"Heather" wrote in message
news
Hi Happy 'Cam'per

Thank you for solving the mystery!

Hi Heather,

Its my pleasure for sharing the info but I cannot accept credit for the
'solving of' part. Through keeping planted aquaria you pick up on certain
'methods used' which I am just applying to a pond scenario. Keep in mind
that this is not a quick fix to your algae problems, it may help a bit but
certainly won't keep your pond completely free of Algae.

You mention you have zero Nitrates, either your test kit is wrong or you
have no fish in your pond, or you have bucketfulls of plants that are
sucking all the N up. Having zero nitrates is bad, this too can be causing
the string algae. Algae usually appears when the main nutrients N, P, K are
not in sync. K or Pottassium can be added to the pond without adverse
affects to the fish and the plants will benefit too, you can recognise
Pottassium defficiency in plants by the small pin holes that develop on the
leaves. N & P are very important nutrients for the plants. P or Phosphate
should be abundant in any pond (rotting leaves, mulm etc.) Check your water
test again for Nitrates, take a sample to your LFS aswell just to compare
the readings. If your Nitrate level is indeed near to zero then this could
be your problem. N & P should be in an approximate ratio of 10:1 N:P. You
could add more fish to get the N level up or you would have to remove some
plants as there just is'nt enough nutrients for them to thrive. If anything
is unclear then please ask questions and I'll try my best to answer them for
you. Again, all this info comes from keeping planted aquaria and not ponds,
although I'm pretty sure the method applies: look after your plants and not
the algae, give the plants what they need and you'll have happy fishies and
thriving plants. HTH
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**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**