Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Aqua-shade?

Hey guys, I've got a new 1/4 acre pond that I am getting ready to stock. I was told to use aqua-shade dye to prevent alge growth, question is do I want something growing in the pond?
(besides fish): Do I need to plant anything, or do I use the dye? The pond does have structure ( pallets, cedar trees, rock beds, etc.)

90% of your pond's food chain wil start with phytoplanktonic algae. Aquashade will inhibit this as well as any other plants in/under the water. IMO water dyes do not often have a useful place in ponds intended primarily for fishing.

Oh, BTW, plankton and numerous invertebrate animals should show up in your pond on their own. If you want specific larger water plants, look into adding them.

So if the plant life gets out of hand use grass carp? Also will a areator increase or decrease moss.

Some advise stocking GC ahead of time as a preventative, some wait to see if a problem will occur. If I were you I would not worry about getting GC this year, I would plan on putting 1 or 2 in next Spring. If you are already seeing a noticeable amount of submerged plants, perhaps get the GC this year. Similarly sized ponds near you may give an indication of what to expect; this could be really useful if some have GC and some don't.

Aerators may or may not help control Filamentous Algae ("FA", aka pond scum or moss) depending on local conditions, but are very useful for several reasons. Read through the threads in the aeration section and see some of it's benifits.

I think Theo provides very good advice regarding Aquashade and its potential impact of the pond's food chain. There are some rare instances, however, where a dye can be quite useful.

I have to use it in my 1/4 acre pond to slow the growth of chara, a type of algae that looks almost like a regular vascular plant. My pond is fed by a spring, with its water high in nitrogen and calcium carbonates but low in dissolved oxygen -- perfect conditions for chara. This type of algae could take over my entire pond -- which it almost did in 2002, my first summer of pond ownership.

If I didn't use Aquashade, I'd have to resort to using copper compounds to reduce the chara. Since I manage my little pond primarily for rainbow trout (which I feed and hence they are not dependent on a vigorous food chain in the pond), copper represents a real problem.

I would also second Theo's counsel about checking out nearby ponds to see what kind of conditions might prevail.

I have an aerator on my pond and run it 24/7 because of the trout. If my pond were strictly warm-water (I have a few stunted bass and oversize hybrid sunfish leftover from a former owner/manager of the pond), I might still aerate -- but would probably use a different aeration schedule. Seldom do I have filamentous algae problems (had some in 2005); but I really can't attribute that to aeration. It may be because chara is capable of binding up so many nutrients in a pond.

Enjoy your new pond and keep on visiting these pages -- I've learned so much here over the past few years and am immensely grateful for the experience and good advice people like Theo so generously offer.