Controling pond algae

[Shelly]

I assume some of you have a backyard pond. I got my first one a few months ago, and am having trouble controlling algae.
When I use a commercial algae controller, it messes up the biological filter, and the water gets all murky for several days. By the time the water clears up, the algae starts returning.
I have heard that rock salt can be added to the water to control algae, but do not know how much to add, or any other details. Can somebody help me out please?

 

[Itort]

Duckweed will shade out algae and very successfully compete for nutrients. The rock salt will kill some algae and encourage others.

 

[Yvonne G]

It usually means you have too much nitrogen in the water. Since your pond is fairly new, you might just have to adopt a wait-and-see attitude to see if it doesn't clear up on its own. Here's a good article for you to read:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1917&articleid=2259

Yvonne

 

[terryo]

I get this tip of the week letter....


Below is the weekly water gardening tip from WaterGarden.com that you requested.



June 17, 2008

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The Water Garden's Tip of the Week

Draining a pond with green water is not a solution to an algae problem. A pond needs to develop into an ecosystem to create the best balance for long-term success. Draining the pond starts the pond over, delaying this process. The green water would return in a matter of days after the cleaning. Please see our page on algae control methods for better success.

How to Control Pond Algae
http://watergarden.com/pages/pond-algae.html

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[Diana Stone]

If your talking about green water algae, get a UV unit. I had a pond for a long time at another house, had one of those and never had green water.

 

[terryo]

http://www.watergarden.org/s.nl/sc.2/category.23/.f
I agree...I have a UV attached to my filter, and never have algae since I got it. These are some of my Koi, in the big pond.

 

[Shelly]

I don't have a mechanical filter, only a gravel "biological" filter, so I don't know how a UV system could be hooked up.
As for duckweed, my turtles would eat all that up in a heartbeat.
I think the heart of the problem is that the pond gets about 8 hours of direct sun, and here in So Cal, it's been over 100 degrees for the past week....

 

[Diana Stone]

I believe you don't have to hook the UV to a filter. Just to a pump and have it come out the other end some how, maybe a fountain head or just out he end of a tube. Fexible tubing is all you should need. You can get one that can be submersed or not.

 

[terryo]

I bought mine already made. The water is pulled through the pump, which is in the water. It goes to the bio filter which has a built in light over the media, which the water passes through going back into the pond. The first UV bulb I bought was seperate. I attached it to the top of the bio filter, so the water had to pass under it as it went into the filter media.

 

[Chipdog]

just my 2 cents from a guy that just sold his aquarium and pond maintenances business.

If you have turtles in a pond you should really think of getting a mechanical filter. Although a bio filter will work to keep your pond clean no bio filter will keep up with the amount your turts will be "contributing" to the pond. As the nutrients build up the algae will become more and more of a problem.
Just think algae is a plant and when you want your plants in the garden to grow better you fertilize them. So your turts are fertilizing your algae. Also by adding chemicals to kill off the algae you are just adding that same fertilizer back to the pond when the algae dies off and decomposes. Making is a better place for the algae to grow again.

Without knowing the size of your pond it would be hard to point you in the right direction of a filter but I feel that you need some mechanical filtration to remove the nutrients from the water.

Is it possible to post a pic of your pond?

Chip