animaux wrote:
comets (ordinary goldfish) in the pond. They grow to 12 inches. There used to
be a rule of thumb one inch per gallon of water, but I would go much lighter on

That rule of thumb applies only to tropical slender fish. The rule of thumb
for goldfish is 10 gallons per inch of fish.

the fish load than that. Our 4 fish and the few bottom feeder fish, the pond is

Which bottom feeders do you have? Do they survive the winter?

Our pond is allowed to develop algae, etc. It's all part of a natural element.
We don't try to make our pond look like a swimming pool with clear water.

There is a natural way to prevent string algae (which robs nutrients that
could otherwise be used by the lillies and the bog plants). Submerged barley
bale helps reduce (or eliminate) unsightly string algae. Give it a shot.


--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv