Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New member, questions on copper sulfate

I have been a lurker for nearly 2 years and have greatly appreciated the wealth of info here as well as the humor. I have a 1/4 ac pond that is about 8 yrs old, 14 ft deep. Twp would not allow a 3/1 slope so I am constantly battling algae. However, because of this forum I really want to try and have a more balanced pond. I have LMB, snails, crayfish and frogs and do not want to harm them. I have always had a company treat my pond which killed all algae and plants. Did not have the money this year so have been nearly killing myself raking out the algae. However, the water is clear and smells clean. But am dealing with chara, am pondweed and a few cattails (which I WILL spray) The chara is growing great which isn't so great. I was talked into buying straight copper sulfate by an "expert" who said I was crazy to rake out my pond. I read about it after the fact and now am afraid to use it. I don't want to kill everything and worry about the long term affects. Could someone advise me? I want a balanced pond. I do have a windmill for aeration but it is 95 plus right now and I lost one 15" bass for no obvious reason. And I like to swim in my pond. Yall are great! Thank you!

Hello Sandi and welcome to the Pond Boss forums.

Hang on and we'll get you some expert feedback.

Copper sulfate will not work on Chara. Some have success killing Chara with Cutrine Plus Granular. I would try it in one area maybe 10-30 ft long using a fairly heavy coverage. Go to another area of the pond and use a lighter coverage. After 7-10 days compare the results of both applications. Evaluate, then treat more shoreline based on your pretreatment tests.

The pond is fairly small thus if using the proper rake it should make removal feasable. IF you dont have a Lake Rake or Beechcomber Rake get one. It will make your job of Chara removal a lot easier. The most effective time to physically remove Chara is in mid-summer when it typically is on the seasonal decrease. Then it often does not rapidly regrow until late fall or early spring.

The expert was IMO not an expert. Raking is very beneficial for the pond especially a smaller pond. Raking not only not only removes some plant matter (stored nutrients), it minimizes the amount of decay that has to occur, and it aerates the sediments which is very important in maintaining healthy oxygenated sediments. Oxygenated sediments are cleaner and do not smell, nor to they result in black septic sediments which occurs when sediments are not moved / turned. The more you can rake the shallow sediments the cleaner they will stay and the faster the organic build-up will decay and disappear.

Copper is a heavy metal and will not decay in the pond. You can use it but use it sparingly, save if for especially bad algae problems. Cutrine products are also copper based but the product is buffered thus less actual copper is applied in each application.

Given the size of your pond, sheets of black plastic can be spread and weighted down on the corners to shade out the chara....just move the plastic every 8-10 days.