Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment restoring underwater plants in i acre tank

for five years i fought algae, coontail, primrose,pond weed(surface rooted in soil ) and underwater grass with lots of chemicals, weedrake, and many hard labor hours. last year i found that i now have no underwater vegatation at all. water quality is good, good bloom though not the ideal green ,and forage fish best i've had in years small, medium, and large BG, lots of minnows aroung shore line, the only other fish in tank or natural black LMB and HYbride LMB, i feed forage fish Purina Game Fish Chow, high protein, bass not trained for pellets.With the extreme drought here in central tx, surface water level very, low down about 6ft, no fish kill yet. i also am adding cover for fish with structures during this low water level. i hate to go back to fighting water grass but would appreciate some thoughts from other members, also how do you get started with underwater grass again, and what species would anyone recommend. thanks i hope everyone enjoys working on their tank as much as i do..

Based on the scenario you described, what leads you to believe that submersed vegetation is needed or required?

kelly thanks for the reply, my wife and kids say that if there is nothing to worry about, i will find something i visit the pond forum a lot, i'm retired and everything i have learned about pond management i have gotten from forum members,in fact you got me on track years ago on cutrine, and aquathol, i just thought i may have made a mistake on the control of water vegatation. pray for rain david lee

Hello David. I remember you... that was a long time ago!
Regarding your pond: Many people believe that a healthy fishery must include submersed vegetation. I do not! But, I also believe that a limited amount of submerged vegetation can be beneficial - though not critically necessary.
I think the main benefits of submersed vegetation are the "cover" and elevated substrate it provides, which many aquatic organisms will utilize. But, artifical structures often provide the same benefits without the need to manage a potentially invasive plant population.
So, if the purpose of your pond is satisfied without the presence of submersed plants, why risk future issues by introducing new plants?

Kelly:

I'm not arguing the point of not having submerged vegetation in the pond, just a question.

Without plants to utilize the nutrients in the pond due to the biomass (i.e. fish) how would you combat the FA that would eventually show up?

To add a curve ball to the question, would the plan to combat the FA change if the pond owner would want to stock Trout for the Fall/Winter/Spring?

I see huge FA problems even where there's an abundance of submerged aquatic plants to compete for nutrients. So, I don't buy into the logic of introducing plants to compete with algae. Too much risk of battling two problems instead of only one.
I believe the biggest aid to prevent FA-issues lies with aeration and circulation - anything to eliminate anoxic conditions on the pond's bottom - which reduces FA's primary nutrient-source in and of itself while helping to sustain phytoplankton blooms without augmentative fertilizer treatments.

I have absolutely no experience with trout. So, I won't even offer an opinion. But, I'm inclined to favor aeration/circulation over the establishment of submerged vegetation in virtually all situations.

Thanks Kelly! It looks like I need to build my experimental aerator then.

Kelly, when you say "FA's primary nutrient source" is this a general terminology,(it's up to the pond owner to figure out what's feeding the FA)Forgive me for being possibly repetitive concerning old posts, as there are so many old posts here on pond boss, it could possibly take a weeks vacation to glean them all, and figure out the specific problem. It's truly amazing the diferent climates that us Americans experience, in a few latitude lines.Seems to me the more extreme northern waters experience less FA and it increases as you go south. It's my suspicion that the angles of the suns rays, and daylight hours, and water temps influence greatly.I guess I'm at the halfway point.Last year at this time, labor day weekend, I went to extreme Northern Minnesota and was looking for a jacket, when I came home I was looking for a straw hat. I know how to keep FA somewhat in check with chemical, but if there was someway to not feed the FA, that was actually obtainable, it would keep me from pouring from a plastic jug.
Forgive me for rambling here maybe pondowners should just come to grips with the fact that there will always be a certain amount of undesirables in a BOW, unless one wants to devote their entire life to making the perfect BOW to show there friends? I know FA can be a real PITA, but just because I may not like the way it looks,maybe we should ask the ones who live there? There are certain areas in my BOW that I wish "looked different", but dread the thought of going to the pond one day, and it looked like the surface of the moon.I guess it's all what a person wants. It's your pond and you can do with it what you want.
Example....my pond has alot of aquatics, probably too much for the ideal. But I get more enjoyment from my pond than just how pretty the water looks, (" Man I'm in the Bahamas")I have had Green Backed Herons, Belted Kingfishers,and starting yesterday, I had 40 nighthawks swooping down to drink, man that was so cool!!!!I also had 4 Terns, I know not what brand, but they were beautiful, diving in and catching small fish for their journey to wherever they are going.
It's a sign to me of life,and not institutionalized life, as there is life inside the walls of a prison.....if you call that living....anyway I digress, just hoping to put some perspective on why I have ponds. Oh me the "philosophical one lol

BOWs that receive water predominately from run-off are catch-basins for phosphorus, nitrates, sediments and other components (a process known as "eutrophication"). Phosphorus adsorbs onto oxidized bottom sediments. However, anaerobic conditions often cause phosphorus to mobilize from bottom sediments and re-enter the overlying water (aka "internal phosphorus loading"). Therefore, much of the phosphorus utilized by FA during the growing season may be sourced from sediment "storage vaults" that are exposed to anoxic conditions; which is one of the reasons why aeration & circulation are beneficial - to reduce the availablity of phosphorus that fuels FA's proliferation.

I would welcome Bill Cody to expound on this relatively complex interaction - especially since planktonic algae (desirable forms of algae) are also dependent on phosphorus.

My question to Bill: Is it feasible to enhance the desired growth of planktonic algae without also encouraging the intrusion of nuisance algae species?