Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations need some input [please]

here is my deal......got a new lake 1& 1/3 acre ...mostly black clay [south east texas]..was dug with d 2 dozer......max depth is 12 .....most about 4 feet.........i have koender windmill with airstone set in a 20 gallon bucket with pee gravel around stone about 1 foot off bottom in deepest part........about 30 acre of ranch land feed lake...sheep drain........lake was filled this summer [very fast].....ok here is my deal....i have green slime on bottom that is getting to be more & more.......some is on top...is this bad or good ?......i think i might have got tripple 13 fertilizer......in lake ..would this cause the slime....???? i fertilized about 2 acre & then it rained hard... do i have a problem.....?....is this also a reason for the lake to look a little more muddier than normal?.......i do have fish in lake ....is this zoplantoung....?......help fast......thanks....

Did you apply the fertalizer to the lake or to the watershed?

It sounds like you have filemtuos algae, but I am not an algae expert. I think there are many threads (no pun intended) on this topic. Generaly it is considered bad, but can be fixed. Herbacides, nutrient control and so forth.

Lakes are generaly phosphorous limited, if too much Phosphorous is added then the lake becomes nitrogen limited. Filimentuos algae can turn N2 into a usable nutrient and then out competes other algaes and plants. I would be careful when adding phosphorus to the lake.

thanks for the info.......it was from watershed..do you have a better spelling for filemtuos.......i did run a search ......no hits for that spelling......can you break it down a little more with the info about it,,,,,,thanks again......

Try "filamentous" (aka "pond scum").

Here's one thread:
http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=14;t=000082

Try searching under algea and you'll get lots of hits.
Also try under the topic Controlling Unwanted Plants

sorry, I am a horrible speller. next time, I will spell check.

stroler -- your "a little muddier than normal" colored water is not due to zoplantoung. (zooplankton) zo- as in zo- long o, preferably not zoo as the place with the animals, plank- as in a long piece of wood, and ton- 2000 pounds. Muddier water is from soil and clay particles washed into pond from rain storm runoff.

Triple 13 dissolved in rain water and came into your pond with the runoff. In many instances the fertilizer laden runoff grows green slime instead of phytoplankton aka green water. This is maybe due to the extensive binding of the phosphorus to the soil particles and when in the pond from this avenue the phosphorus is not available to grow plants because it is tied up on the clay soil particles. The nitrogen from the runoff probably stays soluable and is probably primarily responsible for the slime growth which is probablay one of several forms or species of early season, cool water, filamentous algae since it is spring time in TX. I am speculating here about the behavior of the soil applied fertilizer and it's fate in your pond and I am not positive about the scientific facts of this info.

tyw33..thanks for your help....you speel better than me...i just did not find anything inder the search.....thats why i asked about the spelling.... mr cody thanks also.....now what do i do........dip it out as much as i can.....wait on it to end itself,,,,,,,treat it with greenclean.....?......also what about the off colored water .....need a little more help......thanks yal are great.....

Filamentous algae comes, it goes. It may stay for a short time, or even a day, maybe a month. There are several methods you can use to interrupt the life cycle, but I would watch for a week or so, then make a decision.

Assuming your off colored water is from rainfall runooff the cloudiness should start clearing up when the rains/thundershowers subside which may be a while longer. Best way to stop cloudiness is to get the watershed completely grassed/vegetated. As long as you have exposed soils on the waershed expect cloudy water after heavy rains.

If the "washed in" nutrients are abundant and not fully consumed by growing "green stuff" the algae could hang around all summer. Nutrient availability or presence, abundance determines when the growth naturally dies out or declines on its own. When the nutrients are "all used up" the algae growth dies out. If you apply chemical treatment while nutrients are still abundant the growth fairly quickly regrows again because nutrients are still in the water to feed the algae.

If you have a "qualified", knowledgable or really smart pond manager in your area he could take some water nutrient tests and if your nutrient concentraions are out of balance and nitrogen is overabundant then theoretically you/he could add just phosphorus and produce an algae plankton bloom that would shade out the green slimey filamentous algae. Nutrients tests would also provide some indication as to the amnount of nutrients still present (reserves) which could indicate the potential longevity of the problem growth.

Other Management. You could start dipping out algae but you may not be able to stay up with the rampent growth due to excessiveness of washed in nutrients. You may have to resort to chemical control. Chemical control does not remove nutrients from the pond; it just kills back most of the growth that was fed by nutrients.

thanks to all.......me now understand a little more.....me will watch it for awhile longer & dip it out as i can........it does have lot of small bugs in it.........so i know it.s not all that bad.....just kinda bad to look at........

My pond began growing algae in it and I decided to try stocking tilapia instead of using chemicals. So far the results have been great but I'm not sure if the tilapia have been the cause of the decline in algae or something else. Has anyone else had results with the tilapia?