Anyone ever use artificial plants in their pond? I tried a few real plants
and they just made the water really dark green after just three days. I had
a little Anchors and a dwarf cattail and a pickerel rush (blue).

I understand that the cattail and the pickeral rush are marginals and I did
have them in six inches of water and no leaves fell off of either of them to
make the water green. The anacharis was submerged as well.

Does anyone have any logical explanation as to why my water went dark green?

Well it certainly was not the real plants that turned the water green
either. You evidently had an algae bloom.........which can also happen
in a bare pond without any plants. For some reason or other I can't
see artifical plants in a water garden setup.........All of my
pickerel rush and cat tails are in 6" or more of water and do
extremely well......

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 20:50:20 GMT, "Cheryl and Rob"
wrote:

===Anyone ever use artificial plants in their pond? I tried a few real plants
===and they just made the water really dark green after just three days. I had
===a little Anchors and a dwarf cattail and a pickerel rush (blue).
===
===I understand that the cattail and the pickeral rush are marginals and I did
===have them in six inches of water and no leaves fell off of either of them to
===make the water green. The anacharis was submerged as well.
===
===Does anyone have any logical explanation as to why my water went dark green?
===


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder"
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

Know thine enemy

Algae is normal and natural and needed by the lower
end species in your pond. One of the bulding blocks
of life. Our problem is when things get out of balance,
very easy in backyard ponds, and algae goes gonzo...


Green Water is caused by single cell free floating suspended in the
water column algae. String algae is long, flowing, likes moving water
and has some body to it. Substrate algae is like a fuzzy green sweater
and grows on rocks, liners, plant baskets, and is considered a good
algae as it keeps the suspended and string algae at bay. It also hosts
lots of tiny zoo plankton, insect larvae, worms and other tasties that
are good for fish to consume
along with their veggies (the algae).

All algae thrives on sun, fresh water, fish waste, fertilized run off,
rotting plants and blown in dirt. In new ponds and spring ponds algae
is always the first thing to start growing.


The best defense against algae is to have lots of plants to compete for

the nutrients, few fish, not overfeeding those fish, some shade,
blocking run off and cleaning up debris.


Do not use algaecides, they only make lots of suddenly dead algae to
feed the next algae bloom. Algaecides also use up oxygen in the pond
and put the fish in stress. Gently remove string algae. Don't worry
about fuzzy algae that grows on the sides of things, the fish will
eat it up if they are not overfed.


Most algae blooms will pass within a couple of weeks.
Time and patience is key.
Remember patience...
and plants.


kathy :-) www.blogfromthebog.com
this week's entry - water striders!
Pond 101 page for new pond keepers ~
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html

But would this make my water so green overnight????
"Cheryl and Rob" wrote in message
news:ge7Me.591$wb.422@trndny09...
Anyone ever use artificial plants in their pond? I tried a few real
plants and they just made the water really dark green after just three
days. I had a little Anchors and a dwarf cattail and a pickerel rush
(blue).

I understand that the cattail and the pickeral rush are marginals and I
did have them in six inches of water and no leaves fell off of either of
them to make the water green. The anacharis was submerged as well.

Does anyone have any logical explanation as to why my water went dark
green?

Cheryl and Rob wrote:

Anyone ever use artificial plants in their pond?

Even in an aquarium artificial plants decay in light over time. In a pond,
they would look terrible in less than a season.

I tried a few real
plants and they just made the water really dark green after just three
days. I had a little Anchors and a dwarf cattail and a pickerel rush
(blue).

Why do you think the plants caused this? More likely, I'd say, it was your
_lack_ of plants. Algae will grow in a pond, with or without the presence
of other plants, but other plants can inhibit its growth.
--
derek

Cheryl and Rob wrote:

But would this make my water so green overnight????

Here's a standard trick when raising fry in an aquarium: take one glass
bottle, boil a small piece of lettuce for just a few seconds, put the
lettuce in the bottle, fill the bottle with water. Leave in a sunny
window. It'll probably turn green in a day, at most two days.

So, I guess the plants you added, if they had any damaged foliage, might
have sped up the process, but you'd get green water anyway.
--
derek

You wrote But would this make my water so green overnight????

Yes. Algae blooms happen overnight.
You did add *some* nutrients to the pond,
but compared to the overall nutrient load, it
was not much at all.

Do you have fish in the pond?
If you don't and you want a water feature
only, take out the fish, put in fake plants
and use bleach to kill the algae.

Algae will grow in any water, like Derek said.
Put out a bucket of water, take a handful of
dust and blow it lightly across the top and
you'll have green water in a couple of days.

Algae grows in artic lakes and in the hollow
folicles of polar bears. It is tough stuff and needs
to be or we wouldn't be here. That doesn't mean
that we have to put up with green ponds! But
if you have fish you can completely get rid of it
and you would not want to. Mother Nature knows
what is best for her family as long as we don't
mess it up too bad (like having too many fish in
our ponds and not cleaning out debris).

k :-)