Thanks for the great site lots of great info and help. I will jump right in with my delima. We have an old pond of about 3/4 - 1 acre in size that we have owned for about 5 years. The pond is unusually clear for a Kansas pond and we did find a couple of wet areas outside the pond and assume it is spring fed to some extent. There is also quite a bit of land that feeds runoff to the pond and would bet that some is fertilized. the first 3 years it was overrun with FA so bad the only time you could fish was when the wind blew it all to one area. Last year it had what I think was Southern Naiad so bad you couldn't row a boat across it let alone fish. Of course due to the drought conditions we have had over the last couple of years the water level was down probably 2 1/2' - 3' but don't know if that had any impact. I have 4 boys that love to fish and its frustrating to have to go to the neighboors to fish when we have a pond right out the back door. The pond is now back to about 1' of being full and would imagine when the snow we got this weekend melts off it will be close to full. I would really like to get this pond back in shape but not sure just how to do it with the past problems. I have read pros and cons of pond dye, chemicals, etc. to the point of confusing myself to what would be the best course to take. We used to catch some really nice Bass and Crappie and would like to do it again. I figured I would try to get some info gathered a little earlier and get the jump on it this year. Thanks in advance for the help.
Welcome to the forum. First thing I'd do is positively identify the plants that are growing. Easiest way to do that is take one strand of it, lay it on a clean white paper plate and take a close up picture of it. Then post it on here. Once the plant is identified, then we can figure out a plan of attack.
Once the plant is gone, the remaining nutrients will most likely be used by Algae. To prevent or stop that, you can either treat with Chemicals, or if the state allows, stock Tilapia at the rate of 40# per surface acre or both to get a quick handle on the Algae.
Go here and if you can find your pond, you can measure it.
I will see if I can find any pieces of the weed in the pond this afternoon and have my wife post pictures. Of course we have about 6 inches of snow on the ground, great start to spring ! Aeration system would be nice but unfortunately not in the pond budget.
I went out with a long stick and found a couple samples. The ones we had last summer were bigger so I assume this is likely new growth this year ? This is some nasty stuff and it looks like I will be fighting it again.
At first glance, it looked like Chara; but it's actually COONTAIL, based on the forked branchlets. Several herbicides are available for the effective management of coontail; but the process of determining which one to use should be based upon the pond's purpose (water-uses), discharge-characteristics and the desired outcome (i.e. the degree and duration of control). I'm not aware if stocking grasscarp is permissible in KS, nor if they'd control coontail without eradicating other desirable plant species first (if any). Are you looking for DIY project? Or, are you contemplating the services of a professional pond management company in your area?
Kelly might verify this ID. Okay Kelly beat me making the post. I am pretty sure that plant is Coontail aka Hornwort and scientific genus is: Ceratophyllym. I say this because the leaves are in whorls and some of the leaves are forked. It doesn't have to form roots and can spread from fragments. It often stays green under the ice. Plants form winter buds that allow it to sprout new growth in spring.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/26/1306:55 PM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
Hi Sportfloor, seeing you're from Eastern Kansas, Milford Lake is one of my favorite fishing holes for White Bass and Wiper!
Welcome!
The attached pic was identified as Coontail and it was so thick in my pond I couldn't row through it. Horrible stuff!
Then on top of that had a full blanket of DW that got so thick a hook and line would just sit on top of it!
Then, making me sick to see this pond in that bad of shape, dropped the $$ on Fluridone, and about 5-7 weeks later my pond was completely void of both. Incredible stuff and I now have my beautiful pond back.
It was an expensive treatment ($700 for 2 acres at 45 ppb) but 5-7 weeks later having a beautiful pond back again is worth about any amount of money, especially if the pond is in your backyard!
Good luck to you and I hope soon you and the family can fully enjoy it!
