What is all that goop? Well, the long strands of green goo are string algae. The stuff making your pond's water into pea soup is plankton algae. Algae are millions of tiny little floating plants (single celled plants) that thrive when they have lots of sun and food to grow on. Like bacteria, there is no way to get rid of all the algae (unless you want a sterile, dead pond). The trick is bringing it back into balance. For example, Its normal to have some of black algae on the sides of your pond and the parts of the pond pump, and its OK to have a thin film of green algae on plants. Your pond is a living environment, not a swimming pool.



So what can you do? Minimizing the light that the algae gets will help. Water lilies are a good start. Ideally you might have placed your pond in a place where it gets partial shade for part of the day, but its probably too late for that now. Besides, you don't want to completely deprive your pond of light. A much better solution is to stop feeding feeding the algae so much.

If you are adjusting the pH of your pond, you may be unsuspectingly adding another essential ingredient for algae: phosphates. Most pH adjusters contain high levels of phosphates, a compound algae just loves. Switch your brand of pH adjuster. There are pond pH adjusters that are phosphate free, but you may have to go online to find them. Pond Care pH Down is one choice that's phosphate free. If the label doesn't say a pH product is phosphate free, it probably isn't. And if the internet retailer you want to buy from can't tell you what's on a product's label, you probably don't want to buy pond supplies from them.

Like all the recommendations in this article, just cutting off the phosphates won't completely fix your algae problem. You'll need to fight the goo on several fronts at once.

A lack of "good" bacteria - the kind that lives in biological filters - is another part of your problem. As the good or "beneficial" bacteria play their role in your pond's nitrogen cycle, they consume the same nutrients that your algae does. So the healthier and the more beneficial bacteria you have, the less green algae can live.

If you've got a serious algae problem, look to your biological filter, how many fish you have in the pond, how much muck is on the bottom of the pond, and how much water circulation there is. For starters, you're going to need to vacuum the pond to get out as much of the muck as possible - all that stuff sitting down there is algae food.

Next on the algae reduction battle plan is your filter - if you really want to solve your algae problem, you're going to need more room to grow those beneficial bacteria. Part of that may mean getting a bigger biological filter. You should also go buy some over the shelf beneficial bacteria. Microbe Lift is an excellent choice, but there are many others. Adding the new filter (or keeping the old pond filter and adding a second one) will probably also help with water circulation. Those beneficial bacteria need oxygen, just like your fish. By the way - one of the nastiest affects of an algae problem is a big fish die off. The fish die because the algae has eaten up most of the oxygen in the water.

Once you've got a better pond filter and more water circulation, you may be able to keep all the fish you had before and more, especially if you're willing to clean the pond more often. Resist this temptation . The fewer fish you have in the pond, the less of a bioload you're asking your pond to carry. Fewer fish will mean healthier fish, a cleaner pond, and less work for you. Do keep in mind that every time you feed - or overfeed - your fish, you're tossing more algae food back into the water. Feed lightly. Hungry fish will graze on the algae, too.

And fish aren't the only ones who eat algae. Once you've gotten the algae problem under enough control, you can toss in a few snails or a few tadpoles to keep the algae at bay. These creatures are sometimes sold as a "cleaning crew" by pond centers or websites. TheyThe tadpoles and snails will help keep algae under control, but they can't eat enough algae to turn clear up a green fog.