Pond plants and algae

[econerd]

So ive had a couple of goldies in the pond for almost 2 years now. they spawned last year after i brought them in to clean the pond for the spring and ive got 5 babies out of them. there still very small for almost a year old, but ive put them outside in a breeding trap type thing ive made out of a bucket with holes in ive put into the other pond.

Ive got a problem with green algae, the pea soup type, I emptied the pond and cleaned the sludge out of it about 5-6 weeks ago and refilled it with fresh water, but its gone very green very quickly since then. I had problems with the existing filter system draining the pond and i still cant work out why so I made a new one out of a bucket and other bits an pieces and its doing a good job of filtering out most of the muck, just not fine enough to handle the algae, is there anything non-chemical and not a UV light i can use to get rid of this algae. There is a plant in there, I think its some kind of water lily.





Can anyone Id it for me as I acquired it a while ago and not sure what it is. The roots have gone a bit silly on it, will it harm it to divide it up a bit and thin the roots out?

Im going to try and get some more plants for it now the weather has improved, I have got a bunch of java moss ive taken out of my indoor tank im going to throw in the bucket with the fry to try and keep it under control.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[econerd]

Well ive managed to find what the plant is, accidentally, it looks like a Caltha polypetala or giant king cup. it does look like its preparing to flower. I might hoick it out and see if i can thin out the roots a bit and see if i can get them to sink as they keep trying to float and it looks very ugly and the roots on top are drying out.

[talldutchie]

Caltha polypetala is more a marsh plant than a real pond plant. It can take cutting down to size easily. IF you want to keep in the pond I'd get a big pond planting basket for it.

Algae in ponds is usually about excessive nutrients. You got little to no plants in there. Aquatic mint is a good choice, grows like the blazes. I'd say head out to a garden center and pick up a few native species. A lot of pond owners use barley straw to deal with algae problems like this.

[~firefly~]

Good suggestions so far. We had this problem in the past with a fairly large, unfiltered pond and after some experimentation, it turned out to be too much sunlight. We planted a few shrubs and small trees around the pond to provide some shade (long term) and in the short term introduced a floating plant that spread over the surface. It was similar to duckweed but less invasive so easier to control coverage. It worked well and the pond gradually became clearer.