Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Your take on this

My female perch/male bluegill pond gets overflow from my trout pond before exiting into my bass pond. Typically there is competition for nutrients between filamentous algae and Chara. When one is dominant the other is not and vice versa. Typically early in the spring filamentous dominates as the Chara is not very pervalent, but once temps warm a little Chara takes over and becomes very prolific. I usually have one or the other.

What has me puzzled is I recently took out a very significant amount of Chara via raking and the filamentous algae has not come back for weeks. The Chara is not coming back either. The pond is as clean as a whistle with good clarity, and even though just as many nutrients come in as usual I don't see much of either species.

Water temps not optimum for either? What gives? Water temp varies from the high 60's to the low to mid 70's on really hot days due to the cold trout water entering.

No complaints just puzzled.

Cecil - it could be that when one type dies off the decay from it feeds the growth of the other type. By raking it out you don't have the nutrients from a die off feeding the other type, either the chara or FA. Mechanical removal of either type should help lessen the nutrient load in your pond.

That makes sense Shorty but this is the way I have always removed it.

Is the water chemistry, alkalinity or temperature different in any way? Could the nutrients perhaps be "lying in wait" to fuel the next bloom?

Have you removed enough fish to deplete some of the nutrients?

Temp about the same as it usually is but there was a lot of dead chara underneath the chara I removed. Maybe it was on the decline already? As far as alkalinity I don't have a way to test that, but I don't see how it could be different. Lying in wait? You got me?

Maybe it's a cyclical thing I didn't notice before because I didn't remove them at exactly this time of year? And the water is a little warmer than previous years as this is not the first pond in the series anymore but the second.

No the fish in the pond are the same as usual except I did remove 5 or 6 large browns about a month ago from the trout pond. However there are still a good number left.

Since the pond was drained last year and this is the first year since refilling, maybe the cold water FA from the old pond has not returned due to the pond being a warmer temperature this year. The old species of FA in that pond may have required trout water temperatures. Since that does not occur now, that old cold water FA does not grow well in the new warmer temps. You may not see FA in this pond until a new specis of FA that likes the current warmer temperature regime gets seeded into this small renovated pond. You may see FA develop in this pond when water temperatures drop this fall to equal those of the old trout pond.

By Jove I think you've got it Bill. That sure makes sense to me. How about the Chara? What are your thoughts on it not coming back?

In the past when we use a fall drawdown and expose the 4 ft contour to dry out the next spring we have no FA. It comes back the year after that. I assumed it was because the new bottom water had less nutrients and exposing the bottom changed the nutrient content of the dirt (we add lime then plant rye grass there and re-flood) so the FA cycle and nutrients were interrupted. No Chara so I can't comment on that.

What's fascinating is the the pond which receives water from the pond with filamentous and chara not coming back is greening up a little bit from previously being crystal clear.

I can only surmise that the upstream pond instead of uptaking as many nutrients via the chara and filamentous (which are no longer there to do this) is passing them on to the downstream pond to feed the phytoplankton. Interesting to see how closely these ponds are linked by flow.

If I could decrease the chara in the downstream pond I'll bet I could resume a good algae bloom. Hopefully draining this winter of that pond and pre-emptively planting grass carp next year may keep it from getting out of hand with chara.