Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Algea control help

Grubbm - good opinions so far. Here is my opinion based on what you have told us. My opinion is realistic, not simple, not cheap, not a silver bullet, and probably not what you want to hear.

We have very little background about your particular pond such as age, type of water inputs from the watershed, amount of muck accumulation, water clarity, etc. Based on my experience with other northern midwest ponds, my "guesstimate" is the pond is old, nutrient enriched and receives nutrient laden water or nutrients from annual organic deposits. Five ft deep for a pond 1.5 ac is too shallow for trying to manage it other than as a glorified wetlands. Numerous wetlands and swamps are 4-5ft deep. The pond was probbly dug deeper than 5ft but years of sediment and organic internal and exterior deposits have accumulated and filled in the pond basin moving the pond in the direction of a wetlands or swamp - natural succession. This occurs slowly in deeper, well managed, aerated, good watershed ponds, and fairly rapidly in shallow unmanaged ponds that Mother Nature controls.

Whenever a pond that shallow has water clarity of 16"-2ft the sunlight will penetrate all across the 4 & 5ft bottom which will allow all sorts of plants to grow which is why it frequently has lots of filamentous algae. the pond in the past has probably had lot of rooted plants and you or someone has probably controlled those types of plants. Now nutrients are being used by filamentous algae. Based on the conditions,,,, Nature will always get something or put something to grow in that optimum plant growing environment. Eliminating the problematic plants by whatever means is just putting a temporary band-aid on the problem, or blowing your nose with a head cold. Neither method gets at fixing the basic or root cause or problem; too many nutrients, in too shallow of water. Fix those two features and the plant problems will be minimized if the purpose is to have an enjoyable water resource with great sportfish angling.

Now if the pond was drainable and had a firm smooth bottom, it would be ideal for annually growing fingerling fish for a fish farm. The pond would then be a money maker by cash renting it to a fish grower.

If cost is a problem in renovation consider rebuilding the pond smaller but deeper with a good clean water shed. For Indiana a good minimal trouble pond should be 12-18ft deep with steep sides slopes close to 3:1. Remember this rule: plant problems almost always occur in shallow water. Problematic pond plants rarely occur in the middle areas or deep water (8-18ft deep), so the less shallow water a pond has the fewer the plant problems. Water clarity and nutrients will determine where in a pond that plants grow.