Preventing Pond Scum In Farm Ponds

By admin on June 22nd, 2010

If you have a lot of sunlight on your pond, and if your pond is shallow, and, if your pond has low fertility, there is about a 100% chance that you will have a problem with filamentous algae. Almost all farm ponds suffer from this problem.

The importance of controlling pond scum

Controlling pond scum, or filamentous algae is important for many reasons. Here are just a few:

It is ugly
It is smelly
It can deprive the water of oxygen that fish need to survive
It serves as cover for mosquitoes to reproduce

Pond scum control

The key to controlling pond scum is light. That is it in a nutshell. Pond scum starts at the bottom and if light can not penetrate to the bottom, it can not start. Plain and simple.

In order to prevent pond scum, you must prevent light from getting to the bottom of your pond. This can be done in one of several ways, but it is best if you can use all of them.

Deeper water

The water level can be raised
The pond bottom can be dredged
The water can be shaded, or tinted

Tinting pond water

If you can not raise the water level in your pond, or cannot dredge the pond, then you will need to color the water.

Artificial colorants

Water color can be changed to reduce the depth that sunlight will reach by artificial colors, which are not recommended if you want to have the proper food chain for fish to be healthy and grow. The colorant disrupts the aquatic life at the very basic level, and prevents production of the things fish eat.

Algae bloom

Water color can be changed by allowing the natural production of another form of algae, a single cell algae that does not form long chains of cells, and will remain suspended in the water, producing a uniform green tint to the water. This is plankton.

Plankton can be encouraged by the use of fertilizer in the pond, which causes a condition known as algae bloom.

Secchi depth

To test your water, you can use a tool called a secchi disk, which will help you determine the depth that light penetrates through your pond water. 18 to 24 inches is about right, anything deeper, and you need to fertilize, anything less, and you have too much fertility. See also: Lake Management Lake Depth Secchi Disk and Lake Management Lake Weed Control Water Depth Secchi Depth

Sunlight and other aquatic plants

What is true of pond scum, is also true of other forms of aquatic vegetation, particularly, submersed pond weeds and emergent pond weeds. The best way to prevent them is to reduce the chances that sunlight can reach the bottom of your pond.

Other factors to consider

If you have a pond scum control problem, there are other things you should consider. These are things that contribute to the overall health and balance of your pond.

Test your water for proper pH

This can be done with a simple pool testing kit from a department store. If the test reveals the need for lime, liming the pond will produce better results than using fertilizers alone.