Is the rain the reason for the reduced sechi readings (muddy or plankton bloom)?
e-west, a little bit of both, if I have calculated right our pond has received 4.1 million gallons of water since Aug. 3rd.
27,000 gallons per 1" of 1 surface acre of water X 9.5 surface acres = 256,500 gallons, X a 16" rise in the water level since Aug 3 = 4,104,000 gallons of new water. The pond is 9.9 surface acres when at full pool. Since the 3rd we have had over 7" of rain, 3.4" of that coming down just last Thursday and Friday. I would like to hear from Nedoc one of these days, they got more rain in his area last week than we did.
The reduced water clarity is cutting the light off the deeper aquatic vegetation causing some die off, which in turn is feeding a mild algea bloom along with nutrients in the run off from the farm fields above. The water looks more green than brown at the moment. Right now the sechi disc readings vary from area to area, last Friday the shallow end was very dingy, yesterday the dingy water was now down by the dam where I took the 36" reading, the shallow end has cleared up significantly in the last two days. I suspect the seschi disk readings will be back up to 60" with the next 10 days if we don't get a strong bloom going. Our pond has always cleared up very quickly if it muds up from a heavy down pour.
