Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Moss / Algae - New Pond Ower

I have been lurking the forum a few days and it is loaded with great info! We just recently purchased a new home with our first pond. I'm learn a lot just from reading your posts!

Fishing the pond has been great! Lots of bass caught however many are 12-14" which it sounds like we should be removing instead of throwing back? We have also caught a few nice crappie and a bunch of bluegill. I am a bit surprise we have yet to catch any catfish.. One neighbor said not to add any to the game fish pond?

Over the last few weeks the pond has gone from zero moss/algae to a very thick layer around the edge and now floating sections in the middle. This has made fishing a bit difficult.

I think based on reading the forum manual removal and aeration may be the best solution but I wanted to post picture to get advise specific to my conditions from the resident experts.

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I would think some of this cover is beneficial but with this much the fishing is not as much fun.

Thanks!

Welcome aboard Charlie B youve come to the right place for sure. Congrats on your recent home and pond purchase. Someone with better input on your moss/algea problem will come along soon enough. Might list size,age, depth,goals etc......

And we love pictures.

Thanks..

Pond is approx 1 1/2 Acres
Depth maybe 10'??? I need to get out there and check. A large amount of it is 4-5' deep.
Age = 7-10 years.

Pond had lost a lot of water in February before we purchased it due to a PVC fitting coming off the overflow that basically opened up a 6" pipe 5' below the surface. The pond refilled quickly after the fitting was reattached. I don't think that had much to do with the issue based on looking at Google Earth images from June of 2011...

Welcome to the forum. Losing the water might have helped by flushing some of the nutrients out of the pond. If the grass in fertilized, and you get a heavy rain, the surface runoff from the lawn looks like it might end up in the pond, contributing to the algae growth.

If it's legal, stocking Tilapia in an annual basis will help a LOT. Chemicals to use would be Cutrine Plus liquid.

Excess nutrients in the pond is the cause of the algae.

I am a new pond owner myself. Our pond is only about 1 1/2 years old. But we had that same algea in ours last year and didnt get too bad but was a pain trying to fish. When we started seeing it come back this spring, we went to our local co-op and bought some blue dye for ponds and added to ours. It has really seemed to stop it in its tracks and made the pond a really pretty color as well....lol. Not sure but I was told that it will not kill your existing algea but will prevent new growth. Maybe check into that and especially next spring think of adding it about Feb or March to control it. Hope that helps!!! It sure helped in ours!

Happy Fishing!!!

esshup, You beat me to it... This looks like a job for "Tilapia Man". Charlie, Try to contact Rex..."a.k.a. Rainman to see what he can do for you. That pond of yours is going to be beautiful once your problem is under control...Good Luck!

My experience in these here parts is that the MOSS comes and goes within a few weeks. It's scary, but it goes away.

Is the darker green algae different from the brighter green algae in Charlie's first picture? I seem to have both in my pond but it seems easy to kill the brighter stuff but not the darker stuff with CutrinePlus.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll try to track down some of these Tilapia suppliers. The pond is in Kansas so it looks like that's a legal option. And I guess airation along with Tilapia could only be more beneficial as long as the airation system is started up slowly?

And whats the consensus on adding catfish to an established pond with only bass, crappie and bluegill? A neighbor had mentioned that was not a good idea. But most of the online research seems to support catfish along with the bass.

And can someone share the secret to the monster bluegill I see pictures of on this site?

Hey Charlie,

Congrats on the new place man! A couple things:

- Your pond is a nice size for aeration. It wouldn't take a terribly large system to work well. However, it looks extremely nutrient rich, so an aeration system would need to be phased in very slowly so as not to potentially cause a fish kill. You definitely do not want to put one in, turn it on and forget about it. You'll be kicking yourself for that most likely.
- Tilapia will probably help a great deal with the algae, but they will require annual stocking. The other plus with regard to tilapia is that they will provide a lot of extra forage for your LMB, due to their high reproduction rate throughout the summer.
- Crappie in a pond this size can present an additional and somewhat unpredictable variable from year to year. Crappie in small impoundments tend to go through boom and bust cycles from year to year. This can lead to LOTS of stunted crappie with very few making it to a harvestable size unless they are well managed. Most folks recommend "catch and harvest" with all that you catch. This helps to mitigate the potential boom/bust issues.
- It sounds like you are probably bass heavy. Typical for most ponds, and essentially guaranteed for ponds that have not been managed for several years. The benefit with a bass heavy pond is that you tend to get trophy panfish because the bass keep them in check. They are also likely keeping your crappie population in relative balance as well. If you harvest lots of bass, you may end up with an over abundance of crappie. Another benefit of a bass heavy pond is that you'll always get a lot of fishing action. With true trophy bass management, the bass fishing is much slower, but when you do catch them, you'll catch big ones. You will often have over abundant blugill though... which is fun for the kids to catch, but not promising for the frying pan.
- Shallow ponds will typically always struggle with some aquatic vegetation issues. If it isn't FA, it's chara. If it isn't chara, it's often pondweed. In other words, it's essentially always going to be something. Mechanical removal in select spots might be your best option for opening up fishing spots, and otherwise living with the rest. As a side note, my pond has more FA for this time of year than I have ever seen. I think the mild winter temps combined with the early warm spring temps in our area has been the ideal situation for an FA explosion. ICK...
- The drawdown caused by the pipe issue was probably temporarily beneficial to the aquatic plant issue to a degree. It helps to remove some of the existing nutrients, but also kills off most of the vegetation around the shallows temporarily. Some people do intentional drawdowns every couple of years or so as part of their overall management plan.


By the way, if you want some nice channel catfish, you are welcome to come by my place and keep all you catch. They are all in the 3-6 pound range (a few pushing 10), and I'd like to get some more out this year.

Take Care!