Habitat - Outdoor :: Turtle-safe Hair Algae killer?

[H15A5H1]

For a couple months now, I've been dealing with a big hair algae problem in my outdoor mini pond. I have a 300gal rubbermaid stocktank outside connected to a Laguna Clearflo 700 gal with uv sterlizer. The uv sterilzer has taken care of any traces of free floating algae, but recently hair algae has started to grow like crazy. I'm tired of trying to scoop up the slimy mess all the time, and want to get rid of this problem.

Anyone have any good suggestions for a turtle safe hair algae killer??

[Linus]

Snails

[freshprince2146]

Yea a natural way would be some snails or algae eaters.

[aal]

I disagree. Snail and algae eaters end up as food. That is a big fact no one can deny unless you have little turtles.

[wezeles]

Chemical treatment seems to be your only resort besides some type of algae eaters.

UV control is the best thing to prevent algae in the first place. Although you have the uv sterilizer being outside makes that job near impossible.

I had the exact same problem with my outside pond within a week of installation even with good filtration. Chemical treatment will keep it at bay the problem is you can't just use pool or decorative pond treatment stuff. You have to use aquarium "pet friendly" based algae treatment.

I have used Kordon, Algone, and No more algae "tablets". All of them work well but you need a lot and it can get pricey.

Expect to pay about 10-20 dollars a month in chemicals if you have a lot of light exposure.

This spring when the pond opens back up i plan on installing some kind of shade. A bush of small plant to over shadow a good portion of the pond.

The best way to eliminate algae is to eliminate as much light as possible so it can't grow...

Good luck!

[wezeles]

From what i have read so far about hair "thread" algae, most algae eaters wont touch it in the first place.

To eliminate the problem from popping right back up after cleaning a lot seemed to use a bleach treatment with great success.

Obviously you can't do that with the pets in it, but if it gets out of hand when you go to clean it you could keep that in mind. Or do a bleach treatment than from then out use shade and chemical treatment to keep it at bay...

[worldpeace]

Just like any other algae, the best choice is to scrub, scrub, and scrub some more. If the tank is exposed to a lot of light algae will grow like crazy and as was metioned before, snails and algae eaters don't usually work. I don't recommed to use any chemicals in your turtle tank. Even if you do eliminate the problem with a bleach treatment, it doesn't mean that the algae won't grow back again, cuz it most definetly will.

[wezeles]

Agreed bleach treatment will not be a permanent fix with an outside pond. It will keep it at bay for far longer than just a regular cleaning because it will kill anything in the pond at that moment, where as scrubbing algae from the sides doesn't kill it it simply moves it out of sight for a time. most will get sucked into the filter and the rest will escape to grow again. This will degrade you filter life greatly and end up costing you more in filter changes.

Chemical treatment designed for pets are all eco friendly and most of them are bio based treatments.

I wouldn't buy products from over seas without looking into them thoroughly but the treatments available in the states can't make it on the market when intended for pet habitats if they are not safe. Just research the product you intend to buy and see if it suits your needs for you pond.

With an outside pond even with scrubbing you will be doing it every other day because there is simply no way to kill the algae off when you scrub and there is so much light it will grow back quickly. It is simply not going to work out. you have to combat the root cause not just move it around.

Unless you decide you can live with the algae, algae is mostly harmless to the animals and actually make for a healthy water cycle. Still overgrowth can move onto the turtles and they might start getting it on there shells and could start a nasty case of shell rot. I had a turtle given to me with a mild case of algae on it shell and it took a while to get it clean and the shell healthy again. But if you took the turtles out once in a while to clean the shells most likely the algae wont harm them at all. They live in algae in the wild and have no issues but they aren't locked in a confined space either.