String Algae on Waterfalls & Garden Ponds in Winter

String Algae

(hair algae, blanket weed) in Garden Ponds and on Waterfalls can become a real nuisance in Winter. In some ponds it seems to grow faster faster than Santa Claus' beard! The cause is usually a combination of too many nutrients in the pond and not enough of the right kind of bacteria to deal with them.

Consequently the treatment also has to be multi-faceted!

Cold water slows down beneficial bacteria activity. If string algae gets to be a problem special bacteria preparations for colder water can and should be added. These beneficial bacteria are specially bred to multiply and work actively even during the winter.

Existing string algae can be cleaned off rocks and waterfalls in a jiffy by using one of the new instant cleaners like "Green Clean". Keeping the the pond clean on a long term basis after the quick cleaning is accomplished by adding Interpet's "Pond Balance", which works fine even in winter.

These products can be found in the online catalog and store at pondmarket.com

Garden Waterfalls for Swimming Pools

Question regarding:

Waterfall Pumps for Swimming Pool applications

must be able to deal with chlorine without breaking down. Pumps for this purpose are lined with special material in the areas that come in contact with the chlorinated water. Normal waterfall pumps would deteriorate quickly in this type of environment.
Today's featured caller wanted to build a waterfall that would spill into his swimming pool. He needed the pump to raise the water about 10 feet with a 20 inch wide spill way. The best pump for this application is a special inline (non-submersible) pump that is lined with corrosion resistant material.
The PondMarket (pondmarket.com) carries pumps for this purpose. They may not be in the online catalog, but are available by calling toll-free at 1-888-336-4365.

Todays featured link: Gallery of Ponds - lots of Garden Ponds, great for design ideas

Pond Lights in Winter

Pond Lights in the Pond in Winter?

Had a call from a customer today asking if he could leave submersible pond lights in the pond all winter here in the cold Mid-West. His wife gave him a set of 20 watt submersible pond lights for Christmas and he could not wait to see them in action.

In my humble opinion, it would not hurt a thing to install those lights now. There are just a couple of points to make note of:

1) the pond lights must be below the frost line for the particular climate zone (the deepest any of my ponds ever froze was 11 inches.

2) better make sure the pond lights are turned on when it is cold so the transformer stays warm and does not crack in freezing weather.

Any other garden pond lights (solar pond lights, floating pond lights, etc.) should be stored indoors during the winter in cold areas of the country.

Todays featured link: Pond Lights!

Dreaming of warmer days...

Featured Pond Link: FREE Garden Pond e-book: "Winterize the Garden Pond"

Our Midwestern Garden Ponds are now deep in winter mode: The water is just above freezing, the pond fish are huddling near the bottom and the plants have all died down. Thank goodness I took the time to winterize the pond in late fall. Now I do not have to worry about my precious pond fish making it through the winter.
The Water Garden has a de-icer floating in it, which will keep a hole in the ice using VERY little electricity (only 100 Watts) and I do not have to worry about a pump clogging up and having to stick my hands into that ice cold water to un-clog it (took the pump in for the winter). There are very few fish in the Water Garden, so the de-icer is all that is needed on that one.
The Koi Pond has a pond pump running, of course. It is a very large, external pond pump though, which does not tend to clog because the intake is way above the bottom and out in the middle of the pond. The pump powers my 45 foot long creek, which adds plenty of oxygen into the pond for my large Koi. No worries about the pump clogging on this pond, either.
The Goldfish pond has a low wattage de-icer, also. It is a very small pond.
Winter in the Mid-West does not show garden ponds at their best, but thanks to the creek running all winter there is movement out there even on the worst days. The open water of the creek also provides much needed drinking water for the birds when everything else around here is frozen.

Right now all the ponds are open (not frozen) because the last couple of days the temps have been above freezing. We did have a little dusting of snow this morning, but it was gone before noon.

I took the opportunity (of the open ponds) to test the nitrite levels in the Koi pond (they were fine) and to add some cold weather beneficial bacteria to the water. I like to do that once a month during the winter to clean up anything (leaves, twigs, etc.) that blew in during the fall and get the pond in as good a shape as possible for spring.

Link for this post goes to a download page for FREE Garden Pond e-books (one of them being "How to Winterize the Pond".