Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment plankton and water temps

Bob, Thank you for Pond Boss. If it were not for you and what all you have done, I would have never met you or your people. Eric, along with others, have always been very helpful. Too much sometimes because I have to go back a re-read most things he post or wrights in the Mag. He can be like a library of information, sometimes over my head, so I re-read. And esshup (Scott) and Allen(Fireishot) I could go on.

I have done a lot of reading recently pertaining to plankton (algae). And have watched the pond looking for things that would contribute to it's excess or dense growth. I believe it has come down to this. Decaying plants(leaves etc) in the water from cutting down many many willow trees that grow along the banks. Another would be due to feeding the fish (to much feeding). And because of the drought I have run a lot of well water in the pond. Well water comes from 160' down and may have added some additional phosphates to the pond water. And when running all the well water I added a little too much agg lime which raised the pH up to the 8 which may have stimulated the plankton growth. The pH will come back down over time.

So, I have tried a biological treatment from an advertiser here (BioCycle). I met them at their booth in the PBC. We will retreat the pond with their product. They are standing by their product and have offered to retreat at no cost to me.

After all the research I am thinking of adding Easy Pro Natural Phosphate Binder to work with the BioCycle product. This phosphate binder is slow acting and should not cause the problems that a product like Phosclear might cause in my situation. I am concerned with the possibility of clearing the water up too much, where I have no plankton and zooplankton to feed my TFS and my soon to come fish fry. And so I would ask if anyone has any experience with the natural Phosphate binder I mentioned?

One more note here. I checked the water temp and DO levels throughout the pond depths yesterday. Water temp was at 52.5 in all the water except the wind blown shoreline where it was a 60F. The DO was an 8.7mg/l or 76.6% at all depths except the wind blown shore line where it was 97%.

Thoughts here guys? I will sample the water but have not done so yet. I think it will tell me I am in the medium range of phosphates because that is the range where algae grows best. I would have thought it grows best in high phosphate but my research tell different. Any one see any problems in adding a phosphate binder? And maybe Bill Cody might jump in if he has the time.

Thanks again for any help or suggestions.