Algae is dead now what?

[Big Lou]

This was our worst underwater algae year ever. The was was a string, long fine hair type algae. The agaeside has done its job so the dead whiteish algae has sloped to the bottom. I am to apply another Algaeside dose next week. I have been told the dead algae wil accumulate on the bottom. I was hoping it would dissipate completely. Should I rake it out, drain the pond for a thorough clearing or what?

 

[sissy]

get a pool net and scoop it out or hope the can send it to a fine filter .Quit batting will pick it up if you put the pump close to it and put the hose end in a basket with the quilt batting in it . Not sure if it will clog up your pump

 

[Waterbug]

It will slowly decompose into smaller and smaller bits. It will, in theory, disappear from human sight, but become suspended in the water. Water changes will flush suspended bits. Without water changes DOC levels will increase and could result in foam on the water surface. Not a big deal in most ponds.

The disappearing thing is only "theory" because algae will probably continue to grow, which you will kill, which will pile up faster than it can decompose to nothing. So in reality it never disappears.

That's the string algae Catch-22. It has to be manually removed....whether pulled out when alive or scooped out when killed. The dead stuff gets harder and harder to net out the more it decomposes.

 

[adavisus]

Silt, mulm can accumulate at the rate of inches per year. On a still pond, allsorts of humble little insects like tubifex, worms, crustaceans would call it home and merrily munch on any organic tidbits that fall in the pond.

A fine mesh net can round up the bulk of it, to dump it out to fertilise a plant or two

In an aquarium sediment is fairly easy to siphon out, to let the silt settle, and return the clear water to the aquarium

Left to its own devices for ten years or so the sediments compress and become like a fine clay fairly easy to scoop out with a net, on a pond where the sediments don't get the chance to settle, a pump and a filter can return clear water to the pond and separate the silt for disposal

Regards, andy
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