Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Help! Some kind of floating slime is taking over.

Can someone please recommend what I should do to stop this in its tracks?

Here are some photos of the slime.
What is it?

Anyone?

Got to be someone here who has seen this before.
aeration may take care of it.

Looks like filamentous algae (FA) to me but I'm no algae expert. I see you have no rooted weeds. The algae is using the nutrients available in the water.

Well thanks for all your help.

I really appreciate it.
All the responses were so wonderful I just don't know what to do.
All one of them.

thanks again.
I'll figure it out.

Jason, then "one" reply answered your question, it IS FA, Filamentous Algae. Copper based products will kill it, but unless other plants are in the pond to use the nutrients, the algae will just recycle in decay and regrow.

Try putting in some submerged and marginal plants along with grasses around the pond to filter out inflowing fertilizers when it rains.

Jason, We apologize profusely that it took someone almost 4 hours to answer your exceptionally difficult question so precisely. We would gladly offer you an even more prompt refund, had there been any charges for the free service you availed yourself of!

Anyone besides me remember when a holiday meant planning ahead? It was up to you to fill the car with gas the day before, as gas stations were closed..as were grocery stores. No one was outraged by this behavior, that's just how it was.

I think a great deal of folks in today's "instant gratification" society would be totally shocked by being forced to wait until the holiday was over, and things returned to normal, before being able to do/get what they wanted.

Including many of those people on internet forums.

Thank you.
The first responder said he wasnt sure.

Im new to all this so I have no clue.
It's doubling in size over night. My pond is new.

So will Cutrene do the job?

I need to get rid of it. It's ugly, makes the pond look ugly.

thank you in advance. Thanks in advance and don't be pissed off at me.
Im freaking out over this crap. New pond , havent had it filled for a week and this.

Also, I have a 1/2 horsepower rocking piston Aerator on the way, with 3 diffusers. Will this help in ridding the pond of this nuisance?

One of these.
[img]http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server500/4b...80.1280.jpg?c=2[/img]

I have not had a lot of experience with it. Only some.

Any wave action helps keep it from spreading so bad. Wind, waves, aeration ripples, all help somewhat. But not a lot.

I used a landscape rake to pull out the worst of the shallow area. We then had a cold snap and the algae seemed to back off. Now just have s amall amount around the edges.

It may come back with a vengence. I just don't know. But right now it is behaving.

That is not much help, but as much as I can give you.

Thank you.

Do you know if Cutrene will knock this out?

Also I'm thinking of planting Yellow flag Iris around the pond, hoping that will take some of the nutrients out.
Im trying to be careful not to get more than I bargain for with this plant. I do not know if it will over take the entire pond, then die off in the winter and cause serious problems. Like growing large , then falling over and into the pond, where it will then decay, sink to the bottom and cause a multitude of problems. Silt.......more nutrients.....and whatnot.

That FA is dead - that's why it's floating to the surface.

To help prevent FA in the future, beneficial rooted vegetation will help utilize nutrient loads in your pond which will leave the FA nothing to feast upon. There are many cultivars available both submerged and emergent, no clue what is native in your part of the world [Amsterdam, Netherlands?].

Many of us use rakes to collect dying/floating FA and drag to shore. This will help the aesthetics and will help remove the decaying FA which is only reintroducing nutrients to the pond. Copper based products can treat FA, but others can help guide you in that process.

Lastly - I'm responding to you because I feel everyone deserves a second chance, and I sympathize with your frantic situation as I've been there before as a rookie pondmeister. The Pond Boss forum is unique in many ways - primarily as it serves as an incredible source of fishery and pond management science provided by generous, patient, selfless people I consider "family". When asking a new group of people with whom you're entirely unfamiliar for free pond management direction, I'd recommend employing a bit more patience and general decorum - we love helping thankful people.

Jason, you might want to put Louisiana as your location. Having a correct location in your profile will help people give you the correct advice for your location. I doubt that someone can find your pond/property from telling us what state you live in.

Also, pond advice is regional. What works up here in the Northern part of the USA might not work down South where you're at.

Like was said, that's a type of algae. It is growing in the pond because of excess nutrients that aren't being used. Check into whether stocking Tilapia in the pond is legal in your state. They feed on algae, and will help you with the problem. Yes, Cutrine Plus will kill the algae, but as it decomposes, it puts nutrients back into the water, and the cycle starts all over again.

I'd stay away from the Yellow Iris. It spreads pretty quickly. When searching for plants near the pond or in the pond, ones that grow slowly are easier to control and cause less proglems long term. Blue Flag Iris works well.

Thank you all.
Apologies for going over board.
Took me over a year to have this completed.

less than 2 weeks with water and boom..........scum.
It doubles itself in days.
Ive never seen anything replicate itself this fast.

The only answer I can come up with to eliminate the problem is ultra sonic. Costly.

But if that's what it takes, them I am going to buy the ss400.
Do you guys think this may be the solution? Additionally, this would seem to be much cheaper in the long run.

http://www.pondalgaesolutions.com/sonic-solutions-ss400.html

I'm not familiar with ultrasonic treatments for algae, but my limited research after reading your post leads me to believe that the SS400 may not live up to your expectations. They tout it as being effective on green water algae blooms (over several days), but admit that it may take several months to break down algae "clumps", like what you have now.

