Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants aqua shade question

my pond is new about 2.5yrs old and is completely bare of underwatergrowth still (except for algae) i got some green clean orderd and also ordered the aqua shade but wondered if i should use the aquashade since i want plants and stuff to grow... just not the algae... the shade would stop everything from growing right?

Matt,

From the description of your pond in other posts, I doubt you are going to have much of a problem with plant growth. As deep as it is, and as steep as the sides sound, you should have very little growth because the sun will just not penetrate deep enough.

I believe you said you only have trout in your pond. What are they eating? Where does the majority of your water come from? The algae is feeding off nutrients from runoff, from too many fish, from overfeeding the fish, or from some other source of fertilizer.

I personally would not add Green Clean or Aqua Shade until I had a much better idea of what was causing the algae to grow at an undesirable rate.

Can you post a photo of the algae?

Good luck,
Ken

my camera is toast but i'm getting a new one.... i'll post when i can.... i have perch, lmb and blue gill also in there... the water is real clear right now and i can see the bottom as the sun is getting there no problem... before it drops off.... especially at the shallow end where it doesn't drop off i can see the bottom and the suns really beaming down on it. i would suspect thats gonna give me some sort of plant growth, right?

Yes, it can stop more than algae, etc from growing. While stopping the light penetration needed by noxious plants, it also cuts off the light needed for phytoplankton development. Phyto is the basis of the pond food chain.

GreenClean is a good and very effective product, but catmandoo is right, unless you know what is causing your algae problems, you will be adding GreenClean or other algaecides frequently, which can get costly.

so if its to nutrient high what can u do to combat that?

Excess nutrients are typically caused by over feeding and fish waste, but can also come from dead vegetation and run-off from pastures or other lands with fertilizers. Pond bacteria additves are good at consuming nutrients, however you might want to also make sure the fish are not over fed or your pond is not over stocked.

Here is an article that has section about nutrient control... Algae Control 101

If you want fish aquashade would not be a good choice. Also with green clean it wil only what is there, sounless you have big outbreak nothign to treat.

My pond gets alot of runoff from land with cows and hay pasture land. When it rains in the spring here in texas the water exchanges probably 4 to 5 times till the summer gets here and then no rain just a pond full of weeds! I stocked 30#s of tilapia a month 1/2 ago and still no change on the filma alge. lots of coontail and american pondweed also in there now. Im buying an aeration system in a few weeks. Is this gonna help keep the nutrients down so the weeds dont have anything to feed off of?