Ok, here goes. My apologies up front for a lengthy post.

This pond is about 1 1/2 years old. It was dug on a 1.5 acre lot as a borrow pit to build my house on in SW La. Maximum depth is 12ft with virtually no subsurface structure. Mainly just a bowl with steep sides and one small area that has a slightly shallower grade. It has a 6 inch overflow pipe as an exit, but the inflow is coming from natural runoff from my and adjacent properties. Due to building my house I didn't have an opportunity to build any artificial structure or cover.

Upon initial filling the water soon took on a nice green color and had about 18 inches of visibility. Then came hurricane Harvey and 56 inches of flood water over the top of the pond that stayed for a week.

Prior to the flood, the pond had self propagated with GSF, bullheads, and a variety of minnows. After the flood the nice green water was tannic brown and stayed that way until just recently. I'm guessing the spring rains have flushed it out a bit. Now I have an algae bloom that's reduced the visibility to less than a foot and is pea soup in color, but I think it's only at the suface.

My idea for the pond was to stock it with CNBG, FHM, AND CC since all can be attained from a local hatchery. I'm willing to live with the GSF and Bullhead if I can keep them under control. I've seen as many as 100 of the BHC ranging from 12 inch adults to finglerings down to about 3 inches. I've placed a crab trap in the pond baited with fish pellets to try to catch some of those bullheads, so far unsuccessfully.

I've spend many hours here and elsewhere trying to get my mind wrapped around what I need to do with this pond, but to be honest, the more I read the more confused I'm getting, with Ph, alkalinity dissolved oxygen, so forth and so on. I've found an aerator system that will operate at 12 feet with a single diffuser that I intend to install as soon as the budget allows and hope that will help get the water straightened out.

Is there anything I can do in the meantime to get this algae bloom under control? My budget is limited presently so I've considered buying a bale of wheat straw and spreading it in the pond (barley isn't available here) but I hate the idea of having all that straw sinking to the bottom and creating another problem.

The pond is very close to the house, so esthetics is pretty important, but I want this pond to be viable and productive. Not a big fan of dyes either.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!