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Full Version: Pond Algea control?
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As I am a tightwad, has anyone made their own blue dye for ponds? I know you can by the glue dyes, but has anyone made their own mix cheaper that works?

Thanks,
Kevin
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I havent heard of any one making thier own dies, Just remember the fish to ingest those dies, even comercial made ones, so its important to be careful of what you use and harvesting of fish.

I caught fish near the time when dies have been applied to lakes and found the blue die comming right out of the flesh of perch when I filleted them.

are you attepting to treat a landscape pond or something much larger.
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In smaller ponds I have heard of people using bales of barley straw.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/a-fact/0012.html
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The straw works a treat!

You could also look at filter feeder organisms. The zebra mussels are notorious, but there are also mysid shrimps which live midwater and do a similar job.
Mysis Relicta, and Hemimysis Anomala are the planktonic shrimps in question. I guess you need to look at where the pond drains into and avoid non native species, but Relicta is native since the ice age.
Your fish might have a food supplement from mysids too.

Zooplankton do a similar job of eating the plant plankton (algae) in a natural fashion. Daphnia, psyclops and even the big ones like scuds and sowbugs will all help clear decaying plant life. All you need is a place where they can reproduce without predation, like a covered shallow area.
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you have to take care when dealing with mussles, in some states transporting them can cost you a fair fine, and that not counting transporting invasive species to transplant
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you may also want to check out pondplace.com

they have everything you need including workshops on how to...
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