Unusually high amount of string algae

[studiovette]

So the pond has been off all winter and I finally was able to check my pond out today since all the snow has melted and ice is gone for now. I am noticing a huge amount of string algae floating in the water. I removed what I could with the net.
I am currently running an air bubbler and I had a deicer until I removed it today. What's going on?

 

[JohnHuff]

Is normal. Because your pond has been off, there has been nutrient build up and the string algae just took care of it.

String algae is easy to remove. And by removing string algae from your pond, you have just removed organics from your pond.

A lot of people think algae is bad, but it actually removes nutrients from your pond that could harm your fish. Think of them as nature's free veggie scrubber. Win-win situation all around.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I could see a lot of algae in mine too through the small hole I had. I originally thought maybe my frogs are dead (well, I still think they are), or maybe some of the leaves that got into the pond are decaying, causing it, because I wasn't exactly sure how winter would effect the pond in terms of algae. Cannot wait to get the pond running.

 

[studiovette]

John that makes sense. I scooped as much as I could out with the net since most was on the surface. I'm sure once the filter comes on the water will look better.

JB. I was going to start it up today but still some really cold days in the forecast here so I will probably wait another 7-14 days to play it safe. I saw some of my fish today but not all so hopefully they all made it. This was a tuff winter!

 

[Tula]

I started my filter the other day. Pond has very green water and some string algae. I think my five koi came through ok, but can't see all that clearly yet. I'm not worried about the green or algae, I think it's a good food for them to munch on as they slowly "wake up".

I plan on a water change tomorrow, but am mainly just being patient

 

[JohnHuff]

One of my fish died when I started the pond back up again, but some of the smaller ones survived. Over the winter I saw some really pretty feeders, so that's what I'm going to stock my pond with this year.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

This actually reminded me that I have a baby fish in the pond. I found it weeks after we took the fish and pump out. I left it in since we already have 3 babies and I wasn't necessarily concerned if it survived or not. I thought it would be pretty cool to see if that one did since our pond is a little small to keep fish in it over the winter.

 

[callingcolleen1]

String algae or Smear algae is very common this time of the yesr. After well over 22 years of wintering my ponds, I can tell you that every spring the string algae can grow very good, the sun is getting stronger every day now, and the hardy plants are not yet back to life and so the algae has all the nutrients to itself. As my hardy pond plants start to regenerate, they will starve out the algae, so by the start of summer the algae is all gone cause it cannot compete with the big hardy sedges in my pond.

 

[dieselplower]

My pond is starting to thaw and I noticed I have a ton of it as well. I am itching to start my pump and filters but it is supposed to snow 3-6 inches here tonight and tomorrow and be -2 degrees so I guess I am going to wait a bit longer. Grrrrrr.