Pond Algae Removal

What you are dealing with

Algae shows up when a pond has warm water, sun, and nutrients, and most Texas ponds have all three by June. It starts as a green tint, then becomes stringy mats you can lift with a stick, then a thick blanket that covers the whole surface and starts to smell. On a stock tank it fouls the water your cattle drink. On a pond it chokes out the look you built the pond for in the first place.

The nutrients that feed it come from runoff, from fertilizer on the surrounding land, from leaves and grass clippings, and from whatever died in the pond last year and rotted on the bottom. That last part matters, because it is exactly what spraying makes worse.

Why spraying does not fix algae

An algaecide kills the algae where it floats. It does not remove it. The dead algae sinks to the bottom of the pond and rots. As it breaks down it releases the same nutrients that grew it, and it uses up oxygen doing so. So two things happen. The next bloom comes back fast, often thicker, because you just fed it. And a low-oxygen event can stress or kill your fish, which is the opposite of what you wanted.

You also end up with a growing layer of muck on the bottom, year after year, every time you spray. That muck is future algae in storage. Spraying is a subscription to the problem. That is why we do not sell it.

How pond algae removal actually works

We bring in a compact track loader fitted with a wide steel landscape rake. The tines reach out into the shallows, comb through the mats, and lift them out of the water. The algae comes up dripping and goes on the bank. We work the shoreline in passes until the surface is open and the water runs clear and dark again.

Because the growth leaves the pond instead of sinking into it, we take the locked-up nutrients out with it. That is the difference you can see the same day and the difference you feel next season, when the pond is slower to green up because there is less in the bottom feeding it.

What happens to what we pull out

You have three options and we go over them before we start. Most ranch owners have us leave the algae on-site to compost. Stacked on the bank it dries fast and the pile shrinks to almost nothing. We can also move it to a designated disposal area on your property. Or we haul it off the property for you as a paid add-on. Your call.