What was the "secret sauce" that explains the difference between the floating algae(?) pic on Monday and the clear water on Saturday?
The secret sauce was phosphate binding and a limited amount of Aquashade.
Short story long is that I've got thousands of CNBG in my hatchery pond that need to be pulled out, and around 50 HSB that I need to grow to 10" before I transfer them into the big pond. The drought has hit most of us really hard this summer, and the hatchery water was getting a "thick" look. Splashes changed, and a few weeks later the yellow algae showed up. Since it's livestock and people friendly, I tried Captain first. It didn't work. I tried Cutrine Plus next, and it didn't work either.
I knew I needed to bind the phosphate, but I didn't want to mess with the powdered aluminum sulfate and hydrated lime I have. I also knew the algae was rising from the bottom to the top, so I added small amounts of Aquashade to limit the amount of algae coming up. I stopped when I had around 1' of visibility. After that I added a phosphate binder from ProLake named ClearLake Pond & Lake Clarifier. It's the same thing I used on the blue green algae issues I had on the big pond. It's boxed with the powder in bags, and I added 10 bags to my hatchery pond. It recommends 6 bags per acre, but I added double the amount my pond needed. 2 days later, the water was clear, and the "thick" water was gone.
I'm not recommending anybody use what I used, but it did work for me on both ponds, and yes it is a tad expensive in volume, but I'll treat the pond once a month to keep the pond clear until I can be sure fresh water, or water temp, eliminates the problem. Either way, I'm setting up my 3" trash pump surface aerator, and will run it for 1 hour every morning until I feel like I get most of the fish out.
