albartsch, The obvious question is coming; how long have you had your pond? I've seen people mentioned here and else where that a pond takes a year or more to mature. My pond has gone through three clear / green/ brown / clear cycles since I started it up in October. Sometimes it just takes time, and patience. Allow for the beneficial bacteria to catch up. Don't feed your fish for awhile, clean out any floating debris on your pond surface, check to see that your UV is working right (Not burnt out -UV loses a lot of its effectiveness when it runs through a heavy green sheet), and make sure your filters are free of build-up. And one day, you'll come out and BAM; it's clear. LP

2 habaneros diced very fine 4 T butter non salted 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 cup milk or cream 1/2 cup fresh sliced strawberries melt butter over low heat, add diced habs (no seeds) cook and mash the habs for 3-5 minutes, add brown sugar stir constantly until melted, add vanilla and cream cook stirring constantly until caramel like consistancy. add strawberries and serve over vanilla or chocolate ice cream. the combination of HOT and cold and HOT and sweet is simply amazing. I like it better when I used my Red Savina hybrids - they have a slightly cinnamon after taste. I sent a recipe to Ben and Jerry's but the bas..rds just now claim to own it and say they will prosecute me if I send it on to anyone, so here it is for everyone. Even folks that are afraid of chili peppers enjoyed this, most asked for seconds heheheheheh. Enjoy it!! TiMo

If the floors are that stained I vote to paint them. If the stains are mostly in the center you could stain and varnish them and do faux wood planks. In either case I would paint some area rugs to add interest and warmth. Place your furniture first so you know how big. Wood planks are easy. Draw your "planks" with a ruler and a magic marker. Make two dots/nail heads in the end of each "plank". Then stain and varnish. I think a painted rug would add a lot of charm and still fit your budget. Do a search on painted floor cloths for some examples. Even if youre not artistic you could do something geometric with circles and squares if you use painters tape. Or you could do a braided rug. A braided rug looks hard but its really just time consuming. THe "braid" is made with small foam brushes. You need one for each color. Hold your brush upright and dab it on the floor to make a line \ then /. THis makes your "braid". Start in the center of your "rug" and work your way out making a spiral of different color \ / dabs. Its only paint. If you screw up just wipe it off and start over. Dont forget to seal your creation with a couple coats of varnish.

The long fish you are describing sounds like small largemouth bass. 1) clarity. Clarity was probably impacted by removing cattails. They pull nutrients out of the water and they capture sediment from rain. Skip the fountain and go straight for aeration. It's a very small pond (1/10th acre) and a 1/8hp blower should suffice. 2)Cattails. Cattails are great habitat and filtration. I can understand why you would want to remove them but they are also quite useful. They should be cut back in the fall and the brown matter removed to be composted or used as mulch. You can keep some areas clear with pond safe herbicides. No, there are no fish or plants that will control or outcompete it. Muskrat eat cattails but that cure can be worse than the cattails if you have a dam. 3) string algae. String algae happens, but reducing the nutrients load in the pond will go a long way towards controlling algae outbreaks. Remove all dead plant matter in the fall. Cattails don't grow in water over 2' deep. So one method of keeping shoreline areas clear is to restructure the pond edge so that it is not a gradual slope. Riprap can slow it down and create a clear delineation of where to spray to control the cattails.