algae in one s/h pot....how to get rid of it?

[tangers40]

i'm in the process of converting all my plants to s/h. i've found that i love it and so do the orchids. everything is going lovely, but my dendrobium pot is growing some algae down in the LECA. none of the others are and they all receive the same light levels. is there some way of getting it out without unplanting and scrubbing the pot and media? i've tried flushing it a couple times with water, and that helped a bit, but there's some still clinging on there. i know it doesn't hurt the plant, but it looks gross and i'd like to keep it out of there if i can. pics can be provided upon request if needed.

[kmarch]

I suppose an algecide...but does it need to be removed? I occasionally have a bit growing in my "clear" post and i never do anythign about it, I just let it go. Let's see what some of the other geeks say.

[kninum]

algea can simply be the result of good water and plenty of light...

...the green should not hurt the plant, but if you want to slow or stop it's growth you can just put you s/h pot in a dark cover ( ie another pot, or wrap something like a thin sheet of craft foam around the pot, just ,make sure it still drains correctly)

i did have a catt. seedling whose pot looked like it had been dipped in a swamp......it didn't seem to mind at all, thou it was kinda yucky to look at

[jay]

I have algae in nearly every one of my S/H pots. To get rid of it I put a liner around the pot so that no light can get to the water and nutrients. Without light the algae can't grow. Just make sure to do a lot of clean water flushing if you do this method to get rid of any decaying algae.

For the most part I just leave it alone.

[tangers40]

thanks guys. i don't really NEED to remove it, just for visual purposes i guess. i'll try putting the s/h pot inside one of my clay pots for a few days to see if that helps.

[kninum]

A few days of no light will probably just kill off the green that is there ( which, as Jay said, you will want to try to flush out before it rots badly).

If you want to prevent the algae from growing you will have to keep the pots out of the light ............we had this issue with one of our water coolers at work ( it was near a window). So many people were scared of the "green" in the water that we ended up having to get a permanent cover for the bottle. Once it was out of the light we never had an issue with algae again.

If you have any regular 'crafty' kids, you could have them make you some "sleeves/tubes" out of craft foam sheets and have them decorate them up nice too.( a handy 'keep them busy' summer project)
the other nice thing about the foam sheets is you wont have to worry about them getting wet when you water.

[Plucky Purcell]

I leave the algae alone. I just take it as a sign that all is right in that pot.