I have about a one half acre pond that I am putting fry fish in and I have an enourmous filmontaneous algae problem. I am worried about my fry getting hung in this algae and dying. I think it it caused from the high protein feed that I am giving this pond because it is only in this pond. The algae looks like paper when it is dried. What can I do to get rid of this problem without killing my fish?

reddog :

Look at these prior PB thread posts they link a bunch of posts on FA. Note the list provided by Bill Cody. Welcome to the PB forum.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=002572#000002

I have a report on my most recent algae control efforts. Haven't checked the referenced post by ewest but I got involved in several posts a year ago about algae problems. I talked about an attempt to install a circulation pump that circulates the water through a large natural filter that I have adjacent to my pond, about 5 acres of bog. I used about a 5 or 10 gpm submersible pump that I hung off the dock. I pump the water through a 3/4 inch irrigation pipe 100 feet out into the bog. It entirely recirculates the water in my pond about once every 3 to 4 weeks. I think I'm ready to provide a preliminary report on how this is working. I think we all had a warm spring and saw unusually early algea and weed growth. I did too. I didn't start my pump until the end of May but prior to that I had DW earlier than I'd ever seen before. I was bracing myself for a bad year. I have to say now that the pump has run for about a month my algea and DW growth has slowed way down. The previous few years I saw it much worse by this time. I have a 50 foot diameter very green and tall spot in the bog though. I'll see how the rest of the summer goes. Based on what I've seen if you can find a natural vegetation filter like I have it makes sense to use it. Makes one think if when you build ponds perhaps you should purposely create a boggy area on one end. Wonder how you can create a bog? What other types of lanscape could be used for this? If your pond gets runnoff via a long gradual swale with lots of vegetation it might pay to pump water back up the swale and let it trickle down through the vegetation.

Interesting idea. Any pumping approaching 24/7 could result in one very wet, soft swale. If water supply was a problem it might cause too much loss through the added evaporation and transpiration in the swale.

Theo, yes you would definitely lose a lot of that water. I have the same problem. That's why last year I only ran the pump during periods when we had plenty of rain and the pond level was high. As soon as the water level dropped as low as I was comfortable with I shut it off until we got more rain and the level went up. I know what my normal pond levels are and I know what level is safe so that I don't lose too much before winter. I would imagine that any amount of time that you can do this you will be removing nutrients and be better off for it.

reddog,

You might want to consider cutting back some on the artificial feeding. FA thrives on nutrients in the water and the feed adds to nutrient loading. IMO, the fry aren't in much danger from the FA, and in fact may benefit from the shade and cover it provides.