"MattR" wrote in message
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snip
I agree with everything you say. I won't buy plants on the internet
again. I did buy plants at my local pond shop and while they had much
healthier roots they they haven't exactly taken off. My shot at the pond
store owners is directed more at the fact that if you walk in and tell
them you have green water they'll try and sell you a lot of expensive
stuff. I asked them about a veggie filter and they thought I was nuts.
"you can't plant iris in pea gravel, it needs nutrients, and the algae
needs a big UV light to kill the algae that's living on the nutrients in
the water." On the other hand, the just-add-plants mantra I see on the
internet is missing something because I tried it and it didn't work. I'm
hoping that a filter and a lot of plants work.

This is exactly the mantra I have been living by, and so far it has worked.
Admittedly, I am in my first season, but aside from the clay issue my water
is clear and clean. I have nothing but plants. I do not have a prefilter,
and I do not have any artifical biofilter media. My VF is densely planted
with WH, frogbit, duckweed, iris, and watercress. Just about every square
inch is covered over. The mint growing behind the filter, is now sending
runners into the pond! FIltration from outside the pond, YES!!!

BV.