# Algae problems



## zanguli-ya-zamba (9 Sep 2014)

Hi guys 
Hope you are all doing well. 
A good friend of mine have multiple pond were he breeds tilapias to sell it at the market. 
One if his pond is covered with an algae so I wanted to post in our strong community to have an answer and maybe a solution for these ponds. 

He have dig these pond in the wet land out side of Kinshasa. 
On the top of the pond cover of algae there is a house where he breeds chicken. I told him not to put that but he says that they do that here. Like that all the food and the sh*t of the chicken goes in the pond and gives food to the fish. Two pond have a chicken house but only one is concern about the algae problem. 
Here are some shoot of the ponds. 












Here is a shot of the pond next to that one and there is nothing 




Thanks for your help members. 

Cheers


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## sciencefiction (9 Sep 2014)

Do the houses keep the same amount of chickens in each...only kidding  I hope someone is able to help out. I just wanted to subscribe to see the outcome.


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## Martin in Holland (10 Sep 2014)

I would say, "more CO2, better distribution", but in this case....?
Maybe a big pump that pushes all the algae to one side so he can scoope it off.


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## ian_m (10 Sep 2014)

In outside water sources algae is often due to water contamination from pesticides, heavy metals, industrial effluent etc killing off the fauna that normally would eat the algae.

Normally high phosphate and/or nitrate and/or iron source would/can cause an algae bloom, but would normally be quickly eaten by the next "life" down the food chain, then next, them next etc.

In British lake district dump phosphate into lake we get a 2-3 day algae bloom before it disappears. In US lakes often contaminated by industrial outfall you get permanent algae. What does US do about it ???? Ban phosphates in detergents rather then clean up the lakes.....


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## Edvet (10 Sep 2014)

Is it possible to make a reed bed (phytofilter) and have a pump put the water in that, i guess that would eat the surplus ferts out of the water fast.
http://www.wte-ltd.co.uk/reed_bed_sewage_treatment.html


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## PARAGUAY (25 Jan 2015)

Would it be same principal as a smaller garden pond?Agitation with large pump and throw oxygenating plants at it or increase them, providing its not polluted


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## parotet (31 Jan 2015)

Hi all

The environmental foundation where I work manages several green filters (phytofilters) and believe me, pond management is not easy at all. You know the headaches we have with our tanks? so it's more or less the same but at a huge scale! (I'm not responsible for their management but I am familiar with their management).

Someone was kidding about distribution and flow and.... Well we actually have an interesting experience regarding bad flow between several connected ponds due to a bad design in the 'inflow' and 'outflow' of these ponds and resulting in stagnant areas with poor water quality. We do not have chickens but the aim in our case is not only to fine tune water quality that goes to a coastal shallow lake but also to increase wildlife biodiversity (waterfowl) as it is in high value environmental area. It's a green filter that has a first sector with subterranean gravels and then 2 sectors planted with Typha and Phragmites (all together makes 36 ha). Gravels act as a mechanical filter, decreases the amount of phytoplankton and retains quite a big amount of phosphates. It's by far the most efficient part of the system. Plants in the other sectors (6 large shallow ponds) uptake nitrates and phosphates. But water quality 'decreases' in these sectors as birds leave high amounts of their poo.... Maybe a more 'classy' poo coming from endangered birds, but at the end it is manure.

The truth is that we've had no experiences with algae but water quality in some areas of the planted sectors is much poor regarding different water quality parameters, and now we know for sure it is a matter of water flow (it has been tested). So water movement would be one of the first things to look at IMO. Obviously releasing manure to the pond or high density of fish won't help. The difference between both could also be explained by water depth, density of fish, hours of direct sun, differences in flow... Amazingly there are two things that work as well as they work in our tanks: water changes (we have the chance of emptying completely the ponds and begin from scratch) and planting very densely (high nutrient uptake and at least in the Spanish Mediterranean climate it shades the water and help to maintain reasonable water temperatures). 

Unfortunately planting macrophytes is useless in the kind of ponds I see in the pictures (at least in my experience) as fish will eat them and water is so eutrophic and green that light can hardly penetrate a few inches under the water surface. Planting them in protected cages can help but not really too much.

Jordi


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## zanguli-ya-zamba (3 Feb 2015)

Mate 
Thanks for your reply and your time ! 
I also think that there is a huge problem of flow in these pond.

I will explain an other time why. Sorry a bit in an hurry. 

Thanks


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk


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## limz_777 (19 Feb 2015)

never heard of this concept , you mean chicken droppings will auto drop off into pond of tilapias below or feeding of droppings is manual ?


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## zozo (24 Apr 2015)

Eutrophication..  ..
http://www.nature.com/scitable/know...onsequences-and-controls-in-aquatic-102364466


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