One of the nice things about using hydrogen peroxide is that it is a rather "forgiving" chemical when applied to your pond. Dosages that have been used successfully by myself and others are in the one to two pints per 1000 gallons applied about 5 - 7 days apart as needed. Others have used dosages up to 10 pints per 1000 gallons claiming no ill effect on their plants or fish. The use of hydrogen peroxide is also used by folks in the aquarium industry to supply a slightly supersaturated oxygen level in the water or as a way to quickly and safely elevate the oxygen levels within a water that is not adequately aerated. Having said all of that I believe, as stated above, you have to use a bit of common sense when using it. Dumping a whole pint in one spot in a pond instead of spreading it around to help disperse it doesnt seem to be a very good idea. If you have loads of algae and you kill it what will happen as other bacteria breakdown all that dead organic matter? Obviously the oxygen levels would drop. This is not usually too much of a problem at this time of year since the dissolved oxygen levels at the current water temperatures (32° F in my area at the moment!) can easily exceed 10-12 mg/L as well as the rate at which your fish and the pond bacteria are consuming oxygen in cool water regions is significantly lowered. But again, common sense would seem to suggest to try to remove most of it physically before dumping hydrogen peroxide into the pond. As to the "proven" benefits of barley straw: 1.) I am not aware of any peer-reviewed, scientific publications showing the specific benefits of barley straw demonstrated in a controlled, scientific study that says that it works. In fact, one non-peer reviewed discussion from someone with the appropriate credentials seems to suggest that the results from barely straw are a bit problematic (see the URL listed below). Furthermore you will find that many, if not most companies that were previously listing barley straw as an "algicide" on their websites and product brochures have been forced to remove such statements due to the lack of specific scientific studies to support the efficacy of barley straw. We can still use it and buy it for that purpose, theyÂre apparently just not allowed to advertise it for that. I use barley straw during the summer and consider it to fall in the "no harm" category... you probably canÂt harm you pond in using it and who knows, it might just help. I have yet to see barley straw provide any benefits anecdotal or otherwise once the water temperature drops below the mid-forties. The bacterial kinetics are just a bit too slow at that point. On the other hand, as Horton has mentioned above, string algae is very, very happy to be growing even at these cool temperatures. IÂve got a nice crop growing as we speak and canÂt run the pumps or filters during this time of year .... something about the temperatures going down to -15° F or so, freezing pipes, etc.! :-)) 2.) Of the reports listed implying the slow release of hydrogen peroxide in small amounts I have never seen any data where they have specifically measured peroxide levels either with or without barley straw. Many of the so-called studies discuss it, yack about it but I have yet to see a study telling me what the analytical method was that they were using to detect it or the levels they observed as the result of using barley straw. Yes hydrogen peroxide solutions can explode. Yes it is used for rocket fuel.....but not at 3% concentrations. Commercial/Industrial strengths can have up to 40% concentrations or higher with typical levels in the 10-12% range used in some swimming pool applications --- these are not the levels that the average pond owner is going to encounter. Long term storage of hydrogen peroxide solutions in chemistry labs is a problem due to potential hazards which I wonÂt bother to explain but this is not the issue for the average ponder or homeowner using 3% hydrogen peroxide and isnÂt trying to store it for more than a few months. ÂDavid

From the picture it appears you have no aeration in the pond. There are a wide variety of aerators on the market but you should consider sub-surface aeration. As a previous poster has mentioned, you have years of accumulated muck in this pond. As the algae blooms shown in the picture die, they will drop to the bottom and provide more nutrients in the pond, fueling additional algae and weed growth. Aeration allows naturally occurring bacteria to start to get rid of this decomposing material. In order to speed the process you should also consider adding bacteria. You can reduce the muck level by up to 5" per year with the proper bacterial formulation. You can make the pond clearer by using a flocculant. This binds excess nutrients in the water, drops them to the bottom, allowing the supplemental bacteria to get rid of these nutrients. Once you start treating the pond with natural products, you will start to see a clearer, less algae filled, clean smelling pond.

