Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants New Pond Algae Problems

I'd treat now, but I would also think about using Tilapia to help control the algae. By pumping water from the other pond, you added nutrients. Without sumberged plants in the pond to utilize the nutrients, the FA started growing.

If you leave the FA there, it will continue to grow/die/re-grow. By stocking Tilapia, they will eat the FA, and when they are removed at the end of the year (either by you or by scavengers) some of the nutrients in the pond will be removed.

Doing an alum treatment in the pond will also help by binding up phosporous, which the FA loves. See the "alum kicks clays butt" thread in the muddy water section.

Hitting it with an algacide will work, but you'll probably be on a (roughly) 6 week treatment cycle, depending on the nutrient load in the pond.

The growth cycle of the FA is as follows:

It grows on the pond bottom where sunlight can reach, and occasionally it grows suspended in the water column. Once it grows thick enough, any gasses that are generated in the pond are trapped in the mat. Once enough gasses are trapped, that part of the FA mat breaks free from the bottom and floats to the surface, where it gets more sunlight, and continues to grow/die/re-grow.