The Pond Outlet Blog

As winter thaws out, the algae questions have been coming hot and heavy. We have addressed this question before but I think it bears repeating as many of you are new to our FaceBook page as we have been adding about 50 new fans a day. This is a great question that is typical of the questions I have been getting this week on the phone and via email.

John’s Question: 

We were intrigued by your Ion Gen Electronic Clarifier. We have a 6000 gallon pond with fish/plants that we built 3 years ago. We have a working skimmer/bio-filter/waterfall but this past year we have trouble with algae and and the water being dark green. When we first had our pond, we had the “algae green bloom” which cleared on its own when the pond settled in after a week. Can you tell us something more about this system and also your suggestion of the beneficial bacteria that will need to be used.

  

Hi John 

I also have a 6000 gallon pond and am located in Southern California just outside Los Angeles. Four  years ago I had string algae that I could “harvest” once a week which took about an hour and I could fill up a huge green trash barrel. In addition I had serious green water. Some days I felt like filling in the pond! 

 

The last three years I solved the problem using Algaefix by Pondcare every 3 days for 3 weeks in the spring and then once a week thereafter. At the same time in the spring I put in Beneficial Bacteria – Dry from Aquascape every time I used AlgaeFix and then twice a week after that. That worked well the last 3 years.

 

On Sept 6th of last year I installed the IonGen. I had a perfect spot in my 2″ pipe between the pump and the BioFalls, cut a 2 or 3 inch piece out of my pipe and glued in the IonGen. The IonGen has a 10′ cord from the probe to the Control Panel and another 10′ wire from the Control Panel to the Outlet (You can also install it in the Skimmer or in the Bio-Falls). I plugged in the IonGen which only takes 1 watt of power to drive the Control Panel.

 

I have not used one drop of AlgaeFix since but as I was told, I continued to use the Beneficial Bacteria – Dry from Aquascape mentioned above about 2 times a week (I used the Cold Water Beneficial Bacteria from Aquascapewhen the water temperature was between 45 and 55 degrees.) In 6 months now, my water is sparkling and not one trace of green water or string algae…yeaaaa!

 

It sounded too good to be true even though I knew Aquascape has been working on this and testing it for three years. These are very consistent with the results others have reported so far. The true test will be in the next few months but if nothing else, I have enjoyed not having to dump algaecides into my pond for 6 months.

 

Editors note:Aquascape reportedly is able to produce about 200 units a week and have been back-ordered several times already both here and in Canada as well so be patient – the wait may be 10 – 14 days.