My pond is always green is there anything I can do to clear the water...I have cats that like to drink out of the pond so I don't want to outt anything in there to hurt them..?? Do I need more shade ?? My pond gets alot of sun...

Hmm.... Well I would think about apple snails they are awsome at eatingplant matter of any kind... Thats also the bad side to them they eat ALL plant!!!

I have a small watt UV light on an independent 320 gph pump. Works great. Last summer was the first time for it. Think it's a Pondmaster, any position and in or out of water....love it.

Barley straw also works pretty well. If its getting a lot of sun try adding some plants to cover the top, such as water lilies.

Diannemc, I don't know how big your pond is and this may not work for you but here is what I did last year.
My pond was new last year and I had trouble with algae which is easy to understand why. Someone suggested that I try the liquid barley. After a few weeks I could slowly see a difference. By the end of summer the pond water was much, much better. I got impatient and wrapped my pump/filter with quilt batting and the next day I could see further into the pond. The next day I could see the bottom. It worked real well for me. It's just a big filter wrapped around the filter. I still have to clean it but not as often.
How many hours of sun do you think your pond gets a day?
I assume that you have plants in the summer right?

Tia

Diannemc, To answer the other part of you question. Algae is just a tiny aquatic plant which in itself will do absolutly no harm to your cats. It's not to say that there could not be something else present that could harm them. But removing the Algae will do nothing to make the water more healthy for them to drink. Do you have filtration? Fish in the pond that produce waste? At least a pump to circulate the water?

Fm3

My pond algae page is at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/plants/algae2.htm

I assume that you are talking about suspended algae? Snails can't eat that but a few animals can such as daphnia and clams. Fish will eat daphia. Clams are hard to keep alive.

Shade, lots of live plants, good filtration, and barley straw are all natural remedies for all kinds of algae. You might also want to buy a UV sterilizer if nothing else works for suspended algae. It's not natural but won't harm animals who drink the water.

Most regular pond algae are harmless to drink or be in contact with. But, there are some blue-green algae (not all) that release toxins, some of them deadly enough to kill fish and animals like cats and dogs that drink from the water. Some have even made people sick. In a healthy pond that's well aerated and filtered, those toxic algae should never appear. They mostly grow in stagnant water. Blue-green algae often look fluorescent green, reflective/shiny, and slimy. Blue-green algae can be killed with erythromycin antibiotic because blue-green algae are actually cyanobacteria and not true algae. The "cyano" in cyanobacteria hints at their toxicity. Think cyanide. Sorry if it sounds scary; it shouldn't be an issue for us hobbyist ponders but it does exist.

I know there are chemicals you can put in water to help with algae..That is what i was wondering would hurt the cats.. them drinking after chemicals are put in it..
What causes algae? is it too much sun? I have a pump that runs all the time. How often do I need to change the filter? My pond gets sun from about 11am till sun down which is around 8: 15 to 8:30 in summer..Thanks

It really helps if you add information about your basis pond set up into your "signature" in "my controls" so if/when you have a problem posted someone can answer it much quicker. Some chemicals added to kill Algae greatly reduce the available oxygen for fish( if you have them) so you should have and airator running or waterfall to prevent harm to your fish. Read the directions on the algaeside for warnings concerning your cat. Algae is going to grow if you have that much sun light. To reduce it, if possible, shade the pond untill you can grow plants like waterlilies or other surface plants to provide shade. The plants also compete with the Algae once they get going good which will reduce the problem.

Hope this helps FM3

True algaecides are nasty chemicals, and I wouldn't want animals drinking those. Would they actually harm the cats? It's hard to say. I guess it depends on the exact chemical and how much they get.

Algae is fed by sun and nutrients (nitrate, phosphate, etc.).

How often you clean or change the filter depends on the exact filter, filter size, pond size, and so on. I change my 153 gallon filter every 3 weeks but squirt it off every week in the summer. I squirt off my 1800 gallon pre-filter every week in summer and the rest of it every month or so.

I did algaecides one summer....bounced my water chemistry something nasty, lost a couple fish. If it's suspended algae...go UV.