Off the topic but i think blue dye looks little horrifying. Kind of like there is some kind of chemical leakage to the pond from a nearby factory.
Blue dye in ponds with high iron content turns them a nice green color. That's the scenario with my brood pond.
This month's
BobLuskOutdoors Newsletter has a nice article about hatchery ponds, or sometimes called grow out or brood ponds. I personally think hatchery pond is a more descriptive name.
Since most hatchery ponds must be seined, weed control is important to say the least. I move water from my big pond to my hatchery pond, and weed movement is always an issue. Despite my best efforts, spotty coontail started showing up in the hatchery pond after water transfers. In 2016 I added Aquashade during water changes, and I had no coontail show up in that pond. We seined that same pond a total of 14 times in 2016, and no coontail was pulled up by the net either. I started adding Aquashade when the overnight water temp sustained at 50 degrees, and stopped early this last winter when the overnight water temp was below 50 degrees. This certainly isn't scientific data, but I do know I no longer had to use aquatic herbicides in that pond.
...Dye can influence and reduce the amount of plankton in the water column due to effects noted above. This in itself will increase transparency. Fewer phyto and zooplankton particles is like less fog in the air...
I always place an upside down coffee cup in the water right before applying dye. I place it just deep enough to recognize the color, but not the cup itself. Within a week or two, the coffee cup becomes clearer. After thinking it was caused by some sort of light spectrum change due to the dye, Bill's comments on plankton now makes me certain that the loss of plankton is the most likely cause.
Because the particular pond I apply dye to is a hatchery pond, and is drained and treated with hydrated lime several times a year, long term water productivity is not an issue for me. Now, I'm more convinced though that I probably wouldn't add it to any of other my ponds. In those, I'll take the food chain, and fight the weeds.
