Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization phytoplankton, zooplankton is there a TEST?

J.E.Craig, before you think about fertilizing, you have to test for alkalinity. I prefer to have an alkalinity reading of at least 40, below 20 the plants/phytoplankton can't utilize the nutrients in the fertilizer.

What kind of fish cover do you have in the pond? If there isn't dense cover in 4' or less of water for the small fish to hide in, they will get picked off quickly. I'm talking about 10" of the pond surface area in that type of cover. Dense means open areas in the cover that are 3"-6", not open areas that are 12"-18"