Raw water maintenance

Hello,
I am a newbie and this year I was blessed to become an owner for the first time ever.
I am using my boat on canada's river for now so no salt water for me at this time (and same for the previous owner).
I was questionning myself about the raw water cooling system...
Considering that we have quite some algae in the rivers and lakes here, is there any specific maintenance to do on the cooling water circuit during summer?
Would it be usefull to pur some domestic chlorine in the strainer from time to time in order to control algae bloom, if any? Is there any danger to do so?
Is there any risk of algae grow in the heat exchanger or exhaust manifold?
Maybe I am totally wrong and the only heat from the engine is taking care of riping off algae but I am questionning this, especially considering that I am not using her everyday but only during weekends and when weather permit so sometimes my baby can sit in her slip during 2 or 3 weeks.
Any advice will be much appreciated!

I've never heard of algae being a problem like you're worried about. Algae won't normally grow without light. No matter, I would not put bleach in any part of the raw water system because it can attack various metals and rubber.

Ken

Heard parts of Florida are now invaded by thick, stinky, poisonous algae.

Well I am not a biologist or an expert by any mean and I may be wrong but I don't think algae need light to grow. I based my thinking on the fact that algae may grow in your fresh water tank where there is no light, or on the fact that if I leave my pool without chemical the cartridge of my filter is full of nice green algae while there is no light in my filter box.
May be the only heat from the engine is enough to kill algae, or maybe I don't know what I am talking about but a place like a heat exchanger looks like a nice nest for it.
Just wanted to know if anybody has any experience on that

Don't know if you dock where there is municipal water, as a flush of that through the system would have enough chlorine to kill most any thing.

Ted

Algae needs light to grow. Some need direct and some need indirect.

Although the as I recall if there is sugar available some types can grow without light.

Regularly using the vessel and cleaning the strainers should be good enough. If the fresh water you boat in is so polluted that this doesn't suffice, why boat in this locale? Move the boat!

A large part of your cooling system is copper based and copper will kill algae.
I,m no expert but to my knowledge algae needs light to grow. Maybe low light levels but light nonetheless. Your pool filter is catching algae from the pool where there is light, exactly what is meant to do.

If the water you boat in is polluted with algae then I could see the system sucking it in while running but that is not allowing growth. That sucked in algae will die or at least go into hibernation until it gets light when it gets flushed out from the next run.
You must have thousands of other boats in the area. Do they have problems?

In seawater there is algae. We have blooms where large areas turn red from it. It is sucked into our systems as we run and then sits until next time. It does not grow in our systems.

As mentioned chlorine may damage parts of your system especially if allowed to sit causing more trouble and expense than if left alone and the boat used.

Your choice of course.

Thank you everybody for your precious answer.
Algae: Check