Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Water too Clear - Need New Dye?

We built our pond in May 2020. its about .1 acres (Maybe .08 Acres- 85'x45'). Its about 5.5 feet deep in the center. Pond liner under sand and rocks. Water source is a shallow well we dug the same time we build the pond. We have 100 HBG, about 10 LMB, 6 CC and 1 Carp, and we put in 1000 FHM last spring that have been reproducing like crazy.

Long story short. The water was opaque green color from the start, and you could barely see through 1 foot down. I got a 5 gal bucket of some pond dye "Tropical Shade", blue/green color (good deal on a local classified ad). It improved the appearance, and I thought was helping block the UV. Then all of a sudden, last fall the water went clear. Like we can see to the bottom clear, then some moss started growing along any structure or rocks, other weeds, etc. I put in more dye, but now it is just a very transparent blue/green color. Winter came and we had a great ice skating season. Now the Ice is off and it is apparent how bad the moss problem will be if I don't do something. The kids love swimming in it, and I don't want it to be too mossy for them to enjoy swimming.

Is there a pond dye that will block the Sunlight better than my "Tropical Shade" dye? I would love to get back to that opaque green color, when I didn't have moss growing on everything.

So my questions are:

1: what dye would you recommend?

2: any idea what might have caused the pond to go so crystal clear last fall?

Thanks

Trapper

ps: See attached pictures of the dye and my moss problem.

TrapperUtah,

One thing really spoke to me in your description. Your pond is lined with sand and rocks over the liner. So essentially the soil nutrients are blocked from entering the pond by liner. Given one wouldn't expect sand and rocks to be high in organic matter and nutrients, your observations of dense blooms from the "get go" suggest that the well water is nutrient rich. Have you tested the well water and if so does this confirm this inference?

If your well water is high in nutrients and your pond doesn't overflow significantly, nutrients will rapidly accumulate. You may need to control the nutrients by some other method than dye (for example sequestration by alum/lime). Hopefully esshup will stop by to offer you guidance on what to do and how to do it.

I agree with jpsdad that your water appears to be nutrient rich.

Some other alternatives are to plant some desirable shallow-water plants in areas that do not interfere with your swimmers. Those plants will take up a portion of the nutrients from your water. (If your cover over the liner will not support rooted plants, I believe some people on the forum have had success with plants in submerged plastic planters.)

Another option is a floating island of plants.

Here is a link to a recent thread on floating islands.

Floating Island

My other observation is that swimmers love docks. Perhaps you could put a dock in the middle of the pond and combine that feature with the floating island for a dual-purpose project.

If you (or more importantly, your wife) think that is too ugly, then you can do a "landscaping" type styling on your pond with features that would help the water quality (for swimming) and make the pond more visually attractive.

Good luck on your pond!

Last fall the water went clear because the phytoplankton became self limiting and starved itself for nutrients and the plankton community collapsed and died; thus clear water. This cycle often happens in new ponds. Recycling of nutrients via decay of old dead algae materials could recycle enough nutrients to stimulate some form of bloom during the next warm season. As the bottom dead materials decompose and release nutrients filamentous algae (FA) want to be first in line for using those nutrients. Thus with clear water you start seeing algae growing on the bottom. Floating islands if with large enough size to sequester enough dissolved nutrients could be a natural way to reduce the phytoplankton blooms. As the pond ages and nutrients annually accumulate the islands would have to increase in numbers or size. Note the floating islands could create clear water although the islands may or may not stop the FA that grows attached to underwater surfaces.

What ingredients are listed on the 'Tropical Shade' bucket ??