Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations It's back!

I got an unusual algae bloom last fall (new for me) in the former trout pond that turned the water the color of root beer or coffee. If you put the water into a white bucket it appears urine colored yellow. Bill Cody identified the fall bloom as the Ochromonas genus a form of yellow-green algae. This one apparently is not one of the harmful ones and it doesn't seem to be bothering the yellow perch and fatheads. But for someone that is used to gin clear or aqua blue ponds this looks like Sheeeeet to me. And I've put in brush piles for perch egg removal and I can hardly see them now!

Funny I drained 99.9 percent of the water out of this pond this spring after the previous algae bloom and refilled with well water. In no time the algae was back. Two nearby ponds apparently do not have this algae in them as they are not this color.

Anyone else have a brown algae bloom? I think Eric (Ewest) said it's the norm where he's at?

Nothing 'cept the FA. It's starting to float now and is making fishing a PITA having to clean off the lure after every cast.

Cecil, what's the recommended cure for yellow algae? I'd immagine it's even more challenging in your cold water.


I had a bunch of FA this year too. I could see it on the Aquavu this winter and knew it was going to be tough. I gave the pond a dose of Cutrine Plus and Aquashade(about a half dose of both really) even though the temps are in the low 50s. I'm not a big fan of blue water but I figured the Aquashade would help compensate for the decrease of plankton due to the copper and the blue tint will soon enough be washed out from the Spring rain. I think it helped but there's a chance that the two recent cold fronts knocked it back too. It's been 4 days and I only had to clean off my spinnerbait once last night instead of every other cast.

I'm thinking liquid Cutrine Plus combined with Aquashade which I may do after I move the yellow perch eggs strands out of the pond. On the other hand it's possible it may not favor the water once it gets significantly warmer, so I may want to wait and see. Since I no longer run well water into the pond it will get up into the upper 70's by summer.




Sounds like that should work. I've never had that severe of problems with filamentous algae, and in fact have some around the shoreline of my big pond, which some of the fatheads hide in. It also appears they may be spawning under them but Bill Cody doesn't think so.

there were lots of comments about brown water last year. my pond gets green when i use ole cheap pond fertilizer 20-20-5 but turned brown when i used the higher end fertilizer, cant remember the numbers. i hated the brown look last year. my pond is pretty and green now, just a little too clear though. just put some 20-20-5 in this week and shot a little cutrine around the edges. i do seem to get more scum with the 20-20-5