Dorothy, I know exactly what you mean about wanting it to look natural and fit in. Unfortunately, no matter how much planning you do, it's probably going to looked "plunked down" for a while, until the plantings fill in and it gets that settled look. In a year or two it will be better than you ever expected... People have given great ideas already, but I would agree with the suggestions to take your time and look at every pond/water garden magazine, book, website and tour you possibly can. And take any advise Cliff and Joann have to offer--one look at the pics of their pond and you'll see why. Missa7's idea about water coming up out of the ground is one that we used when building our pond. I didn't want any pipes, etc. showing (even in the winter when there wasn't any plant cover) and I didn't think water pouring out from under a pile of rocks would look natural either. Those were some of the reasons we decided to put in a bog-type gravel filter (shown below). It's not very visable, but the hollow log on the right side of the photo is where the intake hose for the bog is. The water flows up through the gravel and overflows into our big pond via both a stream and a small waterfall. We were lucky in that we actually have a bit of a slope in our middle-of-kansas yard so we didn't have to pile up dirt to make a waterfall. Below are two pictures of ponds that I think do a great job of adding waterfalls "gracefully" in what looks like relatively flat terrain. I have no idea whose ponds they are, but I wish I did so I could go visit! :-) Have fun coming up with ideas! Sherry

Hi Jenny, First, the more important questions: Nope, leaf peeper season hasn't started yet! That's usually the end of September - first week in October (for the Champlain Valley). Already many motels and Hotels are booked solid. Shoveling snow?? When one is retired it is irrelevant. You get up, you look out, you say "oh, it snowed last night; looks like 18". Isn't it pretty". You have another cup of tea/coffee; go back to bed or not. Wait until Spring to shovel out. Not-a-problem! Now to your questions: First let's deal with some heresy: a hole in your ice DOES NOT MATTER! Gasp! WHAT DID HE SAY??? Nope, it's all about providing a surface for gas exchange. IF... you're using a heater, a light bulb, stock tank heater, etc. then it IS about keeping a hole open since that is the only surface over which the gas exchange can take place. However, with an aerator the gas exchange surface is in the bubbles...NOT in the hole that may or may not be in the ice. All that air you pump in there has to go somewhere otherwise you'd have the equivalent of one of those air-hockey games only with an "ice puck" floating on an air cushion! But that doesn't happen...the air finds a way out - through a crack, through the edges, though a hole. So if it "domes over"...so what? The air is STILL finding a way out. And because you are pumping air in it is the aggregate surface area of all those bubbles that is providing the surface area for gas exchange...and it is HUGE! With a stocktank heater in our neighborhood with our winters you might get a few square feet for a hole although at -20F you might find it disappears! But the aeration approach continues to put out 10's of square feet of surface area every minute!!! As a result not only will you keep more than enough oxygen in there (not really that much of a problem given that the metabolisms for the fish are almost non-existent as well as the microbes involved in consuming organics - and oxygen - aren't doing too much...but still not exactly zero!) but you will be stripping out ammonia and carbon dioxide and other gases you wouldn't want trapped under the ice. This is the real benefit of the approach to using aeration. As to the plastic tent? Not sure it does too much although it does allow me to see the hole for an extra couple of months. But I've had it get ice inside, even an inch or so ABOVE the water level... but still not really relevant as long as the aerator/bubbler is doing it's thing. Note the ice auger in one picture...I went out to check one fine February day (think high of -10°F!). Couldn't really see a hole in the ice under the teepee. Drilled a hole and looked...yep, everything was working fine. But the ice melted out under the teepee more about a month before it melted out of the pond so there is some solar benefit. The real purpose of the floating thing is to hold the aerator above the bottom of the pond. As to adding a stock tank heater on the coldest days?? I wouldn't bother. If you lived in zone 6 or 7 you might have some impact on the temperature in or around the heater but in my zone (and I suspect yours) adding even a 2500 watt heater is akin to performing a particular bodily function into the wind! Yes, it probably will melt out a hole, but once the heater is down near the bottom of the pond with an outside temperature of say -15° or -25°F I suspect there will be no measurable impact on water temperature. Having a heater on hand, however, does provide a way to work on thawing out a line if it develops an ice plug. I don't own a heater since, as mentioned above, I use other approaches for that problem. Like I said.. it works for me and as posted in the URL above it works for other folks as well. The problem is to understand that you are not really trying to HEAT the water to some acceptable limit but rather maintain a surface area open for gas exchange. I like cheap. I like what works...and so far, over several years, it has worked for me. The biggest factor will be whether your pond depth and volume will provide the heat transfer necessary to keep a water layer below the ice, i.e., making sure the whole (no pun intended!) thing doesn't freeze up! ---David