Algae control

[Killian]

My pond is full of algae. it is like candy floss, you can you can put a stick in the water twist it round and all the goo comes out.

is there anyway of controling it? would it be a worse idea to add duckweed? this will smother the algea but might have its own problems.

[adamanuran]

I despise lesser duckweed (L. minor) with a passion, once you have it you never get rid of it!!! Try filling the pond with as many submerged higher plants as possible once they become established they control the amount of nutrients that the algae need to grow.

[willj]

hornwort is good for getting rid of nutrients, i'd say duckweed is a lot better then algae, but it will shade out any submerged plants

[Pollywog]

There are several products on the market (including 1 made here in Malvern) that rid ponds of algae and are safe for use with amphibians and their larvae.
The old fashined way........ and it does work.......... is to place a small amount of barley straw into the pond.

[willj]

i can vouch for the barley straw menthod!

if you use an algae weed killer (i assume that's what it is) then will that not make the water worse with the dead and dying algae?

another method would be to drain the pond, scrob the sides and plants to get rid of as much algae as possible, then fill with water and and the ?weed killer?

[Pollywog]

yes if you use the chemicals the instructions do tell you to thouroughly clean the pond and remove as much algae as possible first. Each product is different best to go to your local aquarists and have a look at what they have to choose from.

[willj]

yeah, it would be useless otherwise. just never use fertilisers either, they are pointless, most water plants like low nutrient levels anyway.

do you have a water lily? that will help in the summer.