Green stringy algae growing on waterfall/ rocks

[MrKielbasa]

Hi

I have my waterfall running around 8 weeks now . Its not fully complete so I will hold of on the pics for now but i have seen in the last 2 weeks a dark green slimey kinda algae growing on all the waterfall rocks where the water flows back over them into the pond . I assume its a build up of some type of algae.
Should I leave it there or try and remove it ? Does it do any harm or is it good for the pond to leave it ? Its not overly bad looking but I would not like it to take over completely.

Tks
Martin

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I spray mine down with the garden hose about once a month. It seems to only grow in the low-flow areas around the edges on mine, but when I notice it starting to get long enough that it looks stringy, I hose it down again. I don't think it does any harm, I just don't like the looks of the stringy bits.

 

[rebelangel_3733]

I shut down the waterfall flow and scrub my rocks in it with a 1" wire brush then clean up with a paper towel and turn my waterfall back on...but my pond is only 270 gallons so my waterfall isn't that big. That string algea has shown up more and more these past 3 weeks...probably our weather...HOT! I've used peroxide on it before too after shutting off the waterfall pump and cleaned that up with papertowels too so that it didn't all get into my pond's water.

 

[Waterbug]

All algae is good for fish. It consumes ammonia directly, removes nitrate, provides food directly or thru insects eating the algae.

Algae is a problem when it dies. Decay consumes O2. It can grow to such a mass that there is little room left in a pond for fish.

Alage will also consume O2 at night. That can also increase CO2 which can decrease pH and cause problems if the pond is lacking a good pH buffer. Not generally a problem where water doesn't get very warm and/or there isn't a high fish load.

Aesthetically it's just personal taste whether to keep it, remove it, or trim it back, or whatever. Macro algae (stuff you can touch) does the most good when growing so ripping it out once a week, like cutting the lawn, can be good. Removing it all before winter is a good to reduce decay. The other aesthetic problem is as it decays it breaks into smaller and smaller bits. That can result in tiny bits of suspended particles which makes water less clear. On the plus side I believe macro algae kills green water algae so it can provide clear water. Again, just an aesthetic issue, green water algae can still be good for fish.

There are many species of macro algae. You could remove one species only to be replaced by another, less desired species. Each species also has their own life cycle and can disappear on their own. Often a pond has several species at the same time, whether seen or not.

 

[Fishylove]

[sub]I personally like the look of the string algae. The fish will eat it and keep it in check too if you dont feed them often, I feed them every other day or so, depenting on how hot it is.[/sub]

 

[sissy]

toilet bowl brush has more than one use but you can also turn off your waterfall for a bit a spray it down with peroxide wait a bit turn water back on it turns white and floats away to algae heaven .Better done with sun on the algae works faster .Olny do it if it gets out of control