Winter Algae

[Faebinder]

So this is the second year this happens and I've had the pond for two years (made it deeper this year).

When fall comes in, the leaves fall (this time I made sure the net is on the pond early) and the three trees covering the pond are without leaves so we get lotsa sunlight during the day directly at the pond.... and that's when the algae goes berserk.

No I'm not feeding the fish and of course it doesnt help that the bog is mostly inactive with many of the plants wilting from the cold.

What do you guys do to help this? Last week I put on some shoulder length rubber gloves and started gathering the string algae.

 

[cas]

I guess it depends on how bad the algae is. I notice an accumulation of algae when I shut down my pond for the winter, but I leave it alone until spring. I figure the fish can eat it until I begin feeding them again in the spring.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Apparently your pond temperature is still 'toasty' from the algae's viewpoint.

 

[DrCase]

Winter sun feels good to me too
How was the sting algae during the summer ?

 

[Faebinder]

Winter sun feels good to me too
How was the sting algae during the summer ?

Very minimal to be honest... had a bit of a green water bloom but once I cut back on feeding it got better.

 

[teeemkay]

The algae in my pond kind of ran the same pattern this year... it bloomed in the spring, was barely noticeable during the summer, and then this autumn it came back with a vengeance. I am blaming it on the extremely mild and sunny weather we had over the past two months--it was so warm I was still pulling live plants out of my garden last week (had to get it cleaned up before the last yard waste pickup of the season). I brushed as much of the algae off the waterfall and wherever else I could reach with a coarse brush, and it's been okay since then.

 

[DrCase]

I have one pond that gets a lot of winter sun and I had problems.
I added a bottom drain and got rid of some of the rocks on the edge that trapped leaves and such , that kept the algae fed

 

[addy1]

My pond is full full full sun, the algae still does not take off, any that does grow gets inhaled by the fish. One year I pulled the lilies in stuck them in a smaller pond for the winter. The big pond was basically empty.
When I put them back in the spring the fish went insane stripping every bit of algae on them. They were hungry! and the water was still in the low 40's. I now leave the lilies in the big pond and any algae that grows alone so they have winter food.

 

[Faebinder]

Maybe the algae is being fed by the leaves falling in the bog. It's hard to clean those out and I don't have a net over the bog. Mmm..

 

[Meyer Jordan]

You can bet that the Phosphorus level is elevated.

 

[Faebinder]

I see, thanks to you all.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Winter algae is very common and not a real problem, as the algae is a good source of easy perfect winter food for fish to eat all winter long.
String algae grows best during the long winter months, as nothing else is really growing, so at least the algae will clean the water and keeping pond healthy.
If you get horrid amounts of it, then some can be removed easy enough.

In the spring when the other water plants begin to regenerate, then the algae should start to die off as other water plants are competing for the pond nutrients.

 

[Lisak1]

I've reported here before on the types of algae we get in the winter that we never see any other time of year. I'm gong to try to get some pictures of it this year - it's strangely beautiful!

As @callingcolleen1 said, I'm thankful for it, as it's keeping the water clean and is something for the fish to nibble on over the long winter.

 

[Faebinder]

I changed half the water, removed some algae and removed many leaves from the bog. Growth has gone down.

Unfortunately I broke some of the parrot feathers stalks. Hope they grow back. Algae loves to grow on them.

 

[addy1]

I break mine all the time, they grow back just fine.