Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants ice out, plants, and aquatic dye

I'm researching dye options. I'm told to get in as soon as ice out which just happened this past weekend here in Michigan.

I'd like to support an advertiser or contributor to the forum. What I'm hoping for is actual color samples of what a real pond looks like with various colors.

When I google image search the 'blue' or 'aquablue' or variations on that it seems very fake blue. Youtube has some extreme examples of what happens if you it is too blue.

There are many examples of what black does and I'm not quite ready for the black look yet.

I see one blue shade that is more 'aquamarine' or trying to mimic Caribbean waters which isn't quite right either.

I also found 2 variations on midnight blue which apparently has some black mixed with blue but i can't find real photos of a midnight blue in a pond.

I can imagine it is hard to predict end results because so much depends on concentration applied and as time goes by, how much fades away.

If someone has experience with this midnight blue and a product and can recommend dosing concentration that would help.

My pond is new, 2 yrs old, just starting to fill in with weeds and exceptionally clear (to a fault) I have oak and maple leaves on the bottom, aeration available, and killed off some eurasian milfoil last season, will probably retreat this spring. I would then like to keep ahead with a 'light' dose of shading.

I have a black dog so no worries about coloring the dog when he goes swimming.

We do get fluctuation in the water table (very low now compared to last year at ice out) and when we get a heavy rain I'll get turbidity and a big influx of water from street runoff but it clears quickly in about 2 days. That would require a redosing I'm sure.

Appreciate it!

I used Crystal Blue Pond dye two years ago and dropped the water clarity from 9ft down to 30-36", shading the deep water milfoil killed it. The milfoil die off triggered an algae bloom and my water went from blue to an emerald green about 10 days later.

The plankton composition in the pond will also affect how the dye appears as shorty mentions. If there is a plankton bloom in the water some prefer to use a dye with blue,yellow and some red in it to give a more blue color versus just blue, yellow can give a greenish hue.

Thanks Bill and Shorty. Can someone point me to a dye that contains options for yellow and red in the mix and not just blue? I can only find 2 'pure blues', a turquoise or Caribbean blue, and this midnight blue which is only blue+black.

Shorty do you recall what dose it took for your size pond (acre/feet or size/depth) and how long before you had to redose it?

I don't recall the dosage but remember it was on the conservative side of the label directions, I wanted some light penetration to feed a bloom and shallow water weed growth for the fish. I very lightly redosed one time a month after the initial dose and had a bloom going all summer with visibilty of 30 to 36", the milfoil never grew deeper than 4 to 5 ft at most.

I'll see if I can take a photo of the HBG pond tomorrow. Just added dye this past Sunday, which is typical for the management strategy in this BOW. I usually add it early, before the vegetation revs up.

Shorty, that would be great, quite helpful to see a 'real life' dye color. Do you know the exact color 'name' of your blue dye?

The label on the Crystal Blue jug says:
Blue #9 25.9% net
Inert and Proprietary ingredients 74.1%