What can be done

[fish]

What can be done about slimmy green algae that forms around the leaves of plants in a pond? Any suggestions? Would barley straw help?

 

[Squidhead]

I can't answer the barley straw question from personal experience. I do remember reading many times it really doesn't do much for a severe problem. It may not do anything at all from the way I heard it described. Somebody with more experience with the stuff may be able to tell you.

Anyway, The first thing you can do is check your water parameters and see if you are high in Phosphate or Nitrates.
If not, you may need to do larger % or more frequent water changes to remove dissolved organics.

I will ask this in a new thread, but I wonder if others use snails in there ponds that have plants. You have to be careful what type because some can be destructive, but I know in an aquarium "pond snails" that usually come on your plants are really useful. The only issue is if your water parameters are the problem because the more food / algae you have, the larger the population will grow.
I will post this for my own self, but I wonder if anyone ever uses snails in their ponds.

 

[koiguy1969]

many of us have snails...trapdoor snails...theyre live bearers and hearty eaters of alge not your plants.

 

[Squidhead]

many of us have snails...trapdoor snails...theyre live bearers and hearty eaters of alge not your plants.

Very Good then! Saved me the trouble of the post. Had to run before I could actually get it on the board.

 

[koikeepr]

Personally, I am not a fan of snails or mollusks of any kind in a pond. I don't like the fact that they can die and you just don't quite know if they are alive or not--and then it pollutes your water.

Just another perspective.

 

[addy1]

With my pond in arizona, when the heat really hit, it would get horrible string algae. I found via searching the net a fix that worked. That pond did not have koi, but did have large goldfish. The pond was around 15000 gallons. I bought at costco hydrogen peroxide, 1 liter bottles, poured into the stream 1 liter per 1000 gallons.
This killed the algae. One treatment a year usually worked. The fish never seemed bothered by this treatment. The cost around $14.00.

This is my arizona pond, have a professional taking care of it while the house is rented, waiting for the market to improve before i can sell it.........

The waterfall is the natural bio filter.

 

[CliffandJoann]

Our koi eat the algae, that also can be a problem, especially with lilies :regular_waving_emot
We helplessly stand by while they munch on our lily leaves and buds that
have a bit of algae on them....yum
I agree with koikeeper, no snails for us.

Once the koi get big, they eat all
the algae and string algae (in early Spring) on the side walls that they can get.
In our bio pond, we scoop out all the string algae on the side walls
that grows in the early Spring and throw it into the big pond.

It's like giving them candy.

 

[addy1]

neat, this pond has gold fish, they can't eat it fast enough

 

[stroppy]

neat, this pond has gold fish, they can't eat it fast enough

i have goldfish and mine are doing a great job of eating my long string algae and most of my other plants !!!

 

[koikeepr]

With my pond in arizona, when the heat really hit, it would get horrible string algae. I found via searching the net a fix that worked. That pond did not have koi, but did have large goldfish. The pond was around 15000 gallons. I bought at costco hydrogen peroxide, 1 liter bottles, poured into the stream 1 liter per 1000 gallons.
This killed the algae. One treatment a year usually worked. The fish never seemed bothered by this treatment. The cost around $14.00.

This is my arizona pond, have a professional taking care of it while the house is rented, waiting for the market to improve before i can sell it.........

The waterfall is the natural bio filter.

Hi addy.

We've been talking about this hydrogen peroxide method for killing string algae a few times this spring.

Can you elaborate further on your process so that it can help others. Please explain what the algae looked like when it died, how you went about removing the dead algae, and how long it took to get everything back to normal, etc. Give us lots of deets on your experience if you could.

 

[addy1]

Missed the chat about peroxide. What I would do is pull out what I could using a whatever would grab it. The string algae was just that, long green strands of algae that looked like string. Within a few days it would fill my pond. It would hit mainly mid June, when our heat and sun really got the water warming up. The algae would attach to the walls of the pond. It would also grow from any goop on the bottom of the pond, like a tree of algae. Hate the stuff!
My pond there is around 5 feet deep. No rocks.

Once I removed as much as I could, or felt like dealing with, I would pour the peroxide in the stream, 14 liters, the algae would die within a day or so. I would then remove as much of the dead algae as possible. Within a week or so the pond would be clear again.

The professional taking care of the pond currently, is using peroxide granules to control the stuff and barley.

I could ask him where he gets the granules from if there is interest. We keep in touch via emails.