This will be a brief overview of treating algae and pond weeds. Remember that treating everything is not a good thing. One must first think about what they want to do with their pond and then decide how to make it happen. I will break this down in working with different herbicides and then algaecides. I will also give some recommendations for stocking fish. I use a basic stocking rate attained at Illinois Lake Management Association.

Basic Pond Management:

Before you even think about trying to use an herbicide or algaecide yourself you must be familiar with a few 5th grader math problems. Yes these classes finally paid off. Many of the aquatic products give their rates in gallons per acre foot. This means you need to figure our how many acre feet of water you have. Also if you are treating an small are in your pond you need to know how big that area is. Here are a few calculations you must do in order to do an accurate treatment.

Average Depth:



Circular Pond:


Rectangle:


Elliptical:



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ALGAE

Algae is a bit more difficult to identify than plants because most look at it as slime/scum. There is many differences and one must know the most common algaes and the ones that are rare. Under certain environmental conditions these rare algae species, called blue-green algae, can become toxic. Pets and livestock drinking lake water containing the toxic form of these algae may become sick and even die. There is also a few species of algae that look just like aquatic plants. You have to use a copper based product on all algaes in order to control them and if you put herbicides on them you will not get control.

Filamentous
This is one of the most common forms of algae seen in Indiana ponds and lakes. Most of my customers use Cutrine Ultra. There is already a surfactant in this product but you can always add more.




Planktonic
This is an example of a blue-green algae bloom. Sometimes toxic but very rare. Many of you may have heard about Eagle Creeks problem with foul tasting water. This was due to a blue-green bloom called Cylindrospermopsis that Health officials say contact with the algae can cause a range of effects from irritated eyes to liver problems. You can treat this problem with Cutrine Plus at .6 gallons per acre foot




Vascular Algae
Lastly there is a vascular algae called Chara that looks like a plant. Many copper products will work on this. Do not attempt to use herbicides on it as they will not work.



Using Copper Sulfate:



I am not a big fan of this product because after using it for many years I have noticed some of my ponds become more tolerant to copper and would rather use a algaecide like Cutrine first until it doesn't work as well anymore than switch. However you do what you want as that is only my opinion. Many old-timers use the burlap bag method where they fill it up with copper granular and drag it around the shoreline in the spring. I have heard mixed results from this and not too sure this will get the proper amounts of copper sulfate down in the areas needed.

Using Algaecides

These are by far the best bet to keep your pond healthy without over doing treatments. Cutrine Plus has been around forever and know this 9% chealated copper algaecide to work well. Watch out for knock off products out there with less ingredients. It is always best to use high pressure sprayers to get enough product down in the treatment area. If you have a 10 gallon sprayer fill it up with 9 gallons of water and 1 gallon of Cutrine Plus. Most applicators will use the 9:1 ratio when doing applications. More concentrated solutions is a waste in my opinion and may not do the job right. Also use a few ounces of surfactant (aquatic approved) per gallon of mixture. I would use a minimum of a pint of surfactant in the 10 gallon tank. Try CIDE-KICK II which can be viewed here Brewer Int.

Agitate the mixture well and spray it on the algae.