Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment FA life cycle

There are different species of Filamentous Algae (FA) and they all have their niche growing season and parameters. Remove any one of those things (light, nutrients) and it won't grow.

Some things that can be done to mitigate the FA problem.

1) Tilapia (where legal) to eat the FA.
2) Nutrient reduction, or at least using underwater plants or using floating islands with plants growing on them to tie up the nutrients so FA can't grow.
3) Minimize sunlight penetration to the pond bottom. That can be done with dye or a phytoplankton bloom, which will also help tie up nutrients.
4) Wave action. Very hard to do in a pond setting. Waves beat the snot out of the floating mats, not allowing gasses to accumulate to make them float.
5) Removing FA as it grows and floats. Very labor intensive as you found out. One pound of phosphorus can grow 500 pounds of Filamentous Algae.....
6) Nutrient reduction using a product like PhosLock or aluminum sulfate buffered with hydrated lime to bind excess phosphorus and tie it up on the bottom of the pond.
and last but not least
7) Using algaecides, be it a a copper based algaecide (chelated copper like Cutrine Plus), non-chelated copper like Copper Sulfate, phycomycin (a Sodium Carbonate Peroxyhydrate based algaecide), etc. With the chemical route, it's figure out the pro's and cons of each product, determine your budget and apply roughly every 2 weeks during the growing season.....

In a new pond, there shouldn't be enough nutrients to cause a FA explosion. Some causes of that in a new pond is using nutrient rich water to fill the pond, having nutrient rich water runoff from surrounding ground into the pond, putting top soil back into the pond before it fills, or fertilizing a new pond before figuring out if it is needed or not.