So will these Barley Balls etc take care of existing algae or are they
only effective for when algae starts?

I was given a bag of barley straw (so I was told) from a friend who also
gave me a bunch of different lilies and plants etc. She said to immerse
it and hold it down with a brick. Its not slowed down the algae growth
one iota. I don't want to hurt the fish (feeder gold fish and a ton of
'skeeter eaters' our environmental health dept gave away free to pond
owners) nor the plants in my tiny 125 gal pond but that stuff is choking
the death out of my pump, and I'm cleaning daily now but losing the war.
And some of the 'skeeter eaters' were pregnant so I've at least 100 or
more babies under 1" long thriving in there.

Grandpa John (newbie to ponds this year)

Bill O'Meally wrote:

Benign Vanilla wrote:


On topic...I get some string algae, but it doesn't bother me. I just
pull some out from time to time. Besides SA is great for catching
pine needles and other debris.


I pull it out *every day*. It seems to grow a foot overnight. Also, I
have mosquitos for the first time. I wonder if the SA is harboring the
eggs/larvae so that the fish can't get to them. Could also just be the
exceptional amount of rain we've had in the midwest this spring.

Oh well, I guess I should just "Don't worry. Relax. Have a homebrew".
g