First off, thank you all for the help with my pond! As recommended here, I contacted La Pond Management for a site visit and here is the results of their survey. I have a 1 acre pond, visibility is over 36", very clear, lots of weeds-coontail, alligator weed, filamentous algae, primrose and duckweed. Water quality results: pH - 9.0, Alkalinity -12, Hardness 19, Phosphate - 0. Recommendation is for 3.5-4 tons of ag lime, I don't have driving access to pond for spreader truck, bought 1,200 pounds of Ag Lime from Tractor Supply and emptied the bags around one half of the pond, around my aerator/diffusors Saturday. Water got murky but is clearing up today, Sunday. Pond is 33% covered in FA and I want to get rid of it first, just not sure if I added enough LIME to get the ALKALINITY to 20 in order to safely do that. Should I do another water test to confirm before killing FA? I want to use Copper Sulfate to kill the FA. This pond is kicking my tail, didn't think you had to do anything to maintain a pond, other than fish and keep fish...LOL. Thanks!

I hear ya on the FA. Mine normally goes away when it warms up. Or I have to stock tilapia..... y’all can’t have them in La can ya?
I also have a great deal of spike rush in the water now for two seasons.... does anyone know if grass carp will eat that stuff?

Pat, they won't.

Pat this link shows grass carp will eat "Slender Spikerush"

http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/core/fileparse.php/3302/urlt/grass-20carp-20ipm-20presentation.pdf



Chemical Controls:
https://www.killlakeweeds.com/blogs/aquacide-blog/10257861-aquatic-weed-control-spike-rush

Mark, I think we're talking about 2 different plants, so I very well could be wrong. Pat, could you post a picture?

Al I think I may have some spike rush....didn't know what it was until today and looking at it online

Mine is basically in small clumps in maybe 5 spots along the shore in different places

It's been there for years.....comes back in same place

But thus far it does not spread much....by the time winter arrives it's about the same

If it doesn't spread I kind of like the look

Yep, same here. I've had it for years, and it's more or less a bog plant. The slender spikerush the carp may eat looks more like a bushy pondweed type plant to me. I'd never even heard of it before.

I like the look of the rush's, and they really help hold the banks together. Easy to control if you ever want to.

I found a product that is great for applying copper sulfate or soil floc. You can apply from the bank and it will deliver product about 15 to 20 yards out from the bank.The product is called extreme blower and you can google.
It attaches to almost any blower. It will dispense almost any powder or granular. I have used it for over a year with great success.

just in case I ever need to control....what is your "easy" way Al?

Hey Tentmaker...that's pretty cool.

I guess he says it works for winter rye grass and chemicals on the pond.

I really like the attachment and see some application for it around the farm and pond. But I would not use it to plant soybeans in an existing or grown up food plot. Elbon Rye yes, clovers yes.

Mark, I use glyphosate, because that's what I have, and it works well with a surfactant. The stems turn brown, but they remain for a while. I just use a brush cutter to knock them down, or burn them off along the dam. If untreated, the burnt plants pop back up in the spring, which is what we want here.

Wish I could but only have an iPhone.... can send a pix via email if someone wants to PM me .... this stuff will overtake the pond then floats around if something digs it up. My neighbors pond is only 6’ deep and that cr$$p is everywhere. This is an underwater plant not the dark green clump types that grow out of the water.

I went to Tractor Supply and bought Applied Biochemists Cutrine Plus Algaecide, liquid, mixed up 3.5 cups, about 30 ounces to 2 gallons of water, maybe a little weak on my dilution, and I sprayed about 1/3 of my 1 acre pond last Sunday. A week later I have most of it is dying off and sinking. The wind has switched from South to North and back again out of the South today, so mother nature is helping to drag it across the pond for sinking distribution. I will spray a little stronger batch next weekend on another 1/3 of the pond. I had a biologist come out and he wants to spray the whole pond at once, I don't like that method, too much dead vegetation will deplete my oxygen, IMO. Thanks for the insight, I am considering the addition of 1 or 2 grass carp to help with the other strains of grass in the pond (coontail, aligator weed, primrose and duckweed).

