Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry Pond dies, good or bad

I was watching one of Bobs videos last year and i believe i heard him say something like if you want to grow fish he would not recommend pond dies. My pond is 20+ years old, clear in the summer, real clear most of the time. Its a little over an acre and 11' at its deepest. I let the weeds take it for several years 10 years ago up until a few years ago. When i started trying to re-manage it i killed all the weeds and that fluffy green stuff on the bottom and darkened it with dies for 2 years. Last year i started watching and reading pond boss and started a new, little more informed approach "not using any chemicals to kill anything yet". Anyway this year i noticed my first algae bloom "pretty cool". Ive fed for several years added habitat, and have a bottom diffuser on the way. My fish are starting to come into it and the water is fairly happy "pretty cool". Now here my concern. My water is turning clearer already and the fluffy green stuff has formed a mat about a foot deep which is good i believe. Theirs no noticeable weeds in the water column only on the shore line again, which i believe is a good thing. But i dont want it to get out of control again like before. Im very happy with the progress ive made so far and i know this is just one component but is their more to the pond die thing than its not a good thing for growing fish. Any and all thoughts are welcome and appreciated. Thank you all before hand.

I just started using pond dye last week.

I think you can look at it from two perspectives.

On one side, to have a balanced fishery, regardless of the type of fish, you have to have ample forage. That forage base runs all the way down to your phytoplankton algae (PA), which is necessary to give your new hatches the food they need until they get big enough to feed on anything smaller than themselves. Dye, because of it's UV blocking characteristics, reduces the amount of PA your water can produce, thus limiting the amount of food available to new fry. So in that regard, I would say dye is detrimental to producing big fish.

On the other side, because of those characteristics, dye allows for much cooler water temps (less stress on the fish) less vegetation growth at deeper depths and (in my very uneducated opnion) more stable DO, since your pond experiences a lower volume of nighttime respiration without the excessive plant growth (which includes PA)

Dye, by itself, is definitely a step back when the goal is a well balanced fishery. Now here's my twisted thinking...when combined with supplemental feeding, adequate aeration and possibly a fertilization program, I think those goals might still be reached. I'm sure most all of our attending biologists will think I'm nuts.

I never realized just how heavy my bloom was until I added dye. The reduced UV penetration has inhibited PA growth to the point of almost complete surface coverage of dieing algae at times. Its getting better with the aid of a little copper sulfate (which I hate using), but it's a waiting game to let the pond balance out, and can be frustrating.

That fluffy green stuff you mentioned may be Chara, which is actually a form of algae.

Is the fluffy green stuff FA (filamentous algae) ?

Phytoplankton is the base of the food chain as Mike noted. Limiting it too much can cause a greatly reduced food chain including top line species like fish. With feeding you can short circuit the food chain (low plankton but artificially feed the fish) and still have healthy fish.

Plants (plankton and others) require 3 basic things - nutrients(fertilizer), light and temp. Remove any one and the plants won't grow. Be careful on what you do as once the limiting factor is removed growth can go crazy. For example if you fertilize but reduce the light with dye growth will slow. Once the dye wears off (the limiting factor - light) with the water warm and fertile plant growth will explode. Same with low fertility - plenty of light and temps with no nutrients and you get low growth. Add fertilizer (limiting factor nutrients) and growth can increase rapidly. Learning to manage the process is the key to good results.

Thanks fellas personally I like the die because my pond is so clear. I scooped about 3 five gallon buckets of the slime off the pond today. I think I'll wait until I get my diffusers running and let the BG spawn a bit before I add the die. Well that's my plan tonight anyway I'll just take it one day at a time.