Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization Another New Pond Guy....NEED HELP

Hi, I'm new here and been looking around for a bit but there is alot of information to take in. So maybe someone can help me. I have a new pond, about 3/4 of an acre. The pond is pretty deep, up to about 20-25 feet in some areas with an overall depth I would guess at 13-15 feet. Construction was completed this past fall and the pond is now full. I stocked the pond about 3 weeks ago with fingerlings of bluegill and redear along with channel cat and fathead minnows. I plan on adding bass in the fall. The water is muddy but I live in Southern Illinois and the rainfall has been constant. The watershed is grown up with grass on my lot and the lot next to me (neighbors). The lot on the other side is a grown up field with weeds etc. Im hoping the water will clear soon. I have noticed a few weeds and algae looking stuff growing around the edges. I was going to add Aquashade today but found this site and changed my mind.

I want a clean, nice looking pond to fish and enjoy since Im building a house about 300ft away. What should I do to prevent getting a bunch of nasty algae and weeds? Aquadshade or no? Also, I have thrown very small type floating fish food to the fish and they are not really eating yet...Keep feeding or wait? I added some structure just before adding the fish. I have alot of frogs, some of which are getting good in size. I also noticed numerous tadpoles swimming around. Any advice is greatly appreciated. I plan on adding some rip rap rock soon to the areas where the water flows in; im sure this will help with clearing the water. Thanks all, will hold off on pouring anything in the water until I get some advice. Thanks!

Howdy, jtruck, and welcome to the forum.

We sure have had a nearly constant supply of rain this Spring in the Midwest (the part that doesn't include Nebraska, Bruce :P ). You might want to do a bucket/jar test on your pond water just to make sure it will clear when outside agitation stops. Put some of the cloudy water in a bucket or jar and let it set. If it clears after a few days, the pond should also clear up once the rain stops and the watershed is in good, climax vegetation (you didn't mention it wrt your pond, but my new pond is surrounded by thin new grass that doesn't do much to slow rain water from washing a little more dirt into the pond all the time).

Riprap where water flows in is something I am planning on doing myself, after it dries up enough this year to get equipment hauling large gravel next to the pond. Maybe July/August, for me. I am putting it in to improve the footing (and driving) through those water entry areas as well as cutting down on silt entering the pond.

I suggest taking any action against algae plants slowly. Consider the following talking points:

1) You don't know how much, or what, kind of plant growth you will end up with. It might be a good idea to get a picture of what the pond will do uncontrolled before deciding an attack on plant growth is necessary and then planning and implementing it if you decide to do so. If you haven't built your house there yet, any "ick factor" of poor appearance that might occur is probably easier to put up with now. Also, with a very light fish biomass load in the pond, you should have no worry of a Summer plant-related fishkill IF humongous levels of plant growth actually do occur.

2) Some plant growth is benefical to fishing. Latest PBMag estimates this level at 40% of the pond area.

3) Plants are the basis of the foodchain in your pond. Phytoplankton is the most important, but larger plants and FA also serve to promote small invertebrates for small fish to feed on. Aquashade cuts way down on the amount of food that grows in a pond for the fish to eat by blocking light from reaching aqautic plants. It's use is rarely indicated in a pond where good fishing is a primary objective.

4) Grass Carp (White Amur) are effective at controlling many plants found in ponds (they are rarely effective in controlling FA). They may be much more desirable for you than Aquashade or chemical controls, unless you end up having problems with plants that GC don't eat.

My recommendation is to see what the pond plants do on their own this year. Read the information available here, in PBMag, and in Bob Lusk's books ("Basic Pond Management", for starters), to decide what kind of plants you want to have and how much vegetation you want to have in the pond.

Yep, the rainfall here was crazy for awhile. My house is under construction and way behind schedule. Thanks for the advice, I will see how things work and make adjustments as neeeded. Just glad I did a bit of research because I had Aquashade on my list but thought I might read a bit first. Thanks again.