There are over 5,500 species of green algae that can manifest itself in fresh pond water (well, water in general that is subjected to the outdoors). Spring and summer time is the worst season for green algae, because it gives algae everything it needs to harvest at a fast rate.
Why is that? Well, because a plant needs three basic ingredients to grow: sunlight, nutrients, and oxygen. During spring and summer, it gets all of these to its roots desire. Algae can come in single-celled or multi-celled forms. Single-celled algae (phytoplankton) is 15 microns. Multi-celled Algae can grow up to 5 feet and form blanket weed. Blanket weed can grow up to a foot a day under nice sunny conditions.
Some of your experienced pond contractors will refer to this spring time problem as "New Pond Syndrome". What this means is that when spring comes and your pond is up and running (with filtration working), you will get green water. In the winter, a lot of people will shut off their filters because of the weather conditions. When spring comes, the filters are running full speed. But, since the winter produces fish waste and pond scum, the pond filter has to play catch-up.
The problem with algae is that it produces oxygen during the daytime, but feeds on oxygen at night. So, when night time comes, your fish are losing their oxygen supply. Also, the fact that a pond looks disgusting with green water (see picture above), and you can't see the fish!
There are solutions to the problem. Keeping a pond's water balanced and free of unwanted algae takes a lot of work, but the end result is a clean and beautiful looking pond. If you came this far to put in a pond, get fish, and put in a fultration system, pond maintenance should be your last (and longest lasting) priority. Our next blog will discuss solutions to the green pond monster.
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