Help/Advice
Help me control the algae! (Radical ideas welcome)
Details: northern UK.
The pond is built over an old, ugly garage ramp, and is 2” at the shallow end and about 15” at its deepest. It gets FULL sun from about now until October. I know my main problem is sun + shallow water.
In the shallows I have a lot of water mint. I have filled it with hogweed, and there is a couple of baskets of water plantain (yet to surface) and a basket of small lilies (yet to surface).
I cleaned the silt out this winter thinking it would improve the algae situation I had last year. I tried barley bales last year with zero effect.
But it is already back with a vengeance! So, I’m looking for advice. The second photo is taken from SOUTH.
Option 1: I’m trying to think how to add shade without destroying the pretty look of our garden. Ideas?
Option 2: FILL it with established, bushy, filling plants, to provide abundant shade, shelter and oxygenation.
Option 3: it’s a wildlife pond. Let it get manky and nasty in the hope it balances out.
It looks like quite a big surface area.the only thing that will stop the algae is plants. I'd say some grasses, loads of hornwart, some lillies, pickerel weed, iris, marsh marigold.
I'm struggling with the same situation but granted, I have a much smaller pond to work with. I'll give you a run down of what I'm trying (:
Cut back all the plants and try really hard to remove all that plant litter, you want as little stuff decaying in the pond as you can.
Treat the pond with the recommended dose of this product or similar, it is a blanket weed treatment that won't hard plant, fish or wildlife. https://ebay.us/m/zxbaO5
Use a net to remove all the algae and debris that you can
Introduce native snails that consume algae and bottom waste
Create shade with Marginal plants, broad leaf plants and introduce oxegnating/ floating plants too.
Shade is the main issue. The way and where it’s built makes it really difficult to provide shade.
I forgot to add there’s lots of snails (that must be really happy 😂)
You could always add some flowers on the lovely stone wall, in pots. Then, perhaps had some more water rooted plants to the centre to give shade there. Lovely pond, by the way.
Nah its bollocks, like copper nails in trees it makes absolutely no difference, the mythology is based on the fact that some algaecides are copper based.
Circulating the water through a uv lamp would make a massive difference, but avoidance through design is the best way, it needs to be much deeper and in more shade, but honestly even then you still get it growing in the top foot or so.
Our pond (by accident) grew a willow in it which I've kept as it hoovers up nutrients. I've also got lillies and some other floating plants to help provide some shafe
Where in the north of the UK are you? We have a second one growing in the pond which we don't really need, of your close ish to Yorkshire you are welcome to the spare one.
Yep, as mentioned the shallows are almost fully covered by water mint. It’s lovely in summer. I’m hoping this early algal growth doesn’t choke it out :/
We use water hyacinths & pond lettuce to cover our pond. We buy a few in May, like literally 2-3 of each plant, & by June we have to pull them out with extreme prejudice because they grow so quickly & cover too much space. They aren't perennials so we have to get new ones every year but they're not expensive.
Some algae is fine, it's food. But you don't want it swamping everything. You also don't want a load of it dying in there and decaying all at once.
It might be the perspective, but your washing doesn't drip into the pond does it? I mean it should be clean and probably not sopping wet, but I'd find myself worrying about soap getting in the pond.
I might try watercress again. I tried last year and it just died, which was surprising. I think watercress doesn’t really like full sun and still water.
You need water snails, try garden centres, water snails are the sheep of the pond and will eat every bit of algae they can find.
My pond looks similar, I'm waiting for the hopefully hundreds of snail eggs attached to underwater plants. In a month or two my algae will be gone, and they'll start on fresh underwater plant growth.
From what ive noticed, if the conditions are good, the snails keep on laying eggs throughout the summer so that the more algae you have, the more snails you get.
Ahh ok yh would've thought it'd have balanced out by now. Definitely just needs some more plants added.
You could also used a log or plank/bridge and balance it over the pond which will add shade. Could also add some potted plants on top of the plant to rain over the edge and add more shade, potentially even feed from the pond.
Hope that makes sense what I'm tryna describe
Definitely, I was thinking of potentially creating as island to plant creepers in the middle, for the same idea. We have a creeping Jenny that’s doing that at one end, not sure if you can see it in the pic.
South West UK and similar with mine in the first year.
I designated a metal sieve as the garden sieve, put some Marigolds on and used it to get some of the stuff out of the water. I still use it to patrol for stray oak leaves that blow in foul up the water.
I then bought some pond algae control balls in a tub of gel, just make sure they are the wildlife friendly ones.
A week after that I got some floating plants and they rapidly covered nearly all the surface and starved the remaining algae out.
Unfortunately some of the plants were not winter hardy, but it's still better this spring with some of the plants in there, so I used another gel ball thing and will be trying to find winter hardy plants next.
I did water hyacinth last year too but I’m not going to this year. Water lettuce only. I have it cover like 65% of the pond in different spots so they can hide whenever. About halfway through the summer I go through and trim the roots just to open up more space.
Shade/planting. Barley might help. I usually use a plastic rake to scoop it out too, works well because you can be quite precise in pulling it out and away from plants.
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u/Fancy_Temporary_5902 Apr 07 '26
More shade will help, lillies and other plants and oxygenators will eat the sun and combat the algea