We are now in a moderate drought, and amazingly enough the pond level is holding up pretty well this year. I did not get a chance to Polymer seal it thanks to a Disney vacation my family wanted, so I am pleased the leaks are slowing so I don't have to look at my wife with the angry eyes.

The problem I am having now is we have had nothing to muddy the water, so it has been very clear all spring. This means the sun is beating down all the way to the bottom. This in turn makes the plants grow so I have some pretty thick chara in places, but the worst part is all of the fall debris on the bottom is now lifting to the surface where there isn't chara. It looks (and tastes) nasty.

All of the skimming I am doing just seems to make room for more to come up.

So I am looking at putting dye in the pond to cut down on this crap, but I don't like the blue dye appearance. I am interested in black, or a more natural dark brown to look like tannin. Where can I get these colors? I haven't subscribed in a bit, so I am assuming an advertiser has them, and can it be delivered to NY?

Thanks
-Mark

Maybe Snrub will see this. He gets black dye somewhere to use in his main pond.

The first I used was called Black Dyemond. You can do a search to find suppliers. Where I got it they were closing it out and I took the few quarts they had.

When I decided I liked it did another search and found a manufacturer direct place. Had to buy a dozen quarts at a time (this was concentrated and a quart is supposed to be equal to a gallon of regular pond dye) is the only problem but it was about half the price as the Black Dyemond and as far as I could tell worked just as well. Can't remember the name but I still have 4 quarts left and will get the name if anyone wants it.

Here is a link to some pictures concerning the use of black pond dye.

FA thread black pond dye

Well, the pond did it to itself. The water warmed, the curly leafed pond weed died back, and I have a brownish green bloom a little too late for baby fish. Now the bottom is dark, cold, and nastily anaerobic.
I am not sure why it is so cold on the bottom, it was warmer when the water was clear. I am thinking I am tied in with ground water, and why once the drought took hold my water level started dropping faster.
Either way, I may need to save some pennies for an aerator.