My experience is sometimes a rake works, sometimes it does not; IMO it mostly depends on the species of FA. Rakes works best (if one considers it best) with coarse stranded FA as the bad guy. Fine stranded FA such as Mougeotia or Oedogonium doesn't rake out well at all. FA esp fine stuff still attached to the bottom does not rake out well either. FA often gets hung up & tangled on the rake and it is hard to shake off. I find the best tool for quickly and efficiently removing floating FA is a smelt dipping net. With fine nylon mesh (3/16-1/4") no algae sticks in the net, long handle allows reaching fairly far (9'-12') into the pond to drag / scoop in and lift out a good amount of algae with each dip. All algae quickly and cleanly drains out the water and then plops out of the inverted net into a cart or on the ground in piles.
Several places sell smelt nets. Cabela's had (may have) them still. I think Aquatic Ecosystems has similar nets (not sure of handle length). I like the nets with extendable handles from 6'to 12'. We had some smelt nets specially built with double wall tubing at the attachment point to reduce breaking / bending of the rim/hoop. They are also very good for removing floating leaves, weeds or other organic trash.
I removed the regular mesh net from a couple smelt nets and replaced the bag with a similar sized homemade bag sewn together from mosquito netting. Really great for removing floating fine or small organic stuff and catching grass shrimp, fish fry and invertebrates.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/25/10 10:48 PM.
