind of movement. Is this causing my water to be tea-colored? It's so fine. If I move the net into the lily pool to remove string algae I get a cloud of fine, brown debris. I believe this is what my second pump, when I turned it on for the rapids, sucked up the pipe to the cloud and stink-up (sulphur) my stream bed. So Watershaper says use a flocculent. I haven't goggled "flocculant" yet but I imagine it is something to bind particulate together. Okay. Might work. He also says add "activated carbon" which I believe is a form of charcoal. Where do you get this? I mean besides the pond store that sells it like gold? What else am I missing? Professor? Oh I know, I want to ask about Oxygen that's dispersed in the water. I believe the pond gets an oxygen boost from three sources in my pools. First I have the falls from the vegetative bio-filter, this is the Atlantic Bio-Falls; then I get oxygen (I think) from the rapids of the steep stream; then, I believe I get oxygen from the 6 inch falls located between the small upper pool and lily pond pool. My question is this: how does oxygen travel in a larger pool of water? If my lower pool is roughly 2400 gal. and all of the turbulence is on the west side, is the far east side of that lower pool being oxygentated? I wonder. Sandy indicated that she cleared water by adding a bubbler to smaller pools. Can it be that with one or two 2800 to 3500 gph pumps in this roughly 3000 gal pond that I'm still not getting enough oxygen to make things balance??? What you say?

Water hyacinth is great at filtering out sediment if the water flows through the feather like roots. Hyacinth is also great at absorbing excess nutrients thereby reducing the food-source for the green algae. The problem with Hyacinth is that it is a tropical plant and doesn't grow well until the water is warm. The green suspended algae bloom will take place as soon as the ice thaws in early spring. The best plants to help in the cold climates are the very early growers, I like marsh marigold, it sprouts earlier than any others I've found and gives my garden an early burst of color. Barley bails control string algae which is a problem later in the spring. I add a barley bail shortly after the thaw and hide it under the marsh marigold leaves. Like I said, no algae problems in years.

Hi Peggy, First... you probably WON'T have an algae bloom with the Savio filters on there with the 5000gph pump. I only install Savio brand skimmers and filters because they work. I'm in southern NH and none of my ponds (several dozen in MA and NH) get algae blooms. Just be sure to seed your filter and stream with bacteria well in the spring when you open it. I use Crystal Clear Clarity Max Plus, (the plus is barley) but there are several good brands. Second... You can plant directly in gravel, no soil or kitty litter is required. The plants will get their nutrients directly from the water. Third... You can add fish and plants immediately, you don't have to wait. The reasons for waiting are so the chlorine that is added to city water dissipates, but you're on a well, so there are no added chemicals, and for the plants to grow and give the fish some cover from predators. Yes, regular goldfish will thrive in your pond. In fact, I always recommend that new pond owners get cheap fish to start with. I had a client who bought 7 show quality Koi for $1000 each and lost them all to a heron. (That was undoubtedly the most expensive buffet that bird had ever been to!) Now he buys $5 comets and calls them bird food. Good Luck! Derreck