Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Aquashade breaking down faster than wanted

Anyone else have this problem?

I have added twice the recommended rate of Aquashade to my .62 acre pond and still I can see the bottom at five feet again (I haven't tried lately but I bet I can see my seechi dish on the bottom in 11 feet of water.)

Sago Pondsweed is going nuts down to about 5 feet and I even have some coming up in 8 feet of water.

Not sure about the Chara as I don't seen any on the bottom where i can see it but perhaps the Sago Pondweed is out competeing the Chara? I'm still not seeing any effect of the Hydrothol 191 on the Sago Pondweed. Plants look no different than they did two weeks ago.

What gives?

Cecil:

My WAG's are:

I know that you mentioned a while back that the buffering capacity was out of whack. If not that,would the iron in the water affect it? If this is the same Aquashade that you used before, does it have a shelf life?

How does the water quality this year compare to the water quality when it was working as expected?

Not sure what you mean by out of whack. The alkalinity is very high if that's what you mean.



The iron has settled out. When the water is this clear it has settled out. It only takes a few weeks for the iron to completely settle out.



I was wondering about that. I got it at a farm supply store. No telling how long it was on the shelf.



This is the first year I have used it in this pond although I have used it in other ponds. I was happy with it this year until I realized it seems to be breaking down fast and the Sago Pond weed seems unaffected by it.

Hi Cecil,
I'm struggling to keep dye in my pond too. (See pics in my Structural Algae post) I have about 7 acre feet, Added 1.5 gallons blue dye, looked good the next day or two (with aggressive aeration 24/7). Within one week, visually, I would estimate >60% loss, end of week 2, barely a trace is left. I do have spring flow (approx 20gpm) that would account for 201600 gals/wk or 8.8% of my 2.281,000 gallons. I have very alkaline water with limestone all around. Results don't seem to change between brands either. Being mid Wisconsin, nervous about fertilizing, as the chara seems ready and willing to consume.

Hi all, look into Blue Lagoon SS. It's more concentrated than AquaShade and less expensive. It's also available in black for a more natural look. I applied the recommended rate a month ago in two different 2 acre ponds and they are both still at 70-80% of the original color. However, these ponds have very little inflow/outflow. Good luck.