The String Algae Blues...

Article by: Brett Fogle

Now that Spring , It’s Gardening Season! is upon us and things are coming back to life in your pond , Culinary Herb Gardening with the warmer weather, , Saving money on European travel with rail passes many of us are battling with string algae. String algae is caused primarily by a combination of the buildup of organic , Saving money on European travel with rail passes nutrients in the water, , The Benefits Of A Professional Realtor® and sunlight.

What happens is that during winter, , It’s Gardening Season! when things slow down and many of us turn off our filters, decaying leaves and other organic , A Look at Flower Bulbs for Sale matter (including fish , Granite might of stone - Info and Facts waste) begin to break down in the pond. , Authenticity Of Vastu (Science of Indian architecture)

The result is an excess of organic , Dill: The Most Important Culinary Herb in Scandinavia nutrients in the water, , Start Your Next Home Improvement Project With Tools and Hard which is essentially food , Use of Fountains and Statuary in English Monastic Gardens for algae growth. Add sunlight and some warmer weather , How to make YOUR house the one they WANT to these conditions, and you have an ideal environment , Why Should You Create A Butterfly Garden? for algae growth, both the green water , How To Slash The Cost Of Consumption... By Using and string algae varieties.

The green water, , Disaster Planning or 'pea soup' algae is easily eradicated with a properly sized UV sterilizer, which we highly recommend. String algae, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated and difficult to get rid of.

Because it is usually attached to the walls , Old House Remodeling: Removing Old Tile and Glue and rocks of the pond, , How to make YOUR house the one they WANT it becomes more difficult to get rid of and unfortunately, there aren't and easy solutions. But we are going to outline a few remedies here that will help. First, we recommend a pond , Some Ideas on Getting Started with Garden Landscaping cleaning - if possible. For those of you who don't clean your pond , How to make YOUR house the one they WANT at least once annually, there are many good reasons to do this.

By cleaning out your pond, , How To Slash The Cost Of Water Consumption... By Using and removing as much of the decaying organic , Rose Winter Care Tips material from the bottom, you are also removing much of the 'food' for the algae.

Another good thing to do is to cut back on feeding your fish, , A Look at Flower Bulbs for Sale until you get your string algae under control. The fish food, , How to Find a Pond Leak both eaten and digested, and the uneaten food, , The Perfect Garden Sundial will both also contribute to this algae growth - so don't worry about the fish, , Gardening Without Pests just stop feeding for awhile.

There are several products , Use of Fountains and Statuary in English Monastic Gardens available which can and will 'help' with the string algae problem, like barley bales and/or barley pellets. The idea is that by adding these to the pond, , Why Rose Gardening Is So Addictive they will also start to decay in the water, , A Look at Planting Flower Bulbs and the resulting natural , Making Space In Your Home 'humic acids' will actually oxidize the algae, and help keep it under control.

Farmers in the 13th century noticed that lakes with bales of barley straw , Why Rose Gardening Is So Addictive in them, had much less muck and string algae in them. So, now we use them in fish ponds. , Roses - Creating Beautiful Cut Roses Barley pellets are a newer version of the same idea, but will generally start working faster. Barley straw , A Look at Planting Flower Bulbs needs several weeks before it starts working, and only after it starts to 'rot' in the water. , Saving money on European travel with rail passes

Another way to help with string algae is to raise your salt level in the pond. , Planting a Container Garden Anything over .3% will help control the algae, but is best for KOI ponds, , Choosing the Right Roses for Your Garden as the salt may also negatively affect water garden , Why Should You Create A Butterfly ? plants.

We also really like the Microbe Lift line of products. , How To Slash The Cost Of Water Consumption... By Using They also seem to help control string algae, by adding millions of beneficial microbes and beneficial bacteria that will feed off of this algae and also help to decompose any other organic , Old House Remodeling: Removing Old Tile and Glue waste in the pond. , Three Stumbling Blocks to Growing Grapes in the Backyard

An alternate method that many pond , The Benefits Of A Professional Realtor® owner prefer is to add a chemical algaecide like PondCare's Algae Fix. This is safe , Start Your Next Home Improvement Project With Tools and Hard for fish , The Magic of Flowers and plants, , Love to garden but short on money? Here’s 10 money saving id and does seem to temporarily knock out suspended and filamenous algae, but does need to be added periodically for long term control.

One new method that we've been hearing more and more about is adding a certain type of clay to the pond water. , Native Trees and Plants For Carbon County, PA Calcium Montmorillonite Clay is gaining popularity among KOI pond , Making Space In Your Home owners and water , Practicing Safe Pest Control In Your Garden gardeners as an effective, natural , Self Watering Violet Pots method of algae control. It is also noted as having many beneficial qualities for the fish , Here is Why You Should Use Gypsum in Gardening in the pond. , Love to garden but short on money? Here’s 10 money saving id

Hope this helps!

Happy pondkeeping.

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Brett Fogle is the owner of MacArthur Water Gardens , A Look at Planting Flower Bulbs and several pond-related websites including macarthurwatergardens.com and pond-filters-online.com. He also publishes a free monthly newsletter called PondStuff! with a reader circulation of over 6,000 pond , Dill: The Most Important Culinary Herb in Scandinavia owners. To sign up for the free newsletter and receive a complimentary 'New Pond , How To Speed Up Your Aging PC And Make It Healthier Too. Owners Guide' for joining, just visit MacArthur Water , Self ing Violet Pots Gardens>

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