"Reel Mckoi" wrote in message
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"Bill Stock" wrote in message
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As most of you know (ad nauseum) I've been fighting the dreaded Hair
Algae all summer. I've been adding nutrients (Iron, Potassium, Magnesium,
Nitrates), Aquazyme and Water Lettuce but the Algae kept marching on at
the expense of the other plants.

** I had the same problem with one of my 150 gallon pools of fry. I
finally removed the fish and carried all the infested plants to the
compost pile, hosed out the pool, relined it with a new dropcloth and
started again. So far so good.

I think I'll take the fish out in the spring prior to the first feeding and
nuke whatever is left. The String Algae seems to have survived the winter,as
it got a very early start this year.


I even tried the miracle grow bath for the WH a
couple of weeks ago (helped a little) but the plants were losing to the
Algae. Except for the Lilies which I've been supplementing with plant
tabs and they've claimed half the pond from their two small pots. Well a
couple of weeks ago I started dumping my excess Hornwort from the
tropical aquarium into the pond, probably 10 gallons over a two week
period. This stuff doubles every week in the aquarium (CO2 added) and
takes the light away from other plants. This has forced the WH and Water
Lettuce to the outside of the pond, starving the Algae of light and out
competing the Algae for nutrients (Phosphate I suspect). So the WH has
finally started to perk up, adding new white roots and putting up a
second story (knuckle).

** Fantastic! My hair algae all but killed my pond week (elodia) and
hornwart in that one pool.

The Water Lettuce is still yellow looking, but I added some more Nitrates
today, which really perked it up last week. I suspect a number of factors
have finally helped to curb the Algae, but it's nice to believe in the
miracle of HW.

** They're heavy feeders and will shade out what's under them! :-))
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
My Pond Page http://tinyurl.com/cuq5b
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