Using plants to control algae

This summer I learned 1st hand how great a pond can look with enough plants. I have a top and bottom pond. The top pond is sparking clean and covered in lilies. The bottom pond is so full of algae you can't hardly see the fish. The only difference in the ponds is that the top pond has enough plants and there is only one lily in the bottom pond. The koi just uses plants as a snack in the bottom pond. It took me a while to figure out the right number of plants for my pond. I can across these suggestions and wanted to pass them on. Here's the numbers for each kind of plant based on common sizes of ponds. 4'x6' 1 Lilly, 5-8 bog plants, 3 floaters, 24 submerged plants. 6'x11' to 11'x11' 2 lilies, 9-13 bog plants, 6 floaters, 44 submerged plants. 11'x11' to 14'x16' 3 lilies, 10-15 bogs, 8 floaters, 90 submerged plants. 16'x10' to 16'x21' 5 lilies, 13-18 bog plants, 12 floaters, 160 submerged plants. 21'x21' to 26'x 26' 7 lilies, 20-28 bog plants, 15 floaters, 200 submerged plants.
I hope this gives you an idea on the plants you may need to add to get really good coverage. Happy ponding, Gail

Link to Water Gardeners International This site is free and has tons and tons of info on every water plant you could ever think of! Great site.
http://www.watergardenersinternational.org/

richdeer3

I have just the opposite problem, my algae problems are in my top tank. I use to have a bad case of the algae. It sounds like u have the plant coverage figured out.

Barley straw is great for controlling algae growth in ponds. As it breaks down chemicals are released that inhibit it's growth. You can put it in an old onion cash and sink it down with a brick.