You can call me Algae

It's very easy being green in 2012.

Pond lovers in Canada, and specifically Ontario, started enjoying summer-like temperatures in March.  As my 13 year old would say, "I know, right??"  Great for getting outside and enjoying (almost) all that mother nature has to offer.

Except, it's been a perfect storm for algae.  A great year for Kermit, it is very easy being green in the pond this season.  The above-seasonal temperatures have the green stuff bloomin' all over the place.

'Sticks to Rocks' algae aka Planktonic

Last year, I did it my way--chemical free.  The ecosystem balance was perfection.  My 5th summer out there and not a plastic bottle in sight.  I am paying dearly for that this year.  I pulled; shaded; drained and topped up; and the floating plants were in early! And yet, ugh. Not just the regular string algae this year.  But floating masses of gunk AND green water to boot.  It's nasty to look at, but also harmful to fish as it depletes your pond of precious oxygen.  A green pond means your ecosystem is out of whack.  Time to get it back in balance.

Pond lovers: here's the scoop on algae.

1. String: "filamentous". You'll recognize it because it's, um, stringy.  It can grow 2ft in a day.  Best strategy?  Yank it out.  Often.  I bought a spaghetti scoop from the dollar store and I find it terrific for extending my reach down into the deeper sections of the pond.  A product called eco-blast can be sprinkled onto the strings but yanking is just as effective.  You must be very diligent!  I find it rather soothing.  Weird, I know.
2. Green water.  "planktonic". Easy to spot because you won't be able to see anything else in the pond.  It floats around and sticks to everything.  Too much and it even starts to muck up the surface of the water. Your best defense against this is a UV light.  Either in-line with your filter intake, or built-in to the filter itself, the UV blasts those blooms into smithereens.  Make sure you get the dead stuff out of the bottom -- use a net; and, treat with sludge remover.  More on that in another post.

One final word:  plants.  Algae competes with real plants for resources.  The more plants you have, the worse off the algae have it.  Buy early, buy often.  Here in the true north strong and free, we have to wait for the best plants to grow in the ditches of Florida (yes, really) where they get harvested and shipped up to us for a tidy profit.  Luckily, it seems the entire continent is warming up early this year so the plants arrived at the local pond shop early.  Now, we wait.

Meanwhile.  With apologies to Mother Nature, I had to dose the pond with the liquid algae treatment (contains copper) AND the eco-blast -- which really doesn't sound very eco to me, but, works like a charm on the stringy stuff.  The liquid treatment works on the other types.  With fingers and spaghetti scooper crossed, we hope this is the last of the algae for this season.   Sorry Kermit: no more green. Too easy.