Thoughts on algae

[JamieB]

Many pond folks hate all algae , some just hate the free floating kind, some hate thread/ hair algae. Yet a YouTuber I follow has helped change my mind. She has an algae scape tank. Pretty cool looking. I think I may like hair algae, and I’ve developed a respect for the vision clouding free floating kind. It’s not a problem, it’s a symptom of the problem, like running a fever when you have the flu. When you run a fever, your body is trying to burn up a pathogen, when your pond is green, it’s trying to use up the excess nutrients. Since I just multipled my guppy tank population, I added a good hunk of hair algae that came from the summer mini pond they were kept in outside. I may use some if I can find a way to control it and shape it nicely in my aquariums from now on, as none of my tanks are planted as much as I’d like. Just as there are bacteria in the digestive track that are great until it gets out of wack, I think I can use algae to help fight excess nutrients in my water until it is no longer needed. But with the cost of aquarium plants, that won’t be any time soon. So folks, how do you feel about algae? Kill it all or just some? Also, this would be a good thread for folks to post ways to fight the various forms of it. ( yes, bogs work best, but other methods for folks to use until we convert them and the bog is established)