Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Help w/ more FA - Spring fed pond!

We redug a 1/2 acre pond two summers ago after having broken the dam 8 or so years ago before that. We put in an aeration system running 24x7 in Mar ‘12 and then stocked the pond in May ‘12 with FHMs, golden shiners, BG, redear sunfish and CC. In the fall, we stocked LMB.

I fought FA all summer long last year and eventually cleared the pond of the floating mats by the end of the fall using an aquatic rake – good workouts. Well, the FA is back with a vengeance. I have been reluctant to use chemicals in large part, because our pond is spring fed (about a gallon every 2-3 seconds) from the uninhabited property next to ours. I have felt that any chemical we add will be too quickly diluted with inflow of fresh water from the spring.

I take recordings each month and typically measure pH at 7.45 using a pH meter and Alkalinity and Hardness of 720 and 300 respectively, using test strips. Both the last 2 numbers seem very high to me, but I don’t know how accurate that is and don’t know that we can do anything about the high numbers, considering we are so close to the head of the spring. Readings for Nitrate and Nitrite have been basically nil with test strips and I have stopped trying to measure for them.

Hoping someone will have a solution to at least slow the growth of FA!

If you don't want to go the chemical route, have you considered tilapia to eat the FA?

Check first to see if they are legal in your area.

Thanks fish_n_chips! We had grass carp several years ago before we broke the dam on the original pond and they were just oxygen thieves. I have been reluctant to go the tilapia route, but only because I do not know much about how effective they are. I'll give it a try!

They work good if you stock the proper amount. Are they legal for you? Each region of the U.S. and depending on how bad the FA, determines how much to stock. There is almost always a current discussion going about them. I will see if I can find a good thread that I remember that pertained to my area.


Edit-
here is the one I was thinking about:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=321189&page=1

My pond was covered with FA. Adding a gallon of Aquashade and going from 12-hr to 24-hr aeration seems to have worked wonders for my 1-acre, spring-fed pond. Most of the surface algae is gone, and the fish and turtles are now visible. BG were biting savagely last night, and my wife and I caught about 15 in an hour after dinner.

Fish_n_chips and SML8591, Thank you both! I am researching the Tilapia idea now and will probably add the Aquashade in the meantime. Recent rains have provided some natural shading with muddy water. FA seems to be down, but it could be that most of it was swept down the overflow pipe. We'll see when things clear up a bit.

Rain will make it trmporarily disappear, it sinks with the added weight of the rain but will return shortly..

Your situation sounds very similar to mine--rain knocked down a lot of the mats and a daybor 2 later is when I added the Aquashade. The Aquashade was a few more bucks at Tractor Supply than the generic dye, but I'm really happy with the dark, natural color and effect it has had. I also added 4 bales of barley straw a week later, but would doubt that it had an effect on the existing algae. My understanding is that barley is more of a preventative tool. I was planning to hit the relatively few remaining mats with Cutrine Plus, but every morning there is less algae than the day before so I might not need to use the Cutrine. Good luck with your pond and let us know how you make out.