Algae from He**

Thanks for the info. I did a skim job yesterday and now that things
have resettled, the water could not be clearer. I am solidly against
chemicals and have worked very hard (or should I say smart) to get my
"balance". As far as fish go, I have about 12-14 goldfish up to 5" long
and I never feed them. There is also a green frog who has taken up
residence. It seems that the mosquito larvae and other food are enough
for the fish since thay have been thriving since the first two went in
a few years ago. I must say that it is amazing to see them lie on their
sides and wiggle over rocks to get to a morsel at the waters edge or to
jump like trout after a gnat. They are far from starving as their
growth and breeding can attest.

Anyway, back to the algae.
From descriptions here, I would have to guess that this is "hair
algae". How long will shade be required to wipe this stuff out? I know
that as it dies it will release nutrients and unbalance things a bit. I
plan to try and counter this by feeding some of my downspout water as a
flush. Has anyone tried this tactic?

Here is the plan:
I have a downspout that I will be feeing into a rectangular bucket.
Under a screen at the bottom, I plan to connect a length of garden hose
and drop it in the pond. At the top of the bucket will be an overflow
to take the bulk of the water away from the house. This should provide
a slow but steady feed of fresh water that should effectively flush the
pond in a similar way to a natural "stream fed" one.

Any thoughts?

Thanks again all!

Steve

plan to try and counter this by feeding some of my downspout water as a
flush. Has anyone tried this tactic?Steve

Wasn't it just last week we had another thread going about this?

All pretty negative. Anything on the roof gets washed in, pH is usually
acidic and has no buffering, so you'd be reducing your buffering in the
pond.

I think, in the long run, it would feed the algae. Algae floats in the air,
gets caught in rain drops, and that's one of the ways how it finds a clean
pond in the first place. If the water is clear, do more shading, shade
cloth above it, water lilies on the surface. You don't happen to have any
pictures you can put on the web or send to me in an E, do you? ~ jan

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