First, I apologize for both probably not posting this in the proper spot and for any improprieties I am about to blunder with during this post, such as I have made it as long as a paperback.... It is my first post to the forum, despite being a long time subscriber to Pond Boss, a publication so good that it is the main reason I have not had to ask for help to date, I can usually find the answers within my issues!
However, I have a problem that I remain confused on even after reading all I can on the subject and what research I have been able to do on the PB forums. Admittedly, I have not done all the work I should have done before posting this request for help ( apology number 1 ) and all I can offer for that mistake is part of the reason I am in this mess in the first place. I will explain.
I broke my back 11 years ago at the age of 49 while discovering that I could NOT actually drive to work in my sleep as I had told so many of my friends for so many years
Long story shortened up, after a 13 hour surgery, 2 massive full length rods and 13 screws, I have been left with a life of intense 24/7 pain BUT I am alive and can walk under my own head of steam, albeit not much like a proud General, still, I am just fine with everything and glad to wake up everyday!
However, therein lies the bulk of my problem. Due to the fact that I am in pretty rough shape, and live with just my wife on our 43 acre farm in Missouri, I have a very difficult time trying to properly manager our pond.
It would require a far to lengthy post to describe all the issues and I fear I have already gone into to much detail not directly about the problem, but because of my remote location, lack of any neighbors ( hard to even find people to fish the pond ) and very difficult time trying to find any help with physical tasks associated with maintaining the pond, I have made mistakes over the years.
Although ( with the very noticeable exception of the LMB ) the fish in the pond still, after 7 years, appear to remain very healthy, and very large, to me it is wishful thinking to think things will remain that way forever. I have already done to much of that....Some facts:
There was a small pond ( maybe 1/4 acre, on site for 30+ years ) on the property when we bought the place 7 years ago. I immediately had another pond dug adjacent to it, larger and deeper ( maybe 3/4 acre, 10-12' deep ) and that pond was stocked with the same fish that were in the smaller pond, CC, BG, HBG, RES, GC, LMB and FHM. In the seven years that we have had guests and friends ( and myself when I have felt well enough ) there has never been any species caught other than what we have put in, so I am fairly confident that the smaller pond did indeed have in it what what claimed.
Realizing that in this part of MO especially the summers ( and geeze was I ever right about this one! ) are vicious and dry many ponds up to the point there is a massive fish kill, at the same time we paid a fortune to have a 525' well dug right next to the ponds for the sole purpose of filling them whenever the occasion should call for it. This is, I think, the single reason that I have escaped a SINGLE fish kill that we have ever been able to spot, although I realize of course some have croaked, but clearly we have still yet to suffer any major difficulty. More on this in a minute.
When I had the second pond dug, I had it designed so that it joined up with the old pond in two locations, effectively creating one pond, with an island in-between them. The fish seem to enjoy going from the new pond, to the old pond at the two choke points ( about 10' wide, 6' deep ), and I suspect much of the spawning takes place in the old pond with some cover and not as deep. All the fish except the GC are producing faster than we can pull them out, a whole other post. The old pond is not as deep, has some logs, etc for cover, the new pond has nothing. However, it is important to note ( I guess? ) that the ponds do not have ANY vegetation in them of any kind at all. When the water from the deep well is put into one pond, it fills both of them, slowly. They do not have aeration, a project for the future, unfortunately, disability checks make for lousy pond equipping....
Now to what I should have listed much sooner I am afraid, the actual issue! After filling the pond with well water ( and of course, a lot of water from the old pond, so there was maybe a 50/50 mix ) the pond looked absoultly stunning for the first year....and then I took care of that! The water was to clear, at least in my uneducated mind it was, and after reading as much as I could in PB, decided that I needed to fertilize.
If ONLY I had read the label on the bag as well as I do the issue each time. I can only offer up that I have to take 11 pills 4X daily and they make my already less than stellar mind uhh..well, lets go with even "slower". So where it said "ounces" I actually thought it said "pounds" and threw in the salt looking stuff like it was confetti at a new years party..
Within days the once pretty pond took on a green color that I have only seen once before....when I watched the movie the "exorcist". Like the knucklehead I am, I sat in disbelief and denial, and along with that, secretly hoping that my mistake would magically somehow just fix itself. Yea, I know, I am 60 years old, what was I thinking?
