It's snot all fun and games.

[JBtheExplorer]

Welcome back!
At least the pond season is just about to begin again again and we can start to enjoy it again!

My pond was shockingly clean once the ice melted. I have some leaf netting to do, and some algae formed around the lily pad stems I wasn't able to get out before it froze last fall, but overall, I'm really happy how well my pond did in its first winter.

 

[Lisak1]

I have heard of H2O2 (Peroxide), but what is H2O3?

You got me Meyer - that's what I get for missing a week of high school chem. H2O is obviously water - H2o2 is hydrogen peroxide. H2O3 is dihydrogen trioxide... or something like that!

 

[addy1]

I want to see pictures of the green forest..........................

 

[tbendl]

I didn't take any. I should have.

 

[sissy]

Things to add to our we don't want to remember or see again list

 

[Lisak1]

I find string algae to be kind of interesting actually. It appears so quickly out of nowhere (seemingly) and grows like crazy. Toss it in the garden - your plants will thank you, as will all the micro-organisms that live in your soil. Stinky, yes. But we dump a few yards of horse manure in our gardens every year and that doesn't exactly smell like flowers either!

 

[tbendl]

I expected to have some algae and know it's beneficial but this was waaayyy more than I had bargained for. It's my fault for turning the pump off this winter. Live and learn I guess.

 

[addy1]

I didn't take any. I should have.

shame shame

I expected to have some algae and know it's beneficial but this was waaayyy more than I had bargained for. It's my fault for turning the pump off this winter. Live and learn I guess.

I leave a bunch of it in my small slow flowing preforms, The critters love the stuff. The big ponds stay pretty much string algae free. I get a small patch now and then, but it goes away.

 

[tbendl]

I really didn't think I would have slime since I had all that parrots feather floating around but apparently it acted like a pressure cooking lid. I did not like what was cooking!

 

[j.w]

Leave your pump on for sure all year long. I do and it's colder here then where you are. I still get some algae but I think the fish help get rid of it also. You don't have fish so you will have to gather it up w/an old toilet brush, cook it up nice nice and serve it up for after dinner dessert to get rid of yours. Well they sell seaweed squares in Costco now so why not algae? I bet it's good for you.

 

[tbendl]

Hahaha, algae slime soup with a duckweed garnish.

 

[addy1]

Hahaha, algae slime soup with a duckweed garnish.

Sounds darn yummy!

 

[tbendl]

Oh no. I was doing some research on some big black swimmers that came out of my pond with all of the slime and am sad to say that they were dragonflies. I hope they survived being flung into the rubbish. What was I thinking?? I am so disappointed that I didn't investigate while I was finding them I was just so disgusted with the amount of slime in the pond and I thought I had leeches in there last fall.
Well live and learn. We won't be doing a few things this summer.

 

[sissy]

Best thing I found over winter is all the activated charcoal I put in my filters plus I do add in liquid barley and peroxide when I don't have liquid barley .This year I put in the liquid barley I got from pet solutions to realize they sent me the barley with peat in it .No biggy there lose .Liquid barley with peat cuts back on algae also

 

[tbendl]

I don't know if I will have a problem next winter if I just leave my pumps running. I turned it off in October and didn't turn it back on until 2 weeks ago. I think (and am hoping) that the slime was due to stagnant water and won't require anything additional next year. However, with that said, I might order up some liquid barley (which really just sounds like a clever word for beer) and keep it handy. Thanks for the tip.