After a couple weeks of warmer days and nights, and lack of rain the pond has evaporated down about a foot. I continue to hand rake out the little bit of FA on the edges. Still zero vegetation elsewhere (soilfloc may be part to blame and I'd be curious to see if others who do soilfloc on the edges of their pond if the compacted sand also discourages natural rooting of native plants?) I'm not upset as the soilfloc continues to be a great solution to my groundwater pond dropping.
Other reasons for low plant life is (are) crayfish and/or goldfish.
It seems each year, right about this time of August we see the chocolate swirl effect of some type of brown plankton or algae. Timing is good if that means the water is fertile since we have lots of baby SFS and GSH to feed and we need fertile water. I do not fertilize purposely, but am sure that the broadcast spreader that hits the grass around the pond puts some nitrogen into the pond as well. There may be a little runoff too but have not had heavy rains.
Still aerating every night to keep water temps down and the last few days started filling some cold water from my well to top it off.
This is the first year I tried some pond dye. I didn't mind the color but now I'm back to brown color water. It didn't seem to change the bloom potential or timing. At this point with the bloom going I didn't know if I should add some more pond dye in or just let the cycle of life go.
