Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Cow Tanks

I'm on my third "tank" that's dealing with shallow water, hay meadow fertilizer, and cow manure. The first two ponds are behaving and I wanted to share how these tanks can be bettered, but not made perfect, using primarily locally available and affordable chemicals. Also, livestock has to be able to access the water within a day or two at the most. Yes, a little physical effort is also required.

This is pond #3. It has continuous algae blooms, water primrose, duck weed, and waterleaf.

That looks like a headache and a fair bit of work ahead of you.

When you spray chemicals, can you just walk across the surface of the pond shown in the right half of the picture?

No, that's an algae mat. Half of it is in the shade, so it looks different.


It'll take multiple baby steps, but doing it for my neighbor is worth it.

Dang it, that was a joke based on the thickness of your algal mat.

I need to use the "grin" emoji even more than I already do. (Either that, or I need to make more substantive comments on the forum. But that seems unlikely, knowing my nature to joke when among friends.)

I was cutting metal in the shop, and didn't catch it when I went in the house. But yes, the algae is almost thick enough to walk on. Luckily, the pond is over a 1/4 mile from any houses so any guttural cussing can't be heard.

The first attack was on Waterleaf. If you don't have it, then you haven't had the pleasure of one of the most difficult shoreline plants to "completely" remove. It will take several treatments with a Glyphasate/Imazapyr cocktail.

Good luck on the vegetation battle in your cow tanks.

I did fish a lot of ponds like that as a kid. Some of the farmers allowed access to multiple guests for their properties. My father would always tell us to fish the ugliest looking ponds in those circumstances - because many anglers skip those ponds.

It was amazing how often we would catch a 4.5# LMB on the first or second cast. (Which is pretty large for northern Kansas.) Gently wrestling the bass through the last ten feet of algal mat to get it on the bank was one of the "skills" that we had to master as a kid!