Of course, it did not get better, and as the years went by I promised that I would do something to at least try to reverse my error if even possible, the poor bass are starving, I doubt they can see more than a few inches, I can only see white for maybe 8" myself. However, the rest of the fish seem to thrive in this nasty looking ( but no smell, never any floating algae ) stuff so I have paused when I should have taken action.
The last few years we began using two feeders ( I assumed that with that poor of visibility even the rest of the fish will have a tough time sooner or later ) and we feed Purina 500 and 600, which is gobbled up so fast ( even the GC get in on this, which grow amazingly fast and large on that Purina, as do the others ) it almost would give one pause to think twice about swimming in that pond, the fish are so large ( even the BG ) and aggressive it kinda gives our friends the creeps when offered the chance to swim. In fact, to date, no takers! Well, the eight or so snappers that also love to get in on the chow wagon action might have something to do with that....
So, there you have it. I have taken large glass jugs and filled them with the water, it is almost difficult to see through them there is so much green suspended algae in them. After nearly a week, they finally clear up considerably, and on the bottom is a fine layer of green sediment. The pond has been this way for 6 years and the fish, with the exception of the LMB, continue to show no signs of any stress, which is utterly astounding to me. The minnows I can understand, but not so many other species and so large, they have to be at least having a difficult time getting enough oxygen across their gills without clogging up their pipes.
I need to be corrected if I am on the wrong track here but I THINK the reason I have been getting by ( living on borrowed time, impending doom is ahead I believe ) for so long is that the new pond leaks. I know that sounds odd. Leak is not to bad, but with the evaporation and the leak, I am forced to add ( in the warm months ) 300,00-400,000 thousand gallons a couple of times a month. It is this reason, I believe, that the water quality keeps from getting worse, gobs of floating algae, etc and the growing fish population ( and size of the fish ) has not managed to pee themselves into unlivable conditions. I just can't come up with any other explanation, on paper, this pond should have, from everything I have read, had a large fish kill by now ( I suspect it is also overcrowded with large CC, but I am not really sure, but I am sure they continue to spawn and produce more ) or at a minimum show some signs of stress rather than the apparent flourishing they seem to enjoy now.
So, finally, way to late, I turn to my fellow PB members for help. I simply cannot decipher properly all the material written about this subject, partly due to the meds that cause a terrible lack of focus ( well, that is pretty evident ) and also because the constant pain keeps me from even being able to sit in this chair long enough to get much done. It took me 2 days to complete this post, type a little, back to the recliner, so on and so forth. I hate making excuses like this, just hate it, I just want the good folks out there that might be willing to give this dunderhead the help I need some explanation why and how this got away from me.
I see many ads in PB about products for clearing up ponds with what APPEARS to be problems like I have, but I am not sure, and I have already goofed up adding something into the pond, I really need guidance with this. I am still searching for a water testing company close to my location but without luck so far, and that will tell me a lot of very important information I will still need, but it is pretty clear what the basic problem is and even how it happened. This pond is greener than envy, and I made it that way almost overnight, years ago. I have FHM, what appears to be hordes of them in fact, swimming around in a pond without any natural cover without fear of predators, despite large numbers of very large BG, CC, etc, the water is so green I don't think anything can see them well enough to eat them. I have not put a FHM in the pond for 4 years, thought they might be gone in a few week or a month, did not expect to have a breeding pond for them!
I am so sorry for the way to lengthy post, and I am pretty sure I have not put this in the proper place, I will get better at this, I promise. I also know a lot of posts have been written on this subject, I just seem to be unable to sort it all out, and most of those ponds do not have such a strong, healthy ( well, except for the poor starving LMB, who, of course, are not chowing down on the Purina like all the others ) fish base. I have read the forums for years, I know the members to be so respectful and helpful, and I am really counting on that help now. Can someone please tell me, in a fashion that my "stuck in low gear" mind can fathom, what, if anything, I can do, add to, take out of, etc ( keeping in mind that an income based on disability checks will prevent anything to expensive ) to try and reverse this mess I have created?
Thank all of you for your patience with me and your advice, I clearly need someone else to drive! Geeze, I can't believe I said that! If I had another driver, my back would be great! Ha!
I just noticed that have posted twice before this. I did not even know that. I have the memory span of the Tri horned , striped garden snail...
