There are all kinds of freshwater algae and aquatic plants that make great soil amendments, the only problem is they contain a whole lot of water, and are pretty heavy. So it becomes a question of quantity. It's fairly easy to move a bucket of gloppy blue-green algae and slosh that around a plant or two. Its another question to move a cubic yard of the stuff. I have a pond, and I've found the best way to 'harvest' the algae is to let the pond dry naturally over the winter, and then I go shovel up the top 1 inch of soil/dried algae. This is great stuff, and I use it in beds, container soil mixtures; all around. I am still trying to find a way to harvest and use fresh cattails. I should think they would make a great mulch.

Watershaper, we have a UV light for a year now. The pond water is quite clear, but this is floating algae only on the surface. I think it is blanketweed and it forms from the bottom daily. We have a large pond about 17-19,000 gallons with a biofilter which we seed regularly with beneficial bacteria. We've tried barley. These things did not work. We have about 50% coverage with waterlilies which continue to grow, but our pond is in full, blazing FL sun. Things such as water hyacinths and anacharis are invasive here in FL and we are close to many waterways. We have ducks that visit our pond regularly who could be carriers of pieces of plants. I have some marginals, but plan on getting more. We also plan on having the pond professionally vaccuumed soon. The water colorant is the only other thing I can think of trying. We have lots of tadpoles and snails as scavengers, but apparently this isn't enough. My pond needs to lose this algae! What are the bad points of the dye? Also, how long does it last? Jeffken, I'm glad you feel this could work. I only have a little hope left! Yes, I would do the black dye. Thank-you all who responded. Anna

I've been going by the BBB method that kurtv uses and have had a great pool ever since. I think that you need to get your chlorine levels up. The SWG makes chlorine, so why can't you add some already made to get the pool up to shock levels? Last year I went on vacation and left my the fathers to take care of the pool. They dumped shock and yellow out in it and I came home to a green pool. I immediately started reading and decided to try the BBB method. After all, the chart was easy to read and there was lots of information there...more than what I got from any other site. I stopped using the chlorinator that came with the pool and started using bleach. I made sure to rinse the filters often until I didn't see anymore green. It has been a breeze ever since. The green has never reappeared. I will say, that I took a sample to Leslie's to see what they said, too, and if I had listened to them, I would have added a ton of chemicals that I didn't need. I followed the info on the BBB site, took the water to a local pool store, and they told me I was doing great. (I buy my acid from them...but that's it). The only thing I don't like is that I can't register on that site. I was getting ready to sign in and they closed the new registrations on that day. If I have a question, I post here. The only thing that I got in the beginning was calcium on my tile that released from the new grout. I use vinegar and a scrub brush to get rid of that. Good luck!

We are new to the forum and live in the NW UK. We have a natural pond approx 10m x 2m that is 2 years old. It has reasonable plant coverage now and plenty of newts but little frogspawn this year. However, this year the pond has been taken over by green globular jelly algae. The globules are around 1-2cm across and appear to have air bubbles in them and range from a bright green to brownish green colour. They maintain their shape when taken out of the water. I have search the web for info but found nothing at all. I notice that there was string on the subject in 2005 with no real resolution. I have uploaded some pictures. Can anyone tell us what these green invaders are and how to get rid of them, if indeed if need to get rid of them. Thanks alot Image link: