Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Ice out, What is this?

I have an old pond that I am trying to clean up and stock. There is already a handfull of fish in it and plenty of forage. (Frogs,salamanders, minnows, water bugs). The pond is about 1/3 acre and 7 feet at the deepest point. The problem is the stuff in the pic makes it nearly impossible to fish. I will be installing an aeration system soon and treating with Aquashade, but what else would help get rid of this stuff?

I realize this would take a lot of work and might only be temporary, but in a 1/3 acre pond, couldn't you just rake it out?

Did a high water event wash a bunch of stuff into the pond? Some of it looks like algae, but I also see sticks and pieces of what looks like land vegetation floating on the pond as well. The water looks cloudy for Springtime water.

Not sure what happened. The pond is connected to a larger pond which I am in the process of blocking off and only use it to maintain the water level in my pond. The water always looks like this, very cloudy. I think it might be the turtles stirring it up. I also found two large animal holes right next to the water today. I am not sure what lives in there but last year I saw a beaver/muscrat in the pond. Any ideas?

the holes are probably muskrats. I have caught three of them at my pond this year already. Search "muskrats" to see lots of threads about what they do to a pond and how to catch them.

I am no expert on the stuff in the pond. It would help to have a close up of some of it. Maybe you could scoop some out and get a picture. The pros will be by soon and give you all the info you need.

Take a sample of the water in a mason or other clear jar and set it in the house or garage where it won't get moved. If the water clears then something is stirring up the water. It's still too cold for turtles to be moving much.

Turtles just don't stir up water much. And I cannot tell from that distance exactly what that aquatic plant is. Could you pull some out and lay it on a piece of white paper for a close up? The water is kind of murky also. Almost looks like some kind of turbidity problem. It is always like that? Very strange.

My first thought would be if the water is always muddy like that you may have large numbers of bullheads or carp from the connected lake stirring up your pond. But with the cold water temps now, they shouldn't be that active to muddy up the water.

Yes, as far as the turbidity, I have seen drinking water lakes with areas of murky water just like that, common carp shallow flats. Very few species of fish get down in the mud bottom and roil it up constantly. Most of them have sucker mouths. Bullheads will filter the bottom mud. Also that brown plant could be a green plant just carrying a lot of fine silt particles. Almost can't be runoff from the other pond, that would be temporary. But that could be a type of bottom that stains the water that color, I have seen that also.

Here is a close up of the vegetation. I also put some water in a mason jar and in the jar it looks very clear. I am interested to see if anything settles. As far as the muscrats go, lets just say they will be gone soon. I do have bullhead in the pond. I caught a few last year. I took the boat out yesterday and stuck the oar to the bottom and came up with a grey clay like substance. What are your feelings on the dye, will it help or hurt?

Am I totally off base or does that look like dead Eurasian Water Milfoil?

It's dead something. Usually Eur Milfoil is red stemmed. This is tough, but if I had to guess I'd say coontail. Gray clay bottom? That sure should not make the water that color under any circumstances. This one get stranger by the post. Whatever that plant is I'd say it got killed by the temps. Now it's going to sink and rot, not a good thing as decaying vegetation can lead to a host of other problems, and you have a lot of it. I had a pond with way worse infestation than that and I raked all of the vegetation out when I could. Thanks for the photos and the updates. Pretty cool.


Oh dye. Won't do nothing here. In a way you already have dye. It's just not a pleasant color. The water is clear in a jar, yet tinted in the pond? Nothing is settling on the bottom of the jar? Is the water in the pond that feeds this pond the same color?

You might try this link to the pics and see what you think. It is often easier for the person who has actually seen the plant to know what it looks like in a pic.

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/

really looks like dead e. milfoil...

definately want to rake that stuff out

Excellent link on vegetation. After looking at the pics I really think it is Eurasian Water Milfoil. I will get the rake out on the next good day and clean it up. The water in the jar has been sitting for 12 hrs with no change. The water from the larger pond is pretty clear. Is Milfoil best controlled by manual labor or is there something off the shelf that would be effective? Also will aerating help deal with this stuff?

