Some of you might hav noticed my sig has changed, with the question
regarding water quality? Well, guess what? If you've got a suspended algae
problem, especially with low fish load, high plant load, you'd better check
your pH.

Since cleaning out, the lilypond has no fish, the frogs haven't started
spawning, the lilies are waking up, fuzz algae on the sides and a 2'X2'
area of matt algae left from last year. I had murky green water going on,
not bad, I could see the lily baskets at the bottom, but it was getting
pretty blurry. Did a WQ check and the pH was above 9!! So I was having an
algae bloom of the type that likes high pH. DH poured in a cup of muriatic
acid, drop the pH to 6.5 in 24 hours, pond cleared. Readded buffer (baking
soda) this morning.

I'm kind of surprised by the pH, plastic containers filled on the same day
holding potted lily divides is at 7.8. The cement blocks around the
lilypond have been weathered for 3 seasons now.

So, K30, you might want to add something like:
Check your pH, too high or too low and the higher plant forms can't take up
the nutrients.
~ jan (Do you know where your water quality is?)

Okay, with a bit of additional reporting from
jj, it will read:

Check your pH, too high, over 8.8, or too low, under 6.4, and most higher plant
forms can't take up the nutrients.

Watch for a 'help, I've got green water!' near
you... ;-)

kathy :-)
kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A