Quoted from the website:

"Chara for instance, will not be harmed by a sonic wave, and other plants like duckweed are resistant as well. As we mentioned earlier, filamentous or string algae is often found in thick clumps or masses. When you have algae like this and treat it with a sonic system, be prepared to wait awhile. It's not a quick fix. Our findings showed that it may take several months before the device can work it's way through the growth and it wasn't uncommon for the pond to look a bit worse before it started to appear better."

In my opinion, waiting several months and then claiming improvement could be due to the FA's natural response to varying water temps, not so much from the introduction of ultrasonic treatments.

Jason

In my opinion you are over reacting to a very natural event of nearly all ponds - development of FA. It thrives in cool water temps - once the waters warm it will likely die, float to the top, and you can manually remove it. If you are that concerned over a little algae I'd recommend focusing your time and effort choosing some beneficial cultivars of submergent and emergent vegetation or using a pond dye early in the Spring. Stocking tilapia are probably the best organic solution. Also, if the FA is really taking off you might want to investigate where your excess nutrients are coming from...

My guess is, the pond is too young for much vegetation to establish, and all nutrients are available for FA. Give it time, it will abate, and following years you'll likely see less and less of it giving way to vegetation species.

Many are posing long term and thoughtful solutions, but you seem hell bent on trying to buy your way out of the situation. Not sure why you have such an aversion to FA...it's very benign and easily removed. I recommend spending significant time on the forum researching past threads and arming yourself with some knowledge before jumping to hasty conclusions.

Goedenavond, Netherlands!

Jason, as has been repeated several times, killing, but not removing the FA just recycles the nutrients in your pond. Like trimming a fingernail, it looks good for a while, but will grow right back. Ultrasonic will NOT "eliminate" your algae, IF it even works at all, it leaves the same issues with decay and only re-starts the algae growth cycle. Algae grows due to an abundance of nutrient, unless that nutrient is consumed by other plants/fish, or removed, NOTHING will eliminate it from growing again.

Raking the FA out is a LOT of manual labor, buy worth it by giving other, slower growing, eye pleasing plants a better chance to grow. Once other plants get growing, there is far less nutrient available for the algae to reproduce and grow.

I would not suggest simply adding an aerator as a "cure", because it isn't a cure. There ARE a lot of added benefits to an aerator, IF it is properly sized to your specific pond. Too much or too little aeration can end up causing even more problems for you.

As new pond owners, we tend to look at the small picture in a pond and forget (or never know) that anything we do will affect other parts of the ecosystem you have built. Ponds are slow to grow, very little in a pond happens, or should happen, quickly.

I agree, the algae is ugly, but only because it reminds us of a sewage lagoon, but it also provides a home to MANY organisms that will feed your fish when you decide on a stocking plan.

RM is correct I have air setup and still have FA. In the spring in March and April I get quite a bit of it. Most times will will float to one side of my pond with the wind and I will put some hip boots on and rake it out. It doesn't take long to rake as you can get a LOT of it at one time with the right rake.

Lots of times if you have a hard rain it will knock it down also and it will go away for a while. Once you rake it up onto the shore it wont take long and it will dry up and it's like dried up hair. Not much to it once it drys up.

The odd thing is you said your pond is only a few weeks old. So you can't have a bunch of build up on your pond bottom. So it has to be coming from where ever your pond water is running into your pond I would guess.

I will always have this problem to some degree as part of my run off comes from my neighbors cattle field. He don't have many cows and he does rotate them around but still I know that's where my nutrients is coming from. Plus my pond bottom has been neglected for many many years before I bought my place 4 years ago. Like the guys said don't freak out about it it's kinda normal. It don't look very good that's for sure but it not going to hurt your pond real bad either. You just need to come up with a happy medium as to how to control it.

Whether that's with Curtrine, or Talipia, or some sort of dye/ or plants/ or what. The question is what works best for your pond? And no one here will know that for sure. That's up to you to figure out through some trial and error.


RC

Here is what it looks like after removal and drying.. Actually easy to clean up and take to the compost pile or burn pile...

Welcome to Pond Boss. You will find we try to help as best we can. Many subjects are covered in the archives. See the one below for FA.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92633#Post92633

I had quite a bit in the shallow areas of my pond that was removed by hand as others have mentioned and shown pictures. I still have some around the edges and quite a bit in the shallows that is staying on the bottom for now. I plan to leave it right where it is just because what Rainman pointed out. There are MANY organism living in that algae. Just today I noticed young fry that have hatched out recently swimming in the shallows. My pond is new enough there are not any pond weeds growing. So the FA is about all there is around the edge of the pond for cover for the tiny fish and critters. I have quite a bit of artificial structure out in the pond for small fish, but nothing along the shore line where the newly hatch fry tend to live. So I don't even want to remove all the FA.

I'll remove some more if it quits behaving and becomes excessive. Right now, in small amounts, it is serving a good purpose and the amount is not particularly an eyesore. If it gets out of hand again, will pull some more out manually.

I wonder if anyone has used this for mulching around trees or plants, with all the organic material in this FA, I would think it would be great to use in a compost pile or as mulch.

Really great insight, FA is indeed a great additive for growing medium and also for compost. I highly recommend recycling it and utilize it to help you grow veges or flowers in pots or the garden.

I wonder if you could mulch/shred it up and feed to chickens like duckweed?

Thank you guys all, for your replies.

Im just trying to sort through this.
I've wanted my own body of water for many years.
It finally happened.