Persistant algae problem

[whiddett]

Hi all. I have a Pond in my garden. It is round with 1.5m diameter and about 0.75m deep. So I estimate about 300 gallons in volume. The Pond was built one year ago and I installed a filter and UV system. Since spring began I noticed alot of hair algae around the sides on the pond and on all of the plants. So I started scrubbing the sides of the pond every day so that the algae would float around and be taken out by the pump/filter. However, the stuff would just reattach to the sides of the pond and regrow in no time at all. So I started using Interpet Pond Balance. At first I followed the dosing directions but the effect did not seem as good as I hoped so I upped the dosage. The algae did appear to start dieing off and was clogging my filter sponge on a daily basis. But I still cant get rid of the problem. The algae still seems to cling to the pond sides but it is not really hairy. When I scoop around the sides of the pond with a net the algae disperses into the water like powder and his hard to get out of the pond even with a fine net. I have increased the Pond Balance dosage to 6 scoops every other day instead of 4 scoops every month! But this powdery algae seems to regenerate quicker than I can get rid of it. I'm no longer sure whether this type of algae is effected by Pond Balance (which is for blanket weed/hair algae).
I'm thinking I need some sort of algicide but it must not harm fish or plants. I also dont water the water to be coloured as I like the crystal clear water that my UV give me. Can anyone help or suggest what I can try next?
By the way, I live in the UK so we do get quite cold weather. The Pond gets direct sunlight in the mornings but not in the afternoon.

 

[whiddett]

I've just been reading about Koi Clay which I heard from another Post was able to kill algae. I then found on another website here : Cat Litter
that some types of Cat Litter will do just the same job. I have a brand of Cat Litter here at home called Thomas Cat Litter which comes in a Yellow bag and I'm strongly considering throwing some into my Pond to see what happens. Does anyone have any comments before I go ahead with this?

 

[roka64]

I'm not a FW or pond person, but it sounds like you have an excess of nutrients in your water, that is feeding the algae. My advice would be (and one of the more experienced folks feel free to correct me) some PWCs, clean out your filter and sponges. Adding chems is more of a band aid solution and if you don't correct the problem, it will always be a problem waiting to happen.

 

[whiddett]

You may be right. I kinda think I may be over feeding them a bit at the moment and that may be what is preventing the Pond Balance from being fully effective. In desperation today though I had put some Cat Litter in a stocking and dangled that in the water and also been out and bought some Barley Straw Extract and put a dose of that into the mix. I'm going to cut down on the feeding (going on holiday for 10 days soon ought to help!). Hopefully when I come back it will be solved or close to it. I also put a water lilly in this spring which has since grown 12 pads which have reached the surface and more are still coming. When they increase in size a bit I would imagine that will help with shade. But the drawback of this is I wont be able to see the fish so easily which is my main aim in clearing the algae S
Anyway, fingers crossed the Barley straw extract works.

 

[roka64]

Cool, good luck and keep us updated.