Problems with a nasty pond. Help...

Yes, it is hard work. we took a stab at it some weeks ago, and made some progress. but, I was only willing to use that as part of the solution if my poultry were interested in the algae as feed.

they all patently turned their nose up at the wittles we had worked so hard to provision them with. little divas!

Like everything else, pond weeds and grasses can be good or bad. They do offer hiding places from predators for young fish but they can also overgrow the pond. Too many grass carp can and will completely denude a pond of vegetation which nearly always means a decline in the fish population in following years because all the newly hatched fish get eaten and none are left to replace those that die or get caught. Some of those guys on pond boss work hard and spend a lot of money trying to keep their ponds in balance. I have 2 ponds but I don't hit it that hard. I try to stock fish with good genetics and feed them 40% protein fish food ( 2 bags a month in warm months which costs about $80 per month). It grows some very good fish quickly. Some of those guys regularly grow bluegill over 2 pounds. My ponds were cleaned out 4 years ago and stocked 4 years ago. I have a lot of bluegill well over 1 pound and hope to get some to 2 pounds in a year or 2. Kind of expensive but it is my only hobby.

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Dear Math, it is time you grew up and solved your own problems.

It's high in nutrition and great in compost piles if you're into composting.

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Dear Math, it is time you grew up and solved your own problems.

that's where it ended up. but, I have other stuff that's not so hard to get to put in the compost.

Look at aquaponics, put beds on you problem side, a swirl filter before them, the beds and plants will filter the excess nutrient and aerate the water as well.
As a benefit you will have veg from the beds.
Think of it like a living filter.

You have a ready source of nutrient rich composting material--loaded with nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and many minerals. I know you said you would like a maintenance free pond, but that isn't likely as long as the drainage that keeps your pond full is loaded with nutrients--costly to the farmer, but free to you....find an easy(relatively) way to collect it and use it for your gardening needs.....

geo

Geo in mi, I agree the pond has been chuggy along fine with very little attention. And, harvesting for gardening in a decent idea, though we have a ways to go yet with perfecting our collection techniques.

But really, I want to get a handle on this algae and overgrowth for two reasons.

One, I understand there could be benefits for the fish population, and we want to eat these fish more than store bought.

And two, my kids aren't very safe near it right now for fishing or in it for swimming. It has a nice little Sandy beach at one end even.

But, besides the unpleasantness of wading out and getting tangled in the algae, we just don't have great line of site in the water. And, with the snakes we have out here, it just freaks me out.

We used to go to a local lake for swimming near our old place and I could see enough to usually watch for them, and swimming was possible without all the plant life heavily in the shallow waters. I am hoping our lake/pond can become a replacement for that activity, cause its now almost a two hour drive to get to our old lake hangout.

I ran a commercial fish farm for 10+ years and used static water levee type ponds with no summer aeration. The very first pond I filled with water had lots of filamentous algae before I even finished filling it. It was a constant struggle but what I found worked best was to lay slices of straw about every 20-30' around the perimeter of the pond. Place the slice so that it is in water just deep enough to submerge the slice once it gets waterlogged. Do that as soon as possible in the spring BEFORE that algae starts to grow and do it again every month or so.

I've removed many tons of filamentous algae and macrophytes. It easily outgrows a person.

Dye works so-so. Copper sulfate works fast but the algae just comes back.

What worked the best for me was to keep the pond green with phytoplankton to outcompete the filamentous algae. It also produced bumper crops of fish.

If you have the elevation it's not hard or terribly expensive to siphon the pond dry. I've siphoned millions of gallons of water using a portable siphon I made from thin wall 4" pvc pipe. Once it dries out you can get something in the pond to scrap the muck out.

If your state allows it grass carp will eat filamentous algae and macrophytes plus they are good eating. You can also build a small berm upstream from the pond to divert the farm field runoff around the pond.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

So, I think I will understand how not having an inlet or outlet in the pond affects what I'm dealing with.

But, if I invest in an aerator pond fountain type setup, regardless of how I can get it powered, would that really be an effective alternative to natural in and out flow water movement?

No. It isn't necessary for a pond to have water flow through it in order to stay clean and unless you have a LOT of clean water flowing through a pond it won't help.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

Fishhead, you lost me with the phytoplankton paragraph.

Totally had my attention, but my shop talking skills on this stuff are pretty weak.

Can you explain about that part a little more? Thanks.

I have a pond, same problem as you some years back, the stringy weeds took it over----these stringy weeds in the water looked similiar to moss hanging in a tree. It would get so thick in most of the pond. We have a "fish" day at the local feed and grain--I preordered some grass carp-----ordered twice what I needed for my pond. It seem like in a year some of the grass carp weighed over 20lbs. The pond was getting clearer and clearer. I now have a great fishing pond with no chemicals(from me) have been added. I still keep grass carp in it, but cut down a little below what was recommended per acre. "Your Mileage may vary".

He's probably more knowledgeable than me but phytoplankton algae is good algae. It does not grow in strings or matts like filamentous algae. They grow as individual and turn your pond a nice green color. If your pond water is green, or possibly brown, it has phytoplankton algae in it to some degree. It competes with filamentous algae for the same nutrients. Normal pond clarity varies by location. Around here a pond is considered healthy if cannot see your hand after sticking your arm in the water to 18 inches. A clear pond here is considered too sterile and fertilizer is often added to induce a phytoplankton algae bloom. Newly hatched fish feed heavily on phytoplankton and without it, many fish fry will starve to death.

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Dear Math, it is time you grew up and solved your own problems.

That's right. Phytoplankton (plant plankton) is mainly single celled algae. It's what makes the water green or brown but they are so tiny you can't see the individual cell without a scope.

There's also zooplankton (animal plankton). They are the tiny crustaceans that feed on phytoplankton and in turn are eaten by small fish and sometimes not so small fish.

If you can keep your pond green enough the phytoplankton can outcompete the filamentous algae or the macrophytes so they don't become a nuisance.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

Last year I had a terrible time with filamentous algae. It got so bad I was afraid the floating mats would completely cover the pond and prevent sunlight from getting in the pond. I treated the pond twice last summer with Cutrine and the FA was coming back when cold weather hit. It started heavy this spring too so I bought some Cutrine to treat it again but hadn't yet applied it. Meantime, the water primrose on the north shore really took off and the FA has all but died out. I suspect the primrose is using the excess nutrients and starving out the FA.

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Dear Math, it is time you grew up and solved your own problems.

Does anyone have a link of that primrose?

I had a heck of a time even figuring out exactly what type of algae I had because of all the contradictory pis and descriptions for found on Google.

We have a 1/2 acre pond that had the same problems and tried fixing it with chemicals-waste of money. It was murky and stinky.

I thought it through and for some reason came up with the idea of the blue dye. It worked wonders. I added a little at a time so as not to overkill the algae and take all the oxygen out of the water.

So now I dye it every year when the algae starts to bloom.

I know you don't like the idea of it, but chemicals are really your only viable option for getting it cleaned up and looking good. Get it cleaned up and most of the weeds killed, then use pond dye. You might have to send a sample of your problem weeds somewhere to get them properly identified so the right solution is provided. I get my stuff from The Pond Guy, online.

The blue stuff will suffocate the weeds. It cuts off the sunshine to them. Much better than using chemicals.

Ive seen a guy use a rake attachment on a trackhoe with a hundred foot reach to clean this stuff out of a pond, he piled op tons of the stuff in less than a hour.