Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Biologic assistance

First….can’t thank everyone enough who posts…I have learned so much….
Now need an update on cold water biological to reduce algae / nutrient load (grows under the ice).
We are in geauga county Ohio (snow belt) 1/4 acre natural pond. Aerated 10 plus years usually run 24/7
Switch to shallow in winter (learned that one the hard way restocked!) bg and LMB..about 9 feet deep, no dropoffs, weak natural spring. Lots of trees less than half bordered by lawn and we hand feed fish from deck.
Anyway about 15 years ago we decided to reclaim pond, used a great biologiic to reduce muck, used seclear off and on during warm weather…about every thing you can mess up a delicate biological system I seem to have done…but thanks to forum have gotten back on track multiple times.
The last 2 years we have seen huge downpours creating unprecedented runoff into pond…carrying huge amount of phosphorous & whatever
Haven’t seen this much F/A for many years.. do not see this scenario changing…ironically we only saw few foot plus snow falls.
My goal is to use this as needed all year, touch up with chemicals as needed

Thoughts. …

Stock Tilapia annually. They are a biologic, they eat algae, and when removed from the pond in the fall by scavengers or by the pond owner they are also removing the nutrients that they used to grow larger. Stock them at the rate of 40# per surface acre when water temp is above 55°F, 60°F to be on the safe side. If your goal is to grow larger LMB, the offspring will also help the LMB do that.

We have done that for about the past 5-7 years and only need to use copper based algaecides once or twice a year, if that.

Meant to reply earlier….tilapia…checked with our fish supplier..Jones fish, and they deliver quite a few up this way for algae control…wow!!
End of May…we are looking forward to this..

THANKS AGAIN TO ALL WHO POST…

As a side note…the fun never stops…we lost the top half of two huge cherry trees that fell on our leach field…which of course is uphill from the pond…finally got out yesterday with chain saw…each is about 50 feet long…average 18 inch diameter…yes there is damage…more to cut up before we get it analyzed..
I see more than a few hours reviewing fine print in homeowners insurance in my immediate future!
Oh Joy!

Sorry to hear about the loss of your big cherry trees. Tough to lose those.

Any place in your pond need a little more structure? You could use some of the twiggy parts of your cherry trees for fluffy cover for forage fish.

Likewise, you could trim off the small branches and make a small brush pile of the larger stuff for your predators to have a new ambush point.

On the bright side, Cherry makes some really good smelling firewood

Cherry is good smoking wood too.

Especially for pork.