i am expericing a lot of algae in my pond. this has never really happened before, but i cant believe the growth especially in march. the pond is about 900 gallons and is only about 32 inches in depth, there are only exotic gold fish and regular gold fish in the pond, i have not started up the pump or anything as of yet, just shut everything down for the winter. the algae is growing mostly around the sides of the pond and a little on the bottom, i have scrapped off as much as i possibly can, what can i do to prevent this, this is only march, i thought algae blooms were a problem in the summer months. thank in advance

Hi Steve,

The hair algae you are describing is serving a purpose over the winter. It is sopping up the ammonia produced by your fish and providing a vegetarian salad for them to munch on. Leave it alone until you get your pumps and filters up and running. At that point, remove the longest strands with a biff brush on a stick. Don't bother scrubbing or pressure washing the liner. Your biofilters will reduce the ambient ammonia to zero and the algae will go semi-dormant, to the point where the fish will keep it under control.

Algae requires sunlight, phosphates and ammonia to thrive. Deny it the ammonia and it will not grow. Filtration is key.

Bob