Algae Removal in pond.

[PheonixKingZ]

Hello TFF!

I have a small pond on my property, near my house. I really like fishing in there, but I hate all of the algae. Is there any way to easily remove it? I don’t have a fountain or anything to keep the water clear, because I can’t afford one. I do have a working pool pump that I don’t use any more. Could I maybe use that? Like get a hose and attach it to the pump so there is at least a little bit of water flow? (Stocking in the lake: Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, blue gill, red eared sun fish.)

Please see pictures below:

 

[Barry Tetra]

You could buy long handle net for catching butterfly and use it in the pond (i have one that handle is over 10 foot long, very hard to carry it around) why are you fish though? I thought you dont do anything animal cruelty?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

You could buy long handle net for catching butterfly and use it in the pond (i have one that handle is over 10 foot long, very hard to carry it around) why are you fish though? I thought you dont do anything animal cruelty?

Fishing isn’t animal cruelty, I quite rather enjoy it. And I only do catch and release, I never eat my catch.

The only problem with trying to scoop it out is that it will just come back again. Also, there isn’t just the floating algae, there is some growing on the bottom of the substrate.

 

[Colin_T]

Grow plants in the pond. They will use the nutrients and reduce the algae.

Put water lilies in the water where it's 2-4 feet deep.
Have irises and reeds/ rushes around the edges.
Put some sort of floating plant like Water Hyacinth, Water Lettuce or Duckweed on the pond.

If you manually remove the algae, it won't release nutrients back into the water when it dies off.

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Fishing isn’t animal cruelty, I quite rather enjoy it. And I only do catch and release, I never eat my catch.

I disagree with you and consider fishing a bloodsport. You lure or encourage fish to take a bait that has a sharp piece of steel in. Then you pull the fish out of water by its mouth and manhandle it while it suffocates in the air. You damage the mucous layer on the fish, which allows bacteria and fungus easier access. You remove the hook and the barb tears a chunk of flesh out before the fish gets thrown back into the water, or dropped in a bucket to suffocate before it dies.

Bending the barb down on hooks helps a bit because the hook does less damage. But even that is still painful and unpleasant to the fish.

I used barbless hooks to remove some fish from a marine tank. The tank was full of rock and I couldn't use nets. The fish that were caught would not eat for 3-4 days after they had been caught and then it took several more weeks before they accepted food normally again.

People complain when they get a fish hook stuck in their finger. Imagine how a small fish feels with the same size piece of steel stuck through its jaw, gill, nose or even eyes.

Try sticking a piece of half inch thick steel rod through your bottom jaw and then suspend yourself from that. That's basically what happens to fish.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Grow plants in the pond. They will use the nutrients and reduce the algae.

Put water lilies in the water where it's 2-4 feet deep.
Have irises and reeds/ rushes around the edges.
Put some sort of floating plant like Water Hyacinth, Water Lettuce or Duckweed on the pond.

If you manually remove the algae, it won't release nutrients back into the water when it dies off.

Ok, I’ll look into those plants, thanks. So should I use algae removal chemicals?

 

[Barry Tetra]

Ok, I’ll look into those plants, thanks. So should I use algae removal chemicals?

No

 

[PheonixKingZ]

No

Is it bad for the fish? Or does it just not work as well?

 

[Essjay]

Chemicals are always bad for fish

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Ok, I’ll try to remove some manually, but there is a LOT. I’ll also try to get some floating plants. Any more tips/suggestions?

 

[Retired Viking]

I have several friends with ponds and at least one of them puts on waders and uses a rack to rack the algae to shore. He then buries it in his wife's large garden.

 

[seangee]

I disagree with you and consider fishing a bloodsport. You lure or encourage fish to take a bait that has a sharp piece of steel in. Then you pull the fish out of water by its mouth and manhandle it while it suffocates in the air. You damage the mucous layer on the fish, which allows bacteria and fungus easier access. You remove the hook and the barb tears a chunk of flesh out before the fish gets thrown back into the water, or dropped in a bucket to suffocate before it dies.

I agree. I have no problem with fishing or hunting for food - but not as a sport.

 

[Munroco]

I would think twice about adding floating plants. You may end up changing the whole ecosystem.

 

[Colin_T]

Is it a large pond that is separate from any creeks or rivers?
Or is it close to a river so when it rains, the water might overflow form the pond into the river?

If it's close to a river, then put floating plants in a large floating net to stop them being washed into the river during the wet season. If the pond is isolated and there is no chance of floating plants getting released into natural waterways, then don't bother about putting them in a floating net.

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Algicides kill algae but they also harm higher plants and fish. When they kill the algae, it breaks down in the water and releases the nutrients back into the pond. Then a few weeks later more algae grows back.

Try to manually harvest/ remove as much as possible and put it on the garden as a mulch. Then add plants to the pond and it should get better. When the floating plants spread you should remove some of them on a regular basis and put them on the garden too. That way the nutrients that were taken out of the water by the floating plants, will be removed from the pond, thus limiting the nutrients available to the algae.

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If you add some lengths of pvc or clay pipes to the pond, and some driftwood, it will provide more territories and shelter for the fish and you will end up with more fish living together. If there is only a small amount of shelter, the bigger fish take it over and eat anything that comes near it.

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Regarding plants, you can grow them in pots and that can make it easier to clean them up and divide them further down the track.

A friend of mine had his water lilies and other plants in pots in his ponds and every few years he would lift the pots out and divide the plants up and sell the surplus.​

​

 

[Retired Viking]

Several people with ponds that I know have lily pads in their ponds and almost no algae.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Grow plants in the pond. They will use the nutrients and reduce the algae.

Put water lilies in the water where it's 2-4 feet deep.
Have irises and reeds/ rushes around the edges.
Put some sort of floating plant like Water Hyacinth, Water Lettuce or Duckweed on the pond.

If you manually remove the algae, it won't release nutrients back into the water when it dies off.

----------------------

I disagree with you and consider fishing a bloodsport. You lure or encourage fish to take a bait that has a sharp piece of steel in. Then you pull the fish out of water by its mouth and manhandle it while it suffocates in the air. You damage the mucous layer on the fish, which allows bacteria and fungus easier access. You remove the hook and the barb tears a chunk of flesh out before the fish gets thrown back into the water, or dropped in a bucket to suffocate before it dies.

Bending the barb down on hooks helps a bit because the hook does less damage. But even that is still painful and unpleasant to the fish.

I used barbless hooks to remove some fish from a marine tank. The tank was full of rock and I couldn't use nets. The fish that were caught would not eat for 3-4 days after they had been caught and then it took several more weeks before they accepted food normally again.

People complain when they get a fish hook stuck in their finger. Imagine how a small fish feels with the same size piece of steel stuck through its jaw, gill, nose or even eyes.

Try sticking a piece of half inch thick steel rod through your bottom jaw and then suspend yourself from that. That's basically what happens to fish.

I completely disagree. 1( I always wet my hands with the pond water before I handle the fish, so I don’t mess up their mucus layer. 2( Fish can’t feel pain anyways: “A study has found that, even when caught on a hook and wriggling, the fish is impervious to pain because it does not have the necessary brain power. ... However, the latest research concluded that the mere presence of the receptors did not mean the animals felt pain, but only triggered a unconscious reaction to the threat.” —— They can’t actually feel the pain.

3( I always use barbless hooks, even when fishing bigger fish. I bend the hook down, so when I remove it, it doesn’t tear chunks out.