That plant is so far degraded it is really tough to tell. It probably will comeback and you could make a positive id when it is live and green. But I think you could narrow it to eur milfoil or coontail. I've seen mats of eur milfoil, but not froze and degraded. I don't think it is parrotfeather. It all floated up for easy removal. Hint, hint.

It would help to get a positive id on it, but aeration is not a help either. There are herbicides but not a lot that are effective. Grass carp kind of eat it. Manual removal is tough because it breaks apart and fragments can root. The source water is clear. Weird. Could be an abundance of bullheads. They will get a mouthful of mud and or silt and swim back up filtering it for food. My free advice would be:

A: Rake that dead stuff out.
B: Wait for new stuff to emerge, it should be growing from the bottom, get a positive ID on it. Then attack it when it is emerging, depending on what it is.
C: Start getting those pesky bullheads out. By hook, trap, anyway you can.

No charge.

Manual removal will work just fine for the dead stuff if it's Eurasian Water Milfoil, but not for the viable, growing plants. They spread by seed AND via cuttings, so you could spread them quicker.

It will take over a pond quickly, growing in water that's over 5' deep to the surface if the water has enough visibility. I hate the stuff and never want to see it in my pond. Diquat works well for killing the stuff, but if you have a bunch growing, don't treat more than 1/4 of the pond at a time, you might cause a D.O. crash when it all starts to decompose at the same time.

Were there weeds growing up to the surface in the pond last year before ice-on?

removing the plants from the water after killing them can avert the eutrophication process

Yes and yes to both above posts. I've seen the stuff grow up from the bottom, all the way to the surface, over 5 acres worth. Just a pondkiller, probably eur milfoil is the plant that scares me the most. That and blue/green algae, for way different reasons. Not to install a panic in oyu, but you have to deal with this aggressively as soon as it emerges if it is eur milfoil.

t1mmbo you mentioned your pond being 7 ft. deep, is the pond that it's connected too a lot deeper?

Wow, I never thought cleaning a pond would be this confusing, but I am ready for the challenge.

Adirondack: The pond it is connected to starts off as a large pond(Stocked with trout) with a dam that dumps water into a swampy area that runs into another pond. My pond is in-between the swamp and the last pond. Where it connects is only about 2 feet deep.I am not sure of the depths of the other ponds but can find out. I took the boat out yesterday and took some measurements of my actual pond depth. 7 ft at the deepest, and 75% of the pond is only 1-4 ft deep. I am second guessing stocking trout and may go with bass.

Tewks: What exactly do you mean by eutrophication process?

Pond frog: Thanks for the insight, I will rake out tommorrow and treat when needed.

Esshup: Yes, the weeds were up to the surface before the ice set in. I didnt have a boat then so I am not sure if they were rooted or floating

Thanks guys, I will post pics of progress

It looks like bass, perch or Catfish would work better for you, the surface water coming over the dam and going thru the swampy area before reaching your pond it's likely gonna be a lot warmer than the main pond.
This is also probably adding nutrients from the main pond and swamp which is probably aggravating your weed problem.
Having a deeper pond would be ideal but this may not be financially possible for you.
Many of the people here have lots of experience and hopefully they can find the best solution for your pond.

I'll bet you will find the same plants in the larger pond upstream. If that's the case, then you will have a constant battle on your hands.

While expensive, a neighbor treated the lake in front of their house with Sonar. It lasted a couple of years before the Eurasian Mifoil started to come back, while the neighbors on either side had it every year.

Looks like coontail to me, if that is the case it won't be rooted to the bottom like milfoil will be. The leaf internodes on milfoil alternate in pairs on the stem and that's why I think it's most likely coontail. Coontail will be easier to rake out since it's not rooted to the bottom.