Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Identifying plants Id please

I just cant seem to find a pic to match this with. I'm not overly concerned about this because it seems it doesn't like the cold and provides a lot of shelter for food although Id like to know what it is. The last two freezes we had in central Texas killed just about all within a foot of the waters surface. The bad part is that it floats to the surface and I have to remove it. The close up shots were of plant pulled from the bottom, other floaters after the freeze. Thanks all

Boy looks like Chara to me, but I'm not even a novice at plant ID. Does it smell skunky? Grow in globe shaped groups? Kelly Cody or Eric can likely provide ID help

No noticeable smell although I haven't really put it up to my nose to check. Here is a bad cell phone pic of it before a freeze, Its the only one I have since I'm not at the ranch. The water in the shallows was really cloudy, 30+ mallards have recently taken up residence and stay in this stuff. From what I can see its isolated to the shallows, under 3 ft. Its loaded with insect larvae and tadpoles which should help the new fish fish I just added.

Experts will be along shortly - sorry I can't be more helpful - but it appears to be Chara to me.

Tell us more about your pond - size, goals, challenges, etc. and welcome to the forum!

Thank you, Ive been a long time reader and finally registered. I took the pond on after my father in law had some bad luck during our Texas summer which resulted in a fish kill 5 or so years ago. The pond is a 1/4 acre average of 6ft deep that stays at a constant level with a dedicated solar powered well. We completely rebuilt it a few years before the fish kill incident and had to line the bottom with a few thousand pounds of Dolomite since its all sandstone in this area.
Basically I want a fish pond for the kids to enjoy and dont mind managing it, I have a background in aquarium maintenance and responsibly keep my plants in my tanks.



I recently added 6lbs fathead minnows 75 CNBG, 25 RES all 3-5 in 5 CC and 1 LMB in the 6 inch range. I'm fighting the urge to add additional CNBG but Im unsure if I need more. I also installed a gast 74r 1/4hp with two vertex diffusers set up like their shallow water config that I purchased from Ted Lea.

Chara is what I would go with.

Yes Chara - definitely. Technically it is an alga but grow similar to other submerged plants. Quite a bit of previous posts about it here.

Thanks, Ive started reading. I guess this is why the ducks have taken up shop? Between them and the 3ft tall Heron I hope I have some fish left by this summer

CWH Chara isn't a bad species as long as it's under control...as you witnessed, it provides great habitat for young fish and invertebrates. In very clear water it can grow much deeper and might become an issue. You can manually remove with a rake, but anticipate it growing back. You can treat it with copper products, and many on the forum can guide you with application processes. Bear in mind, when you remove a certain species of vegetation, like Chara, anticipate something else taking it's place utilizing the nutrients now available in the pond. Many times this takes the form of filamentous algae, which is less desirable than Chara. In this scenario you trade one issue for a worse one...

Can you please tell us more about your solar powered well? I haven't ever heard of a pump that could be run on solar power - any and all the details you are willing to provide would be appreciated - useful information for the forum.

Couldn't have said it any better!

Thanks again, I completely understand nutrient uptake and algae coming from the aquarium business. I was reading up on other suitable plants most of the night which presents another difficult decision. I'm not a fan of invasive plants, I trim my planted tanks and dry the clippings in the sun before they go into the mulch bin. The Chara isn't overtly concerning at this point now that I know what it is. From what I recall it normally dies back each winter when we have a hard freeze and I think I can manage it.

The well was installed by my father in law a few years back. He was using the well that supplies the house to keep the pond full and didn't like the electric bill. He had 4 new wells drilled around the same time since he was concerned about future regulations and fees. One of them is dedicated to running into the pond. Its a few hundred yards away from the pond as you can see in the attached pic. The 3 solar panels are in the upper right hand corner of the picture. It runs from sun up to sundown and works well with the evaporation amounts during the two seasons we have in Texas. I dont know if this is the exact company but I found this. http://www.solarpumps.com/products.html
I'll get the info off the well next weekend when I'm at the ranch and post it up.

Thanks for the link CWH - from what I read it looks like the max on a solar pump is 3.75 GPM at max depth of 200'. Still, running continuously that would add 5,400/24 hrs. An acre inch of water is 27,000 I think...so it would at least help keep up with some evaporation and other water loss factors over the Summer. Best part obviously is the free water/power!

I'm hopeful soon they'll make these more efficient and one could pull 10 GPM or more.

NP, Ill get the correct info next weekend, I'd have thought our well puts out more than that. It runs out of a 1 inch PVC pipe and in the summer its flowing a steady spout about a foot from the end. The pipe is all downhill until right at the end where it shoots up a little. I have to get the boat out there next weekend to tie off my floating alligator and replace the milk jug on my diffusers so I'll measure the flow with a 5g bucket.

Thanks for the link! Something like this may be ideal for keeping me topped off and no electric to run! If it doesn't need to run, then I can direct the power to some storage, inverter, and power for music/lights. I need some lights for night time hockey.

That stuff looks similar to Hydrilla.

Ok If this double posts I apologize it disappeared when I hit submit and I dont know if it was for a reason.

Probably doesn't go in this section but I'm sure it can be moved it need be. I wanted to follow up with the well info. I spoke with my father in law over the weekend, several good things resulted. He commented to my brother in law that my aerator setup looked really nice and worked well, thanked me for stepping up and getting the pond into shape AND told me that he needs to have a full aeration system installed in his pond to avoid a fish kill like the one we had in this pond. Hes old school and I never thought Id hear any of this from him

Now to the solar powered well info. He said it would run up to 16GPM at the depth of the well. The solar setup is a Grundfos, http://us.grundfos.com/products/find-product/sqflex.html I also found this info, http://www.solar-electric.com/grsqpu.html Pics of the system are below.