Algae needs less nutrients than plants and algae can be stunted or stopped
by limiting nitrate and phosphate, and mainly phosphate. The trick is to get
your plants to where they use all available nitrate and phosphate that the
pond is generating. A plant will stop utilizing nitrate and phosphate when
its trace minerals and macro nutrients are limited. So for example if you
had 100PPM nitrate and 100PPM phosphate your plants would not consume it if
your iron level was 0PPM. The algae would however.

Some people keep algae around because it utilizes phosphate and nitrate from
the water. If you're lucky and you get a strain of algae you can live with
you're doing good. If you get a strain that you can't live with you're doing
bad.

Sam

"Critical Popperian" wrote in message
om...
Lemme just clarify, if the algae is helping my pond water stay clear
then I definitely want it. On the other hand I don't know if I should
remove it because it's taking nutrients my other plants could use.
basically, all I want is to do what ever gives me the clearest water
since that's why I have plants in the first place.

I removed my insanely growing string algae and got a huge green water
bloom.

I was thinking, like you, that if I removed the string algae, the
higher order plants would kick in and grow faster.

Nope. Floating green algae took over.

I'm not in the process of installing a U.V. which will "force" the
higher order plants to use more nutrients to grow (or so I am thinking
).

Does anyone know a comparison of fertilizer needs between floating
algae and things like anacharis, parrot's feather, and lillies?