Wow thanks for all the help so far. The pond use is purely recreational at this point, just fishing and the kids take a row boat out every now and then. No water use for drinking or livestock. Not exactly sure about discharge characteristics The first 3 or 4 years before the drought the pond would stay completely full with just a trickle running out the overflow all the time. When we get a hard rain it does run out quite a bit as it has a fairly large area running into it. I would love to completely get rid of the stuff for as long as possible. Would also like to eliminate the FA at the same time if possible. I believe grass carp are fine here as a couple years ago I remember seeing an order form for them at the feed store. We used to see a few swimming in the pond when it was clean and they were huge but I have heard the smaller ones eat more. Looking to DIY to keep cost down if possible. Not looking to be a cheapskate but seems to be getting tougher to feed 4 growing boys and have much money left for anything else ! I would certainly be willing to pay for the most effective products up front though. I should be able to get any of the recommend products as we spray some pasture and do have an applicators permit to buy certain chemicals but don't know if that would even be an issue for this. I did go to the link above and it looks like the pond is right at 7/10 of an acre. Lovinlivin -your pond really remind me of ours all though ours is smaller. It really looks great after the treatment, hope ours will get to that point ! Thanks to everyone for the input.
Funny you should mention the DYI. I'm only renting this place (hopefully for the rest of my life) and don't have much money to spare as well but it was just killing me to see this pond in such bad shape, and living at a place I before could only have dreamed of.
I have free reign of the place and treat it as my own. Needless to say, the trustee found a good tenant, one that will put his own money into it and improve it instead of trashing it.
Anyway, I was on the DIY thing too not wanting to drop $700.
So below are pictures of DIY DW removal ideas,,,,, that worked great but I just had too much to remove
I found out you could manually remove 80% of the DW to only have it reproduce so quickly the pond would be re-covered in it in a couple weeks. The "prickly rope" in the picture is used to corral the DW so it can be hauled out. I wish someone could have videotaped that fiasco, lol
On the Coontail, I raked/scraped/drug and hauled more piles of it out of the pond than I care to remember. To no avail!
So I broke down, and watching the DW and Coontail slowly disappear (once it started) was quite a thrill and the outcome was more than worth the investment.
I also stocked 8 GC last fall so when the Fluridone has completely disapated (1-2 years if there's little exchange of water) hopefully the GC will keep it in check.
Time will tell but a day does not go by that I'm not at the pond. Oh, and you can also see the redneck fountain I installed as well in the earlier photo
We are definately a DIY family, just about have to be with 4 kids. Until last year we just had problems with the FA and was bound and determined to get it out. We made a contraption to fit on our flat bottom boat that was sort of like a bulldozer blade only with spikes instead of a blade that could pivot in the oar mounts. Figured I could push the FA with the "blade" to one area and then rake it out. Of course we got started and made it about 5 feet before the trolling motor was full of coontail. We gave up quickly after that as you could only move a couple feet at a time before the prop was bound up. I think it would have worked had we been able to move but the kids were not impressed. After seeing the coontail I knew it was a losing battle at that point so figured I would get after it this year and hopefully get our pond back. The kids fish in 4 or 5 ponds around here and none of them have these types of problems. Very frustrating to have our pond unusable year after year but hope to change that.
Sportfloor: I executed a similar idea awhile back, using a hog panel and hardware cloth to fashion a bow-mounted "filter blade". I called it my "Algae-Dozer". Initial results were less than stellar; but some major modifications to a subsequent prototype greatly improved the design (patent pending ). Based on my experiences with algae, it isn't likely that such a device could withstand the mass and resistance of coontail unless the structure is beefed up significantly.
My rendition of the dozer was a 2" x 8" (about 5' long) with a bunch of 12" spikes through it. This mounted on long 2 x 4 arms (outside the boat) that went back and mounted to the oar mounts and could pivot. Attached a rope to the front portion so I could pull it up and keep the height of the blade at water level. basically I thought I could push it to shore then pull the blade up so the FA would slide off the spikes. It was quite the contraption for sure. Seemed like it would work if I could have gotten the boat to move. Any ideas on what might be my best chemical choice with the info I have given ?
The coontail just wrapped around the propeller instantly, we wern't going anywhere. I raised the pipe and spillway a bit a couple years ago so would say maximum depth would be right around 9' maybe a tad more. the pond is kind of triangular shaped and the majority of runoff comes in at one point and that end of the pond is pretty shallow. I'm sure due to the ponds age there is plenty of silt that has run in over the years. Without actually taking the boat out I would guess the average depth at maybe 3' - 4'. That sounds pretty shallow but I think it would be reasonably accurate. Does that sound like a reasonable depth ? I'm pretty sure that we can do Talapia in Kansas but not sure they would do anything for the Coontail. May be an option though depending on what the cost is for chemical treatment. A homemade contraption thread would be great but I would definately have to pass on a video. I already know some of the stuff I do would make me look like a complete idiot, no need to prove it with a video !
.
