Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Lost my phyto in cold snap!!

Most of my phyto was growing by leaps and bounds when the cold snap just hit killing it...Still about 2-3 from edge of pond green all the way around..Water clarity is about 2-2.5 feet..I had this happen last year and the water turned tea brown with zooplankton but it did recover...Is this going to be an annual thing? I have never had it result in a kill...pond is 3/4 acre and 3 years old with the full food chain of fish..Thanks, David.

It's a constant problem with yellow perch producers north of you when they get an abnormally cold spring. Your pond will recover.

If your water is cold I doubt you'll have oxygen problems. It's more likely if your phyto crashes in warm water.

Take pics with a written description of what you see for future comparison. It should come back quickly absent a large inflow of new water (rain or from a stream) or another cold snap.

I have controlled my runoff last year by lessoning the amount that can get into the pond..I was draining about 20 acres which was way too much I found out...everytime it rained I had water coming in from the sides..I have since dammed up the problem areas with #3 lime rock and rip rap and now only have a couple acre runoff...I fed the fish last evening and they very very frisky and seem in good health..We stocked 2 years ago and the first gen. catfish are now 7-8 pounds, the first gen. gills and redears and consistently over 9 inches and a few 10+ inches..the bass were not stocked till that fall but are all 15"+ and 2-2.5 pounds...I have at least 5 sizes of each species now and a huge fathead minnow population so I think things are good just don't want issues to disrupt things..Thanks for your input, David.