The pond is mostly spring fed, a bog ecosystem. Alkalinity near 720, Hardness over 1000, pH 8.8.
Like I said, the effluent from his lab-rabbits is filtered, runs through a settling tank, then flows hydrostatically through a sand/gravel bed about 100 yards long before it reaches the pond. I'm thinking this is really messing with the chemistry and selecting for some weird algaes.
Under the microscope I found quite a bit of planktonic, and what looked like a lot of lysed cells. Would that be the Karmex? I assumed that that stuff would knock out anything, so i find it weird that this stuff survived it.
I performed a "pseudo algae challenge test", using several of my chemicals. Like he said, the bleach cleared the water immediately and there was no precipitate. I saw good results with CuSO4 but unlike the bleach there was a pretty large amount of precipitate. Reward didnt seem to touch it. Hydrothol seems to be working (some precipitate at the bottom), as is Alg-Away. I dont see any real change with chelated copper.
Circulators have been on year round for a few years. I let him know to discontinue the Karmex on site for the obvious reasons. He said the feed mill sold it to him in a coffee can! wow.
