I had a bad FA and chara problem for a couple of seasons, and raked out and removed hundreds of pounds of it. I used a landscape rake like the picture.
Last year I raised some koi in my forage pond, and transferred them to the problem pond last fall.
The koi have kept the pond bottom stirred up enough that FA and chara hasn't been a problem this year, and some pondweed has started to take over.
I think also, that removing as much of the FA as I did removed a lot of usable phosphorus from the pond, reducing the source of nutrients that supported the FA.
I am so tired of FA, that I have decided that somewhat muddy water is better. FA was bad enough the pond was not fishable for a while.
