Where did my algae go?

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The algae on my liner is the same, super thin, and fairly sporadic, you can see a lot of the rubber showing through, even on the bottom, I can see some of the printing in a few areas. I definitely have algae, the ropes that hold my planters are covered, the coconut liner in my planters is covered. My lily pad stems are covered, and my skimmer box definitely has algae on it, but the liner was completely full last week of a thick layer of soft algae, and that is all gone. What is left on the liner is really sparse.

I did go look at my goldfish pond to compare. This pond has been up for over a year, but the liner walls are really not covered either. THey're green and slimey, but the algae buildup is quite minimal.

I think I was misunderstanding what the good algae layer is in a pond. I thought it was a really thick layer, when in reality it's probably what I have right now.
 

JohnHuff

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Good algae is whatever processes your ammonia! It can come in all different shapes and sizes and changes all the time. My liner had thick algae on it ever since the beginning of the season and just a short time ago it's gone, the algae on it now is much thinner and sparser. Water is crystal clear to the eye but there is some suspended algae in it. Here's an algae guide: http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
 
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Oh I think I see now...you were asking where the algae on the liner went. Yeah, different species of macroalgaes come and go. The thin slime species never seem to last very long for me. The larger string type species would last for several months.
 
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Found my aglae tonight. My skimmer pump got clogged so I pulled it out to clean it. Had to climb into the pond to reposition the discharge hose under the liner, and thought since I was in there already I might as well pick up a few rocks and other things on the bottom. Well, i stirred it the hell up, looks like a full on algae bloom. Hope it clears pretty quick, I added coagulator but didn't have enough for a full dose.

I was so careful, but it just didn't matter, I made a real mess of things.
 
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haven't read every answer but after 4-5 month still no algae visible... might be a very little that i don't see. Perfect everything else, PH 7,5 I don't know.

Maybe your fish clean them before they are too visible
 
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It's definitely cyclical. The liner is still sparsely covered, but the soft blanket algae is starting to form on my planters again, however I'm in the middle of a full blown plankton algae bloom. These 100% full sun days in Indiana have caught up to me. Just don't have any plant coverage to speak of so now I'm paying the price.

But I planted a bunch of mint in the pond this week and it's got a nice layer of mint on the parts that are under water, so the water is working on something, I'm just going to let it do its thing.
 
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Plus my waterfall finally got some string algae on it. I like my falls to have it, looks more natural to me so I'm not going to clean it unless it gets out of hand, so far it's just a nice soft green coating in the waterway. Looks great to me.
 
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Getting a nice low, but very dense, layer of alage forming on my liner again. Very interesting to see if this new algae will kill off my plankton bloom. Having fun watching the cycles of the water, I feel like a scientist.
 

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