Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Identifying plants Planktonic Algae

Anyone have a treatment for planktonic algae?

Most of the treatments for FA should work. Why do you want to get rid of the Planktonic algae?

These blooms seem to come and go but sometimes almost cover the entire pond with a green film. Then the wind blows and pushes it back again. It just rained and it seems to have gone away. We do swim in our pond and it just looks bad.

If the wind doesn't blow for a week or so, does it stay the same, or does it change?

Depending on the area, you could use something like the "prickly rope", a copper based algaecide or something like Green Clean.

I'd lean towards 1, 3, then 2 in that order.

Read about the prickly rope here.

This stuff changes hourly. Turned off my areation for a while and it seemed to sink but I'll bet that it will be back tomorrow

I try to let that stuff alone. Almost cannot manually remove it. So then you are stuck with herbicide, algaecide. Sinks and dies, feeds another bloom. And you may get something worse than that. First I'd try organic methods combating it. Beneficial bacteria, any nutrient eater. And if it comes and go I would try to see what does that and help it go. Mine normally go away with water temps. If I get a customer that is really bothered by it I just start feeding in bags of bacteria. Little by little. That is one thing I do not overkill, but try to reduce slowly. It actually has a benefit or two. Oh I forgot, you can always tint or dye.

Try Daphnia. They feed heavily on phytoplankton. I could ship you a culture. They multiply like crazy. A thousand will quickly become 10000 in a large tub of green water, and clarify it within days. If you were to start a culture, you should grow them in a tub until you have enough to stock in the pond. I keep them in tubs, and seed them in my pond on a daily basis. They make an excellent feed source for smaller fishes. PM me if you want to know more.

Are they Magnas?

Yes, they get close to a 1/4 inch.

Do your fish fry not feed on the plankton?

Most fish fry feed on zooplankton, rather than phytoplankton, which seems to be what he wants to get rid of. Though there is a direct relationship between the two. The more phytoplankton, the more zooplankton, the more food for fry.

Keep in mind that some very important fish species eat phytoplankton. The grazers like GShad , TShad , tilapia and to a significant extent GShiners and FH eat phyto as well. I did not check further but I suspect there are some others that do as well. Also keep in mind that fish diets shift with age. Many yoy/fry eat phytoplankton and shift with size and age to larger planktonics then to bugs and fish. If those food items are not available at the right time then the fish starve. There is a reason it is referred to as the base of the food chain (food web).

Yes many species of fry eat the stuff. Many species in all eat it, including daphnia. Yes, it can be an important base link in the food chain. That is why blooms of plankton are so vital for a pond. Either plant and or animal. Bear in mind fry just do not have a lot of food choices. There is not very much that will even fit into thier mouths, and that yolk sac is gone real quick. And in turn, they get eaten by bigger species. I think if your desire is a sustained close to balanced pond and food chain, you need both blooms.

Thanks for all the help

I would think the daphnia would be wiped out by the fish in no time. Am I wrong? When I studied fisheries we only found daphnia in ponds with no fish.

Absolutely. What you do is raise them for feeding. They would not last minutes in ponds I have. However, I do have one pond where I could get them in there before LMB hatch. But the best plkan is to raise them in tanks and keep feeding them, a self sustained colony, and then supplement feed them in an aquarium or pond. I dobt they would last long enough in any pond with small fish to be effective vs. Algae.

There are numerous species of Daphnia and only 1 or 2 are large as D.magna(5mm). Almost every lake has species of Daphnia in it, even with shad populations. Lakes normally have enough diversity of habitats to always allow for some species of Daphnia to survive. The continual presence of Daphnia in ponds will depend on the quality of habitat. Exceptions do occur. Numerous other genera and species of crustacean zooplankton occur in most all ponds and lakes. Crustacean zooplankton is a pretty big taxonomic group. Zooplankton is not just Crustacea and includes the other major groups: protozoans and rotifers.

Yes, I was speaking of the magna. I have one tank set up for them. I feed them green water and algae and then take some out for FHM and gambusia. I tried introducing the magna in some of my ponds and it just did not work. Maybe I could try rereleasing them when there are not so many hungry fry mouths to eat them. The smaller species have a lot better survivability. In this case bigger is not better. I have seen water practically soupy with them before in the right conditions, and other times they just are not where I am looking. The magna are just easier for me to deal with and actually easier to see. Same reason I use so many pink FHM.