In fishing ponds and lakes, irrigation reservoirs, and stock tanks, pond scum algae can be a serious problem. It can cause water intakes to fail, cause mosquito problems, and cause fishing to be a swampy, messy, less than fun experience. So, how do you get rid of it.

Pond scum can be removed manualy by skimming it from the top, but scum skimming is not much fun, and can be quite time consuming.

There are a lot of products on the market for getting rid of pond scum algae. Copper products, both granular, and liquid can be spread or sprayed across the top of the algae, causing it to die and sink. Diquat also works well. Whichever product you choose, follow the label directions to a “T”. To do otherwise is a violation of federal law, and can do severe damage to your pond or lake.

If the body of water is completely covered, do not treat more than from one quarter, to one third of it at a time. Dying vegetation uses up dissolved oxygen, and if too much is depleted, it can kill your fish. Proper chemicals, properly applied, will not usually kill fish, but dying vegetation will.

Pond scum, it goes by a lot of different names, but most of the time, it is really a type of algae known as filamentous algae.

Algae, are very primitive plants, there are several types, including the planktonic algae that is often suspended in the water profile of a pond or lake, and gives it that green tint that we are all familiar with. It is a single cell, that feeds aquatic invertebrates, which, in turn, feed larger creatures and so on up the food chain.

There are more advanced forms of algae as well, such as “Nittela”, and “Chara”, which resemble vascular rooted plants.

Filamentous algae, or pond scum starts growing at the bottom of a body of water, and gradually moves to the top by virtue of the buoyancy it provides through the creation of oxygen by the process of photosynthesis.

Pond scum, algae