Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Still consider myself new, please help..

Hello folks, still plugging away at my pond trying to learn all I can...

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New guy (obviously) never owned a pond before, We recently bought a Farm in Southeastern Indiana that had an existing 2.5 acre 50 year old pond on it. The pond sits mostly in the open with a wood line that provides ample shade on the West side. The pond is 20 foot deep on the dam. My first problem was cattails, they were 10 foot into the pond all the way around it, the solution: eradication and removal with heavy equipment. We also raised the overflow to drown out and suffocate new growth. The pond cleaned up real nice, with the exception of spraying some rodeo on a few small cattail starts here and there I have had no more problems.

However a new problem has arisen...ALGE! I have seen it popping up over the last week and in no time it has spanned along the whole bank's perimeter and is about 1-2 foot out in the pond.



My goals for the pond is healthy fish (BG and LMB) yet I want it to be esthetically pleasing to look at. (house overlooks pond) I have yet to aerate but plan to do so sometime in the near future good Lord and finances permitting.

I tested the water today with a 5-way pool test kit. (all I had)

Alkalinity- 80
pH- 7.2
Total Hardness- 120

I guess my main question is about pond fertilizer, if I fertilize would this rid me of the FA? I just need a path forward cause I don't know what the heck I'm doing.....There are no pond environmental services around me or anyone I can call to do a survey or study of the pond or I would..Although ESSHUP is north of me...(hint,hint lol) In the meantime looking for a POND for dummies book, and trying to learn all I can can from this awesome forum..It's just all a bit overwhelming I guess at first, but I'm not giving up..

Thanks for ANY input folks...

Snide,

Fertilizer would probably make the algae problem worse. The FA is caused by excess nutrients in the pond.

If you had the pond cleaned out last year, and I'm assuming it was done with water in the pond, you probably stirred up 50 years of nutrient loaded muck. Secondly, the cattails, as difficult as they are to have in a pond, suck up incredible amounts of nutrients from the water.

As the water warms, your pond may clear of the FA. With rain and wind, your pond will slowly cleanse itself of many of the stirred up nutrients. But, it could take a whole season.

Adding an aeration system would probably help. Before you do, take a close look at the water that flows into your pond. Can you put some small settling ponds and debris-catching dams in the water path that will collect excess debris from flowing into the pond? As the soil warms, keep a healthy grass strip in the areas where the water flows in.

Adding plants to your pond, either around the edges, or even on floating islands, will also help take up the nutrients.

I'm sure you will get lots of other suggestions also. Read them all carefully before making any final decisions. When you come to some conclusions, don't be afraid to ask lots of questions before actually implementing some of them.

Regards,
Ken

The non algae stuff looks like chara AKA skunkweed.

Thanks SOOOOOO much for the suggestions, I really appreciate it!!

Here are a couple of pics of the pond before the renovation, and it appeared to have the same algae and weed problem then..

Just to give you some idea of what it looked like before we removed the cattails..






And if GREEN water is supposed to mean good, here is a picture from Google Earth...lol

Good looking water snide. Great advise so far.

EDIT - posted before the "green" pics. Snide, more algae experts will be along shortly. In the meantime, search through the archives. Bound to find something useful.

snide:

Kens advice is right on. I wouldn't fertilize. Lots of algae means that you have excess nutrients, adding more is like pouring gas on a fire to put it out.

I'd look for good non-invasive pond weeds to put in the pond to help with utilizing some of the nutrients. Something that you can keep under control, and something that grass carp like to eat. That way you could toss some in if the weeds get outta hand. If it's in the budget, it seems like you pond is the perfect poster child for Tilapia. Rex is supposed to be making a run in Indiana the next week or so with them, PM him and see if you can get on the delivery list.

Mother Nature is growing algae in the pond to tell you that there are too many nutrients, and is growing algae and cattails to utilize them. You will have less algae if you can get something to remove the excess nutrients. The cattails did that, but you've seen their bad side. Green Clean Pro, or Phycomicin will kill the algae and not leave a heavy metal residue (i.e. copper) in the pond, but it would have to probably be used a few times this year.

Manual removal of the algae is a way to remove excess nutrients in the pond too. If you kill the algae, and leave it in the pond, the nutrients are staying in the pond, continuing the cycle.

Thanks so much folks for the good advise!! I am going to look into some more non-abtrusive plant life for my pond to take care of the extra nutrients. In the meantime I did contact Rex and got 30 pounds of Blue Talapia coming my way!! I am very anxious to watch these little pond ceaning vermin do their thing..LOL So I guess you can stay tuned for updates..;)

Also can anyone help me with my test results? Are the numbers good or bad?

Alkalinity- 80
pH- 7.2
Total Hardness- 120

Great numbers

Thanks Dave!