Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeding vs Fertilizing

Maybe Bob was assuming your inflow from springs was 10-15 gpm all yr round. What is your approx outflow during spring when fertilizing will begin? How wide and how deep of an outflow during midspring early summer? Are you able to test the speed (feet/second) of the water leaving the pond with a deeper floating object such as a citrus orange or plastic bottle filled mostly with water? Relatively short retention times of the pond water could result in dissolved fertilizer only staying in the pond for fairly short times and phytoplankton can not become established properly.

Do you have an average depth and or maximum depth with side slopes so we could approximate the volume of your pond to check for water retention times?

My initial thoughts are for you to first try feeding the fish pellets; maybe a couple different sizes so smaller and larger fish can get some. Depending on the water clarity this spring and summer and how the fish respond to feeding you may or may not try fertilizing next year. Fertilizing to minimize weed growth should not be a priority since you stocked 5 grass carp the first year. Rooted vegetation should have a very hard time getting established due to the fish grazers. Although filamentous algae could be a problem depending on the colonizing species and season.