Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization Algae bloom help

TZ,

I did some "Googling" of the subject, and found virtually nothing. It seems like you really hit the black hole of pond management.

(HELP -- JHAP, Sunil, Brettski, DD, Cecil, Bill Cody -- where are you and all the rest of the algae control cowards? See if I protect you guys next time we take a ride in a van with a bullet hole in the windshield).

Anyway, I guess this makes me the world expert in pond algae vs. poop control -- and that ain't good, 'cause my knowledge is limited.

Oxygen, light control, and filtering will cut down on your bloom. But, what you have ahead of you isn't going to be fast or easy.

You certainly have one big thing in your favor, and that is your aeration system. Oxygen helps control algae.

You have natural light control because of your heavy bloom, but your issues will be degenerative until you can reach some balance point. The less bloom you have, the more light, and the more algae you'll have.

You have several choices to reduce your nutrients:

1. You can rid the drainage area of the horses. I'm assuming that this is not a reasonable consideration.

2. You can channel the water runoff around the perimeter of your pond with berms and ditches, but I doubt that is an option. Your pond would probably go dry.

3. Filtering. This leaves you with one last option -- filtering. Filtering will take some time, in more than one way. You need to slow the inflow. As you slow the inflow, you need to have lots of things to absorb and convert the nutrients while they are slowed. Think aquaponics, even if you don't use the results as food.

It took me about three years to control heavy nutrient inflow from neighboring properties. It wasn't very expensive, but it was labor intensive.

The land that drains from the east, boards up to about 20 horses on 40 acres. It drains through the forest about 600 feet, and finally into my pond. This route now has two settling ponds before this pasture runoff reaches my pond.

The land that drains from northeast of my pond includes 20 acres of alfalfa field that is heavily fertilized each spring. Just north is an adjacent 20 acre pasture that is a heavily fertilized and holds about 20 black Angus steers and heifers during the spring and summer months. These 40 acres drain into my pond.

Because of my efforts, I'm now at a point where I really don't even have a bloom.

If you can, post pictures of your pond and the drainage areas above it. If you can, use Google Maps to provide us with aerial photos or topo maps of your property.

I believe we can assist in cutting your algae, without putting diapers on your horses, and while still maintaining a great fishing pond.

Good luck,
Ken