Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants How to Control these Weeds?

This is a place I own and I am getting to rework both of these ponds to make them bigger and deeper. Right now, they are both probably 4' deep at the deepest, so I am assuming that is where the weed growth is coming from, but not sure. What can be done to prevent these weeds once I get these ponds both dug out and redone? Also, will aeration help any of this as well?

Any help is appreciated.

For the most part, it looks like you have filamentous algae. This algae usually starts it's life on the bottom of the pond and eventually let's go and floats to the top, dying and sinking back to the bottom.

Digging the ponds out will help. You will be removing the nutrient laden soil muck which is helping the algae to prosper. Digging the ponds deeper will also help as that will reduce the light that gets to the bottom (although your water looks to be very clear). Pond dyes can be used to further decrease the amount of light that gets to the bottom.

Some folks, where legal, use tilapia to keep the FA at bay.

Aeration will also help as it will get more oxygen to the bottom that helps the bacteria that eat at the muck which, in turn, leaves less nutrients for the algae.

Your FA (filamentous algae) problem is very common in old shallow ponds and even worse when the water is clear. Your newly renovated ponds will still have FA, we all have it, but you should not have near as much.

Welcome to the FA club (and the forums)!

Man, that is exactly the explanation I was looking for. So helpful! I appreciate all the info on this forum and look forward to sharing the progress as I redo both ponds. Thank you for the info!

It looks like you have filamentous algae(FA) growing on top of Chara a bristly bushy-like branching algae.

One question, do you use these ponds to water livestock?

Mozambique tilapia are legal in Texas. I have some in my pond, and they do a good job on the algae. They mostly leave the non-algae pond weeds alone, though.

In the past, yes they have been pretty heavily used by livestock. I am migrating them off of there for the time being. Curious as to why you ask?

Thank you Bill! I have been around ponds all of my life, and never really knew what the Chara was called, definitely didn't know it was a type of algae! Great to know what it is and now I can figure out how to handle it/prevent it once I get things going.

Others can advise you better, but if livestock has access to the pond it is hard to keep control of nutrients migrating into water. Around here cattle defecate around and in the ponds quite a bit. Plants tend to like the resulting nutrient-rich water. Texas may have different conditions though.