Does a "pondless" need to cycle?

[Colleen_MI]

My pondless waterfall was installed late September last year. I ran it until December then shut it off for the winter, and restarted it about two weeks ago. The pond guy drained, cleaned and refilled it, so it's all fresh water. No fish, obviously, but birds bathing and pooping and whatever happens with critters at night. (Oh, and the lawn guys just blew some grass clippings into it. Grrr.)

It's a little green on the rocks, which I don't mind as I'm trying to make it look more natural, and I just noticed a few little filaments of algae. Since it's in full sun for several hours a day, am I going to have a big algae bloom? I'm going to place plants in it where I can but it's still been pretty cold here at night so maybe another week or so.

Also, will plants like irises and pickerel weed tolerate the water in constant motion?

 

[bounty22]

Irises are thriving in my waterfall. I bought one from the garden store last year, split it into 3 planters this year.

 

[Mmathis]

Not if there are no fish.

 

[TheFishGuy]

Algae will still grow in a fully cycled pond, that is just nature. If you would like to eliminate as much as possible aquascape sells a copper ionizer that should preform that function, however I would just leave it be.