String Algae All Year
What? Winter Algae?
It is cold outside, yet it seems our old friend string algae is still hanging around. You might be able to see it under the ice in your pond or hanging on the waterfall if it's still running. It doesn't seem like algae should be growing with it cold outside... but when it gets a little sunlight it grows! As we begin to experience mild spring-like days (hopefully soon) it will take off with reckless abandon! To keep string algae at bay, we need to have aquatic plants to compete with it or treat it to prevent it -- right now we have neither.
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| Sting algae can make a waterfall appear "slimy" in winter too. |
Here's the good news...it's a plant and it's putting oxygen in the water so it is benefiting your fish! The bad news is if it's in your pond, it will have to be dealt with in the spring. If you're wondering what to do about string algae that has taken hold of your pond or waterfall now, here are your options:
- Be patient. You can choose to do nothing. Eventually you will have to remove it -- decaying algae (or any plant material for that matter) will not only contaminate the water for your fish, it provides nutrients for more algae to grow. But you can leave the removal process for spring. It's not harming anything right now.
- If you don't like how it looks on your waterfall or in your creek, you can use Algae Off. To use Algae off, however, you'll have to unplug your pump. Don't leave it unplugged for too long in cold temperatures. You don't want water to freeze in your tubing.
- If your pond or pond-free has a lot of algae...it will most likely need to be cleaned in the spring. So have a plan. Will you clean it yourself or have Cool Ponds clean it for you? If you plan to clean it yourself, you may want to attend our spring cleaning demo where we will actually clean a pond at our store and you can watch or you can check out our pond cleaning video.
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