I am happy to report that I finally have filamentous algae under control. I threw the kitchen sink at it this summer:
Early May: I seined out the mats of algae over a period of weeks as noted in the earlier posts. Continued pond dye every 8 weeks.
End of May: stocked Tilapia
June-July: Heavy algae mats reappeared, and I pummeled them with max-strength Cutrine Plus treatments. I used a 16 gallon electric sprayer in the back of my UTV. (Big difference over hand pump sprayers.) Lots of dead algae sank to the bottom.
Started applying muck pellets every two weeks.
Water tests revealed total phosphorous < 10 micro-g/L and free reactive phosphorous < 5 micro-g/L. Both values are pretty low.
I splurged for sediment fractionation testing. Potentially releasable phosphorous = 208 mg/kg. Apatite and residual = 127 mg/kg. After consulting with the testing service and ChatGPT, I opted to do nothing about locking up this phosphorous, since things were looking up.
A healthy shoreline buffer developed with various rushes, arrowhead, some catttails, and pickerel weed (planted by me.)
Some algae continued to form, but it was sparse and easily dispersed with wind and rain (and tilapia?)
August: Started applying Airmax Pond Clear every two weeks (All-natural bacterial cleaner plus EcoBoost PRx flocculant).
End of August: The pond looks the best it has in 4 years. Almost no FA, and some chara here and there.
I am going to guess that the Tilapia made the biggest impact, but it took 8-10 weeks to see the difference. Maybe last year's phosphorous treatments kicked in as well.
I think I need to keep up this rigorous maintenance routine every year.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/0pzZ7gD.jpeg)
