I have a 2.1 acre pond in NC. The pond has been there for a long time. How long I am not sure. Probably more than 20 years at least. When I bought the property a few years ago the feeder streams would drop sediment from neighboring farms into the pond when the fields were plowed in the fall through to spring planting in late March. In order to correct the sediment issue I build a series of sediment basins protecting the pond from the feeder streams and rerouting the water around the pond. Below is a satellite image of the pond.



As you can see there are a series of 3 sediment basins on the north side of the pond. 2 of which catch 2 feeder streams and then send the water to sediment basin #4. Sediment basin #4 catches the third feeder stream and then takes the water around the pond and drops the water past the main pond's dam. The pond is now fed by a hill abutting the pond on the east side of the pond which is thickly forested. The water does not flow down the hill. It generally percolates through the soil into the pond.








As you can see from the pond pictures below, the color of the water in the pond is distinctly different from the sediment basins.








There are 3 aerators running in as you can see from the pictures above. In general I have been running the aerators for about a month at 2-3 hours per day.

There is about 1 foot of muck on the bottom of the pond.

Water quality that is percolating in from the hill on the east side is good as shown in the photo below.



[img]http://apps.easternservicesllc.com/pond/pond13.jpg[/img]

Water quality in general is very green with perhaps a hint of brown in it which may indicates some suspended clay.

[img]http://apps.easternservicesllc.com/pond/pond14.jpg[/img]

I have used algaecide and alum in the past to treat the problem but in general the green color returns in a couple weeks if not sooner. This, of course, can get very expensive.

My feeling is that the pond is too green especially given that we are still in the colder months. Many ponds in the area that show much more planktonic and filamentatious algae in the summer months than mine are much clearer in the winter.

Thoughts?