I would like to open a post on algae blooms.
The Lake of Menteith has been affected, and in the past, Loch Leven.
My own club loch has had problems for years.
Could you please post your experiences with this problem, even if the attempts to treat it failed.
Perhaps we can build a plan of attack to deal with this problem.

Thanks, Graham

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Hi Maharg,
This is very interesting and I would be interested in what some of the comments were.
Being Australian, a country that has a recent history of algal bloom in all of its waters, I have seen this first hand. Ours is 'blue green algae' and it is poisonous.
A way which we treated it in still waters (apart from aeration) was to place bales of straw barley in the water. Simple and it worked on our farm.
Cheers

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Yes it seems to work but in a loch of 25acres you need a ton of barleystraw, so in a place like loch Leven at 3000 acres you would need 120 tons an impossible amount to spread about the loch when you consider that you have to have it losely contained in nets,no use in bales just rots.
Jim

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Organic barley straw works best. Straw as Jim says needs putting in nets and suspended close to the water surface

There are a few companies who offer a chemical treatment but you would need permission from the EA & that’s not so easy, also the cost runs into thousands. But do we want to put any more chemicals into our water...............

In the past we borrowed a Christmas tree baler from a farm



We then made 5 foot approx "sausages" of barley straw which were then placed around the lakes at intervals. We anchored them in using lamp hooks (with bright electrical tape on the top so the poles were easy to spot later)
Seems to work quite well for us.
Once the barley straw had rotted down and released whatever chemicals it does, we can just remove the bales or sausages with minimal fuss.

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We bought a Xmas tree baler.found we had to make the mesh double thick and 5'-8' was managable sausages.

jim

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Why Organic that just costs more cash?

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Warning Retiree knows it all and has plenty of time to tell you about it.

At the fishery managers conference a few years ago the person who gave a talk on the control of algae recommended barley straw, however in trials they found organic barley straw had a greater impact on controlling the algae. It was suggested that as it was organic it had had very little if any spraying with chemicals.

Organic straw I agree would / could be more expensive but also difficult to source, but if you can get hold of it you should get better control of your algae problem.

This however is the important bit whatever type of barley straw your using you must have it in place before your bloom starts to get the best control, and for best control change the straw every 12 – 16 weeks.

The best plan would be to tackle the problem at source. Where are the nutrients coming from that are causing the algal bloom in the first place? Barley straw, while effective, does not eliminate the cause of the bloom only the effects. Similarly floating reed islands would be effective at treating the effects, and while they are relatively expensive in the first instance, once installed they will last for years and will also enhance the lake visually. Have a look at www.Aquascience.co.uk

Nevertheless, the best long-term solution is to find out where the nutrients are coming from. Is there a ditch or a stream feeding the lake? If so, consider taking the lake off-line. Is the lake surrounded by intensive agriculture? Talk to the farmer about getting a wide buffer strip and he can claim it as part of his stewardship payments. There are ways & means to reduce nutrient input. You shouldn't have to put up with algal blooms every year, as one day there will be a rapid die-off followed by a dissolved oxygen sag in the water and a load of dead fish.

Hi BOBP
Have you any more info on stewardship payments or any idea where I can obtain them, could be a help for a river access problem we have.
As for the straw I was lead to believe that it had to be in the water for a month or more before it started to give off its algae repellent so early planning is a must.

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