"Paul" wrote in message
. ..
Well according to test strips these are the results: Nitrate 0 Nitrite
0
Ttl Hardness 150ppm Ttl Alkalinity Moderate/80ppm Ph 8.0. The
date
stamped on botton is 03/2006 A lot of algae is in the filter
itself...............Thanks

Another thing. If algae is growing in the filter, then I take it that the
filter is exposed to sunlight. I'd change that unless you are talking
about a veggie filter. My filters are fully enclosed, and so no sunlight
gets in. Some algae does occasionally grow on the outside of the submerged
pre-filter canister, however, but that's almost never a problem. But
remember, algae is not necessarily a bad thing. It can be unsightly and
runaway growth is an indication of an imbalance, but you are always going
to have some algae, and that is actually a good thing. You just want to
try to grow the right kind of algae. Do you have any pictures of your pond
and your filtration system that you can post on a photo web site, and post
a link here for us to look at? That would be appreciated. I would try to
get that Ph down (which may be affecting your plants) and get a new nitrate
test kit.

George