interesting I am having a problem with the algae on the bottom of my
pond floating to the top ( pond scum like ) will dump some kity litter
in the big filter and see what happens and report back later

John Rutz

Ka30P wrote:
What we need to do is figure out what it is about adding the plain kitty
litter, which is clay, and which is basically the same thing as koi clay (???)
anyway, what is it about it that worked on the string algae?
Did the clay particles grab at the string algae on its way down the stream,
tear it up and dump it in the pond?
Did someone sprinkle it on string algae in the pond? Did it tear it apart and
sink it?
So folks, if you try the koi clay (which I'm going to go look up)
or kitty litter treatment, let us know your results. And Gerry let us know
future developments in your pond.

Also want to report what happened in my pond.
For a long time I've had a patch of stringy algae growing at the bottom of my
waterfall. Since I was in the process of doing in an algae bloom from the
infusion of 3,000 gallons after a pond cleaning I left it alone. The pond
cleared and I was thinking about taking the stuff out when we had a series of
rather dramatic heavy rainfalls. The stuff disappeared over night. Did the rain
beat it down and where is it now?




Subject: Kitty Litter destroys String Algae
From: gerry
This is just a post reporting results I had from tips in another thread. I
made it a new thread to highlight it. Take no credit other than my success
story, the concept was posted by others.

I've been fighting string Algae for three years. Barely straw works early
in the year but fails when the trees leaf out and there is too little
sunlight (UV) to make peroxide from straw decay products.

This was a particular problem in my planted stream. harvesting the string
algae would rip up delicate plants such as 4 leaf clover. I have a
waterfall, three stream regions, each with a 10" or mini water fall to
accommodate grading.

I bought Wallmart's "Special Kitty" unscented kitty liter - ingredients
are "ground clay". 25# cost $2.

Added about 2 tablespoons to the top pool that feeds the waterfall. 24
hours later, virtually all the string algae on the falls and smothering my
4 leaf clover in the topmost stream segment was gone! The string algae in
the 2nd stream segment was reduced significantly, but the algae in the
third segment and pond entrance seemed untouched.

2nd day I added 2 table spoons (guess) more, half at in the upper pool,
half at outlet from the second stream segment to the third segment.

3 day - stream almost completely cleared! In the third stream segment I
still had s good clump that was protected by parrots feather. Also had a
good blanked of algae at in the pond near the stream entrance.

I added about 1 tablespoon sprinkled over each remaining area.

4th day - only some very sickly string/blanket algae to be found anyplace!

Thanks for the tips folks!!!

gerry