Water pond - Algea problems- HELP

I have 2 water gardens-one for plants another has fish and plants. My problem is I've completed a full box of microbe lift and did no good. BUT almost killed my LOTUS pads. They turned brown while I was putting it in the water. Still have green water. Don't want to use chemicals to damage fish or plants but what can I do now?ANY ideas? Mekos

They sell barley straw balls/pads at the pond supply places that are supposed to help with the algae. Here's a page that has it in several different forms. http://www.gardeners.com/Pond-Cleaners/PondMaintenance_PondCleaners,default,sc.html Or there are algae killers that won't kill your other plants if you use it according to directions (but take it from me that if you don't use it according to directions, it will also kill your other plants!) I'm not sure what the effect of it is on fish though, I only have plants in my little pond. I don't think the microbes do much for algae but they can help with other problems.

I should also mention that there's a forum for water gardening if you have other questions or want some more suggestions on this topic http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/water/all/

Fixed my green water quickly after two years of fighting it.
I don't have a commerical skimmer, I have a pump that pumps water into a homemade skimmer and this is what I did. I took a plastic milk carton lined the bottom and edges with batting from a cheap pillow, put in my water pump on top of the batting, then put batting on top of the pump and tied the whole thing up with netting (keep birds from getting to fruit or anything holey enough to let the water in and keep the batting in). It clogged up in two days and I replaced the batting and kept that up and now I only change it once or twice a week. My water is so clear, now I have another problem you can see everything, pots, cords, down to the bottom of the pond....LOL I am toying with the idea of putting the batting in a netting for like dirty clothes and put it in my home skimmer and see how that works.

I fought green water for years and almost lost after I covered my pond in and than put in a small pond I found some stuff that worked . Its all natural and it works. I recently added a new bigger fish pond I love my pond now. You can see my pond here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvKNFrdnJpQ

Its called Crstal Blue natural pond cleaner you can get it here
http://shopbehnkes.com/products.php?openparent=2190&pid

Greg





This message was edited Jul 20, 2009 9:53 AM