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All I can say is all I have is a large bio filter, no algae, no green water, no uv light
Hopefully I've said bio filters are hit and miss at clearing green water. You may have read that I "don't". I think they certainly can. Trouble is that it isn't well understood of what it takes to promote the algae killing bacteria. For example streams have a good record of cleaning green water, bogs have a pretty good record, Trickle Tower type an OK record, fixed submerged filters not a good record.WB, you said somewhere that bio-filters don't get rid of green water, but according to Norm Meck's article it does.
How do you know it "slows" growth? Growth that isn't as much as you expected would likely be more attributed to your expectations than anything barley is doing.We found floating barley bails that you can plant plants in, they last 6 months and seem to slow the growth of the sting "ZZ Top" algae but not kill it off :.)
Was reading a thread last night were an experienced pond keeper had a big string algae problem and measured 0 nitrates and 0 phosphate. The zero doesn't mean absolute zero, but the amount of nutrients these plants need is very small. You're right that limiting nutrients can limit growth, but can we really notice 5-20% slower growth? Still probably a problem I should think.You can also introduce a phosphate pad (not sure if this is exactly what it's called) but it is blue and removes the phosphate that the string algae thrives on, that also helped slow the rate.
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