Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Filamentous algae or planktonic alage

While I am knowledgeable on what causes algae to grow and methods of controlling it, I am wondering what causes certain algae to grow over another. I have never been able to find out why a pond may have a filamentous algae outbreak over a planktonic algae out break or vice versa. I can see why if you have a bad planktonic algae problem why you probably wouldnt have a filamentous problem since the planktonic would be blocking sunlight, but what causes one over the other in the first place?

shallow water, it allows sunlight to hit the bottom where the FA grows. On maybe another substrate, but if sunlight hits it stand a chance to grwo FA.

so what you are saying is that shallow ponds are more likely to have FA, while deeper ponds are more likely to have PA?

Yep. Slightly better than the house odds in Blackjack, but not a sure thing.