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Message: [QUOTE="Woland, post: 526149, member: 21223"] I have in my garden a pond, which is in fact a reinforced concrete cilinder which once (30-odd years ago) contained an outdoor tank for heating oil. The tank having been removed, the cilinder was probably deemed to difficult to lift out of the ground, and turned into an ad-hoc pond. With dimensions of 1.8 m in diameter by 1 m deep, it has a volume of approximately 2,500 liters. It is home to a few potted plants attached to the sides, some free-floating water soldiers ([I]Stratiotes aloides[/I]), an acceptable number of salamanders, frogs, insects or their larvae, and enough algae to drown a mule in. Maintenance is limited to me scooping out the algae and floating gunk once a week, and any sunken stuff once or twice a year. So, here's the thing: what can I do to get rid of the algae, and create a pond that looks as hospitable to water fauna as it actually is? Do I need a pump and filter, or can I get by with simpler means? Do I need to partially fill the pond with rocks to improve its surface-to-volume ratio? More plants? The pond's location is mostly sunny, with the shadow of a large beech moving over it in the afternoon, but direct sunlight barely reaches the bottom even this time of year. [/QUOTE]