My 2 acre pond constantly stays muddy. Secchi dish reads about 8-10 inch all the time. Don't have a FA problem and I do still get blooms. But the pond is always muddy. My question is...Would pond die change muddy water color to green or blue just to make it nicer to look at? Will it cut visibility down to just nothing? Will it just cause more damage to a already muddy pond? would it harm the fish? Does the dye penetrate the whole water table from shallow to deep? Can I just pour it in out where the aeriators are running for quicker dispersment? Wife is really getting tired of looking at muddy water!! Hah!

My experience here is that dye won't do anything to an actual muddy pond other than make the muddy water sort of a blue muddy color. If it's actual suspended clay/soil then dye won't help much. If it's a suspended algae/etc then dye will help if applied early enough in the year.

If it's muddy water what's causing it? Runoff, catfish/other fish that stir the bottom?

My big pond looks like chocolate milk and has all spring, but that's due to the ridiculous amount of rain we've had. It'll eventually (assuming the dang rain ever stops) clear up. My little pond is clear because it doesn't get much runoff - that's where I use the blue dye to control plant growth.

dlow, I have no catfish or carp or bottom fish at all. Yes we have had over 40 inches of rain so far this year. I assume it is muddy from runoff. Just didn't know how die would react to that type water. I wonder could I take a gallon jar water sample and add food coloring die to it to see how it would appear??

Flame, my BG seem to stir up the water and make it muddy when nesting. Blue dye will make it a muddy blue-green color.

It will give the muddy water a tinge of color, but if its staying muddy all the time you may have a suspended clay issue that needs to be addressed. Hopefully it's from all the runoff and the visibility will improve if the rain ever stops long enough to let it settle.

It wont hurt your fish at all and will saturate top to bottom. All you need to do is pour it in around the shoreline. It will spread on it's own with the pond's natural current. It will also help cool the water by reflecting UV rays. The surface will still warm up, but the depths will cool faster.

I use the twilight blue color and it gives a very near natural blue green color to my pond. My visibility is around 16". Sometimes more....sometimes less. And I still get very strong blooms.

Thanks Mike, Can you give me a brand name twilight blue you used? How much do I need for a 2 acre pond? Mostly 3-7 foot deep with the deepest end 11-12 foot deep. If it didn't rain and flush it out how long does a dye treatment last? Does it or will it effect the color of the fish? Because of my muddy water all my fish are real light/white in color to adapt to their enviroment.

I'm using Pond Logic in the 4x concentration quarts (= to 1 gallon). I dont remember the exact amount you'll need per acre, but you can figure out how much you need pretty easily. If it doesnt get flushed out, it's supposed to last 5-6 weeks. I cant attest to that with all the rain we're getting. Once you get the color the way you want it, it doesn't take quite as much to bump it back up, tho. I havent seen any change in color with the fish I catch.

Just guessing here, but with a two acre pond, you're probably gonna need at least 2-3 quarts of the concentrate to start.

You can get it in black, twilight and blue. I'm thinking I may mixing with the black next time, just to see what it does.

I recommend you first use a flocculant. The best I've found was on Amazon, under swimming pool products. One gallon, priced at $48, will initially treat a one half acre pond (600,000 gallons). Maintenance doses, as may be required, use one half as much floc. It's made from crustacean shells. After using this stuff, I found I had earlier added too much blue dye, which my cloudy green water had hidden. It is nice to be able to see your fish milling about under the water waiting for feed. Fishing lures and bait become visible to the fish. Underwater lights glow through a much larger area. I refrain from naming it because it is not offered by the Resource advertisers. It is an industrial product offered for everything from swimming pools and ponds to industrial and sewer water clarification.

The other floc I have tried, RapiClear, costs $60 per gallon to treat 60,000 gallons. No comparison!

You can try a lesser dose to get an idea of how effective it is in your pond. I suppose a heavier load of clay may require more floc. I'd suggest trying a gallon (one fourth the initial dose) on your two acre pond. Apply along the edges with a pump up sprayer. Maybe try applying along half the edge. I think you'll see a significant difference within several hours.

I have had persistent FA, and a very aggressive Great Blue Heron at my older pond, since it was renovated in August 2015. This year it has been muddy for some reason, maybe rainfall, and very little FA, and the mud frustrates the GBH.

Maybe it's the five Koi I raised in the forage pond last year, and transferred at about 10" last October. They are 12-14" now. I wonder if five Koi and seven or 8 CC could muddy up a 1/4 acre pond?

I have used dye in the past, and the first dye may have contained flocculant, because it not only dyed, but somewhat cleared that pond. I used dye in the older pond the spring of 2018, but still had bad FA last summer.

I prefer dye or muddy water to loads and loads of FA, personally.

PM sent. thanks

Have you performed the jar test? If so, did it clear?

TJ I did a jar test awhile back and it never really cleared and it took weeks to see decent results.

Sounds like you have a clay suspension problem. The most dye would do for clarity is by possibly reducing the strength of your blooms, which wont increase visibility very much, maybe 4-6 inches.

I personally like to keep mine around 16-24". But if you want it a lot clearer, you're probably going to need a floculant to make the clay sink. I've never had an issue with that so I'm not much help other than what I've read here. Hydrated lime and alum will do it, but you have to be careful with it.