Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Only 2" of visablity, ? 's of what to do

I not sure what to do next, or if I am expecting too much too soon. Here is a little background.

My pond was dug this past summer. I'm in central Ohio Dayton area. It has been at full pool since last fall. Grass (fescue) was planted last fall in all the disturbed areas and is filling in pretty good except for a few areas that were washed out by heavy rains. Pond is 5/8 surface acre with an average depth of 5' with about 25% at 10' deep. It was stocked in the summer with fh minnows and stocked with 25 cc, 225 bg, 75 hbg, 60 lmb, 75 res,50 yp in the fall. I have been feeding with aqua max 500 and they seem to be feeding pretty well. I had my water tested just b4 winter pond was only a couple months old at this point and my results were the following
Ph-8.4
Total Alkalinity- 92 mg/L
Total Hardness- 126 mg/L
Calcium Hardness- 82 mg/L
Calcium- 33 mg/L
Magnesium Hardness- 44 mg/L
Iron- 0.13 mg/L
Nitrate- 1.10 mg/L
Turbidity- 140 N.T.U.
Conductivity- 305 uS

At this time I only have a couple inches of visablity. I did the jar test and some sc did settle out. I get a lot of wind and I don't know if that is helping it stay stirred up. I get some watershed but I would say 90% of it has grass at least started but it hasn't all filled in yet.

My main ? Is where would you suggest I start ag lime? Alum with hydrated lime?

Sorry for being so long winded just trying to give you as much info as possible.

Thanks for your time Kenny

Hey Haze if you have not already you should read some of this post. It may help you out. Plus maybe Rainman might chime in and give you some advise too. Hey Good Luck and don't fret I am sure some guys out here can help you out.



http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=124005#Post124005

Read this link

https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/108/

Note - your water has Ca hardness over 50.

In hard-water ponds (calcium
hardness greater than 50 mg/L),
the water is nearly saturated with
calcium and gypsum may be ineffective.
In that situation, alum will
be the only effective coagulant.

Kenny, welcome to the forum. I don't have much to add to the water problem, but taking a look at the fish that you stocked, what are the goals for your pond in regards to the fish population?

My goals are just to have a healthy pond that my kids and family will enjoy. I am not really looking for trophy fish just nice sized and fun for the kids to catch. I pretty much followed the state of Ohio's recommendations for stocking but I backed the cc way down and added some yp. Do you see something way out of line?

You may need some more forage fish as that looks predator heavy.

I'd stock about 600 more BG and another 50-100 RES. I'd also make sure that the BG/RES that I stocked were at least 1/2 the size of the LMB in the pond. I'd also toss in 10#-15# of FHM. I would also put in enough cover (porcupine fish attractors, x-mas trees, etc.) that would equal about 20% of the surface area of the pond. That would give the smaller fish a place to hide so they wouldn't get eaten so quickly. Like ewest said, I don't think you have enough food in there for the predators. Both now, and for the future.

What size were the fish that you stocked?

I agree with others that you maybe have too many LMB. I would not have put any more than 50-maybe 60 in your 0.6 ac pond. My ODNR OH Pond Mgmt handbook suggests per ac = 100LM, 350BG, 150RES which means you were 'heavy' on bass and 'light' on sunfish. When YP are larger 8" they will compete with bass for small fish as food. Do you know if the YP were pellet trained or not?? Keep in mind that the 75 HBG that you stocked are minimal spawners and will not provide very many small fish for those bass. HOWEVER if your goal is common larger panfish and numerous smaller catchable bass then you are on the correct path.

Regular feeding of pellets as you are doing will help grow larger panfish faster. Remember adding pellets also adds nutrients especially phosphorus to the pond so expect to see more fuzzy FA algae growth compared to if you did not feed pellets.
See the newest May-June PBoss magazine 2012 for a good article on phosphorus as a plant nutrient in ponds.

Thank you all for your responses. Well I thought I had a pretty decent memory turns out I was wrong. You guys got me thinking because I thought I followed the ODNR pond stocking guidelines fairly close. I dug up my original order form and I actually stocked the following.
60 LMB 3 to 4 inch
225 BG 2 to 4 inch
75 HBG 2 to 4 inch
75 RES 2 to 4 inch
50 YP 3 to 4 inch
25 CC 3 to 4 inch

Does this look a little better? Sorry for the mixup

I put in 10# of FHM about 3 months before I put and other fish in. I can still see several different sizes of FHM around the pond. Before is put the 10# in under the advice from the fish farm I put in two separate stacks of pallets wrapped in 1/2 " netting for them to have a safe place to go and spawn.

I have one heck of an algae bloom going on now the water has went from brown to green in the last couple of days.

Thanks Kenny

The stocking now appears balanced better. I think the CC are too abundant unless you like cleaning and eating CC. IMO don't allow all of them to get big in your pond. Large CC will hog the pellets away from the other fish. Their large biomass will detract from other fish numbers and sizes. Start harvesting CC at 13"-15" and work toward getting most all of them out. Restock 8"-10" size if you like them in the pond. IMO each catfish takes the place of 1 LMB.

Bill thanks for the input. I plan on harvesting as many of the 25 CC as I can each year and just restocking the amount I remove. Am I correct in thinking that will not reproduce in my pond?

The CC may reproduce but the progeny seldom survives predation.

Went by and saw this pond yesterday on my way home from Ohio. A really pretty pond with a lot of bank erosion and mechanical muddying from wind/wave action along with a very fertile water supply creating a strong algae bloom. By the time I had arrived, sediments had settled from a few calm days and the algae bloom had really exploded. This is a young, aerated pond that just needs a little time and a minor stocking adjustment..it looked great!!

I had 30# of hurting Blue tilapia that we tossed in as catfish feed if none survived...

Rex thanks for the kind words. It was a pleasure meeting you and getting your professional opinion it eased my mind some since I'm green and still trying to learn as much as I can. I really appreciate the tilipia and will keep in touch to let you know if it looks like any made it.