SUMMIT 135 Clear-Water Barley Straw Bale 15 oz, Treats up to 5000-Gallons

When water in our 800 gallon fish pond begins to warm in spring before the Japanese Maple can again produce it’s foliage to shade 60% or a bit more of the pond from direct sunlight, these bails of barley have somehow prevented the rapid growth of dark green algae we use to have to treat chemically every spring that killed all the large snails in the pond and that I doubt did the fish any good either, especially stressing out the 4 senior fish that were among the nine original fish I put in when the pond was new 30 years ago. A da@med great blue heron had two of the others for breakfast before we covered the pond with netting, while three of the other original guys and gills passed on of natural old age issues.Those nine fish went at it overtime every spring producing so many youngins I was find new homes for so many that I guess half the ponds in town are full of fish that were spawned right here. I had no idea fish live as long as they do if ya keep the herons and chlorine out. Quality of their food probably made a difference too. I tried switching to cheaper stuff a couple of times and they everyone just looked up at me like “you don’t really expect us to eat that, do you?” So, I’ve kept ordering a couple of the 6 pound bags of the high dollar floating sticks every couple or months to keep them all friendly, fat n happy. I think they appreciate the clearer water in spring the barley somehow provides by preventing most of that thick green algae slime that’s just plain unappetizing and a bear to get rid of once it takes over. That called for two bails of the barley magic.Are there any prizes for longest rambling reviews? Like maybe a big, fat bag of their fav high dollar floating koi and pond fish sticks, by any unlikely chance?Ah, didn’t think so.

Straw was recommended by a pond guy to help keep pond water clear. It has so far helped a ton this spring. 2 of them in our 10,000 gallon pond with fish. Will always keep them in there now. Easy to re-use once they sink, just dry in the sun for a few days and put them back in!

well so far this seems to do a good job on my 2100 koi pond. much better than the double pack of smaller bundles. lasts longer. two facts to know that I got from our local pond/aquarium expert.1. it is good as long as part of it is above the water - it works by having an oxygen exchange with the air.2. best time to use is early spring before algae get going.update: So far I hAVE PURCHase 4 of these - first off price went up from 19.19 TO 22.99 call it 23.00 in just LESS than ONE year.second on further investigation I do not see much difference here - I actually got 4 of these guys for my mere 2000 gal pond.3rd these suckers last maybe 2 months tops -Update - Ok what I discovered was that for my 2200 gal pond one of these will not do the trick BUT when I put 4 in it worked, ny pond is totally clear. you still need to start early spring and put them all in at once - my guess is that this one is good for 500 gal. so I up my rating to 4 stars because their advert is deceptive.

We are trying his product in the retention pond next to our house to try and alleviate the algae growth latter in the summer. It's definitely easy to use - just hurl it into the pond like a football quarterback. It's too soon to say if this product is effective because it needs to break down in the water over time & the quantity needed is determined by the size of pond, which can be difficult to estimate. We hope it is effective because it is quite expensive.

I've just tried this in an 8000 gal koi pond inserting them near the waterfall in early April. My rocks were algae coated and, as the sun came up (northeast) floating algae appeared. I'm trying this instead of Algae off and today I could not believe that the algae has seriously departed even from the subsurface rocks. If this keeps up it'll be the greatest thing since grilled cheese sandwiches.

First off, the ratings for this product cover being easy to use, (Really?!? You set them in the pond, and they float.), Presentation, (We’re talking about a dead grass here that’s been made into a small straw bale. This isn’t the unveiling of a new Apple product!), and value. This is why it gets 1 star. It hasn’t lasted nearly as long as smaller, well-known brands. Don’t be fooled! More for less isn’t always best!

I don't know whether or not it was this, or a refreshing of bacteria that cleaned up my parents pond. They've fought with both floating and string algae since they put in their pond. It's been worse since removing some trees that provided some shade for the pond. The pond water was from fairly green, and so filled with string algae that you couldn't see anything in the pong (string algae was attached to the stems of lilies). Now, there is some dead algae residue, and a tiny little bit of string algae in the river between the waterfall and the pond itself, but for the most part, is is amazingly clear. We've had to clean the filters a bunch of times to get the dead string algae removed, and there is some junk at the bottom, but it is an amazing transformation. We've tried using UV (knowing it would only work on floating), and algae killer. Neither of those worked very well at all.

Seriously, this is a very important product for those of us who have ponds or pools that have algae bloom.I found out about this years ago and it worked. The problem is finding the Barley Straw Bales for the ponds.Not only are they available on Amazon, they are available in a variety of sizes. I got the smallest one for my little goldfish pond where I don't want to use chemicals. I ordered the larger one for a swimming pool that has been allowed to "go natural". The barley straw worked within days in both circumstances. It is amazing to see this in action. If you have any green algae problem and don't want to use chemicals ( which can kill the plants you may want ), order this today.I should mention that in the small pond ( it is really small) the racoons got the bale and took it apart.....the straw still works I just need to remember not to take it out when removing stuff from this particular pond.