The main reason I use pond dyes these days is actually just to enhance the look of the water. Most of the time I use aquashade as my go to all around lake dye, but oftentimes we will add other shades of black and blue to get the exact color we are looking for. The combinations we use are site specific depending on what particles are suspended in the water to begin with.
With my own observations of using thousands of gallons of dye per year and trying every single brand of dye on the market it seems we get the most value for our dollar with Aquashade, but I am very interested in what you come up with Greg!