Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Man vs. Algae

I had started the link below earlier. It describes my problem and the good suggestions that I've gotten.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=216670


Now I was wondering if anyone can help with the following questions:

1) How do I determine how much Alum and Lime to add inorder to bind with the phosphorous if my water isn't muddy?

2) Are there any alternatives for Tilapia since they're illegal in Louisiana?

3) Has anyone used Black Onyx and/or Blackout dyes, any recommendations?

Awesome questions dude, I can't wait to see what the experts say.

Bump

1. I don't know

2. I know of no alternative for tilapia

3. Never heard of either of those

Thanks Dave, it's frustrating. I can find threads dealing with Alum but all dosage recommendations are based on sediment dropping out.
After reading about the way Tilapia attack FA I thought I had found the solution BUT we can't use them here. We can only use Triploid Grass Carp and it's my understanding that they're useless against FA.
I've added the black pond dyes simply because IMO blue water looks unnatural to South Louisiana but last two doses didn't appear to take. I'm not sure which brand I used the previous time because our local feed store carries both. This last time I used the Black Onyx. I was worried about it's effectiveness when I washed some off my hands using water from a garden hose.

Hmmm, what to do? I'll skip the fertilizer or alum answer. As I would not do that.

I can't use Tilipia long term, and grass carp are both too expesive and too hard to get here. But they are worthless on that algae anyway. I use a common carp hybrid. And they are easy for me to get, inexpensive and are algae eating machines. I also dumped in close to 2,000 bullfrog polliwogs per acre. Again, they inhale algae.

I do tint, but use the blue. There are pluses and minuses there. Non toxic Aquashade friendly for environment. It does work against algae.

However, any tint also hurts the natural algae fighters, filters out light to the good stuff as well. It does require retreatment.

I don't have time to reread that entire thread. I should have a copy and paste answer for every algae thread, as there are so many.

Algae is a symptom of another problem. Something out of balance, or you would not have algae out of control. Killing it and letting it sink causes internal nutrient loading and feeds another bloom. The previous Pond Boss magazine had a very good article on algae. It's gottento the point I don't have many algae customers any longer because I have fixed them. Only new ones.

Algae out of control is an ecosystem out of balance. With problems at the foundation. I don't know about man vs algae, but Frog beats it everytime.

Several years ago I lost all my fish trying to get rid of some duckweed and just surrendered the pond over to the duckweed. 4 or 5 years later when I finally killed all the DW there was a large accumulation of sludge and leaves.

The last time I treated for FA I spent about a week scooping out all the FA I could see. I was actually using an ATV and a trailer to haul it away from the pond. I then treated with 4 gallons Cutrine Plus, 1 gallon per acre foot, on a Wednesday morning. Friday evening the pond was gin clear so Saturday morning I added some dye and then added more Sunday evening because it had either already faded or settled out. On Tuesday evening my pond looked like green pea soup with alot of small pathes of FA floating on the surface. Two weeks after adding the dye I had spent another four afternoons scooping algae and my water showed no evidence or coloration from the dye. I wouldn't expect a planktonic bloom two days after adding an effective pond dye.

I don't think tilapia really live up to their press when it comes to FA. I know they eat it but I don't find them to be a panacea.

Where do you get Common Carp Hybrid, and what are they crossed with?

Do they damage a pond in any way?

What about the bullfrogs, where did you get them, and what about the common toad do they help or would they be beneficial in a pond?

I have a local source and they are Isreali Carp and common goldfish. They produce weak if no offspring. Every once in awhile I see a gold or orange colored one, but they are normally carp colored and eat up algae and soft stemmed stuff real well.

Problem with common toad and small tree frogs is they are dinks and water life cycle is usually a few weeks. Those bullfrog polliwogs are monsters, I have some just under a silver dollar size. Big headed algae eating polliwogs. They last a season, if not two. I have lots overwinter. They eat thier body weight several times over in algae as thier obdy is practically all stomach and intestine. Then they turn to frog, get older and start another cycle. They are a very good long term fix and I kind of named my business after them.

They can retail anywhere from $3 to .75 a piece. However, if you have ponds with established population just takes a good pro baitfish net. And once in a great while my fish farms buds seine in a dud, where the polliwogs outnumber everything. I get those for free, sometimes many thousand. Almost every single customer I have wants frogs. I have them in ponds over 5 acres to Italian marble fountains at wineries to wine barrel ponds. They even eat algae off of my water lily production tanks, and the lilies themselves. Just keep them algae free, with zero damage to the plants. I also feed them pellets. They are a sweet add to the food chain as well, especially for lmb ponds.

That's interesting about the tadpoles. I'd like to get some just for grins even if I could cure the FA. Do you know of anybody that I might could get some from. Would it be cost effective since I have yearling LMB prowling my pond. $3 a gulp is an expensive protein shot. I wonder because I hear bullfrogs croaking around my pond at night but I've never seen any frog eggs nor any tadpoles.