Try Diquat! This stuff is impressive by any standards. Get some surfactant as well, I’ll include a link to that too. It’s safe for my fish, pets and family with no restrictions for your water afterwards. It messes with plants ability to conduct photosynthesis. Seriously will kill just about any plant you directly spry. I mean brown and curling up dead crazy fast. I use it for milfoil in my pond and it also kills all the emergent weeds too for shoreline maintenance. So in the water and out of the water this stuff kills it all (if it uses photosynthesis). You’ll be amazed! Safest for families and pets yet deadliest on weeds I’ve found yet.


Aquatic Herbicide Equivalent to Reward-1 Gallon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C4Y228S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_uppx8eW82KbHh

Southern Ag Surfactant for Herbicides Non-Ionic, 128oz - 1 Gallon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00553EREC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_ggEfzwrQW9AGO

Hello. I’m from SE Iowa and I have a one acre pond that aireated with a windmill for 10 years now. Fishing this past week I have a lot of below water Algi No algi on top of the water floating but when fishing coming back on every lure .. UNSURE where it started from I am draining 30 acres of crp. So no farm chemicals getting in here?
Does anyone know what I can do ?
Does anyone know a professional pond mgmt company that can do a onsite survey on how to reduce this issue ?

Wife and I actually took some spike rush from the creek and transplanted it in a few places around the pond for the looks. It has done ok and has not spread hardly at all. It is about 2' tall. Another variety that is really short, maybe 6-12", came in all by itself in a few places. I kind of like it as long as it doesn't get carried away.

Wonder if this would work for the particle feed for YOY fish? Can't use in normal feeder, as they clump together too much in humid conditions. May also help PK shrimp and pond bloom.

Me too snrub....I really like the way it looks scattered around the pond shore in a few places.

I have a 3/4 acre pond had FA issues last few years despite aeration, bacteria, dye etc. last fall I used phosloc to bind as much phosphorus as possible. Used some this spring too. So far this year my FA is about 80% better. I still have some on edges after spring rains because I have fertilizer from yards up hill running in but I’m able to treat with Diquat and cuttine plus. In past I would treat with cutrine and Diquat and it would all come back in a week or two. Much more manageable now. The phoslock is pricey but well worth to not have to battle tons of FA all summer. Will be applying this fall again. You are supposed to apply it in fall/winter when all the biomass is gone so that the phosphorus is in a state that can be bound by the phoslock.

Ok, LATE comer to not only THIS thread, but to the whole stock tank maintenance thing.

A little background, hubby & I purchased a small 4 acre farm in NE Texas. property is a north/south rectangle. Cross fenced with 1 1/2 acre North end of property (North pasture), 1 1/2 acre south end of property (South pasture ((duh!)), and 1 acre in center cross fenced with house on 1/2 west side and a "Back pasture" which is "behind the house" that connects the North & South pasture. Moved in 2013.

Pond is located in South pasture and is small, maybe1/4 acre(?). Is NOT "spring" fed, is strictly from rain, but has never gone dry in the known last 40 years.
We have no idea how deep it is, who built or dug it or when.

We know it has an ABUNDANCE of frogs and turtles (no issue with either) it has some sort of tall willow trees (not the pretty, graceful, Gone With the Wind sort of Weeping Willows, just the water sucking, shoreline willows LOL) it USED to have a really nice stand of cattails around the east/southeast bank. Those are gone now.

NOW what we have is Water Primrose, covering a least 1/2 of the bank and out into the pond ...

We've tried pulling it, wading in, reaching down into the mud to get roots as well as top vegetation, to no avail. It comes back, sometimes even same season and each year covering more of our pond.

Our sheep won't eat it, neither will our miniature Jersey cow

I've bought the "glysophosphate" (?) stuff that is promoted by "Pond" experts, says it will kill it, but then the dead stuff will just lay on the bottom, decay and still have the chemicals in/on it, I was hoping to one day stock with fish .... but for now, this is the only source of water for our livestock in that South pasture ... ONE miniature cow and our flock of 9 sheep, I can ill afford to have it impact either their health or cause reproductive problems.

I'm at wit's end and am too old to keep trudging out into a stock tank to pull this evil weed.

I found this thread because a "helpful oldtimer" neighbor told me about Karmex - he says he "use it ALL the time to kill that stuff! ... about a cup full of the granules tossed out over those weeds will kill 'em all off in about a week or so ..." He also says that his livestock drink from his pond and that there are fish in it ...

I don't know who to believe ... is it the toxic monster that will kill my weeds while also killing all the willow trees, the frogs, the turtles, my sheep, my cow and the beautiful cranes who stop in once in a while to snag a frog?