The chara is back. After paying $1600.00 to get rid of it last summer, it's growing again. I'm just at a loss as to what to do. Any grass carp that I now add will be expensive, but that probably is my only choice. I guess any solution will be expensive. I really had no intentions to keep a lake of this size fertilized, even though I know that would help in the problem.
In my limited experience with chara, it's achilles heel is sunlight. It seems to need a lot.
I had a bad infestation in my minnow pond after I cleared up the water. When I replaced the clear
water with muddy water from my big pond, the chara died off very quickly. If you could somehow muddy
or dye the water dark for a couple of weeks, it could possibly help. Of course it could hurt your
beneficial plants and interfere with spawning.
As an experiment, you could spread a sheet of black plastic over a patch of chara and see how long
it takes to die. Or, get a 4x8' sheet of foil backed Styrofoam sheathing, letting it float above a
thick patch of chara.
