Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants New algae problem

Hi,

I'm in southern Virginia. We built a 1.25 acre pond on our farm 3 years ago, and stocked it over the following two years with FHM, BG and, later, LMB. The fish are growing phenomenally well and reproducing, and the bass grew to 14" in just over a year. When I walk the pond all I see is health...fish, tadpoles, herons, geese, frogs, you name it.

The pond is 11.5' deep at the dam, and only 1-2' deep at the other end, where it is fed by two small streams and a couple of underground springs. In three years the pond has never been below the top of the pipe at the dam...always full.

Last week, we received 12" of rain in a 6 day period. Of course, there's a lot of turbidity now, but what's concerning me is all these algae in the pond. Last year I noticed some in the shallow end, but this year it's floating all over the pond.

What is the best way for me to deal with this/treat this? As a side note, we do everything organically on my farm so I'd love to continue that with the pond. And there's no chance there's a run-off issue of chemicals, etc. into the pond, as both streams originate in our woods.

Thanks for your help. Images attached.

Tim

https://ibb.co/0fKNgFr
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No expert here, but I'll take a stab at it.

The short answer - that's filamentous algae and it's easily treated with an algaecide.

The long answer is you have a lot of nutrients in your pond, and as they say - mother nature finds a way. Same as if you had a garden full of rich black dirt and left it alone, only to find it full of weeds.

For long a term solution, you might consider planting some nice plants in your pond of your choice, to use up some of those nutrients, before mother nature does it for you.

Once the FA starts floating around...it's near the end of it's life-cycle. It starts on surfaces underwater, mostly the bottom of the pond, where it has nutrients to utilize and can get ample sunlight. Once it starts to decline, it produces some gases that cause it to float to the surface. The best way to deal with it as it floats is to manually remove it. An FA rake, made from a light duty aluminum landscape rake, some pool noddles, and a length of rope..is the best tool I have found to manually remove it. Some folks with larger ponds have used a long floating rope armed with zip-ties to corral it to a convenient shore so that the rake is more effective. I just wait for the wind to blow it to one end of my little pond.

Here's my rake...



The gap in the handle was an afterthought. It's much easier to handle when you can get a grip. Here is the thread that talks about the herding rope. Look at post #35779 for the bulk of the info you are looking for....

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=35766

Removing it will reduce the nutrient load for the next crop, but FA can be an ongoing issue to deal with. Like Journeyman man said...try to get other more desirable plant established to take it's place. Shallow water is an FA haven...start there with new plants.

Thank you both for responding and helping with this. I'll make the rake, and I'm already researching plants to put in. Seems to be a common problem on lots of people's ponds...hopefully I can control it with plants in the shallow end.

Thanks again!