I had almost perfect fertilized water for about 3 1/2 yrs And then visibility went to 9" vis. of fertile water. I also had a problem with aeration disturbing up detritus on the ponds bottom which contributed to the low visibility. I raised the diffusers off bottom. I decided to add alum/lime treatment. At that time I had some American pondweed along the shoreline. Water cleared to 36" and shortly after that the Bushy pondweed showed up along the edges of the APW. That was in the fall. I added 3 Grass carp per acre. The water cleared even more that winter with 8 to 10' foot of visibility. The following spring the BPW was growing all over the pond to the point it covered 70% of the pond. I added another 5 grass carp making a total of 5 per acre. All the vegetation caused low DO and a fish kill. I will wait till the water cools down and start fishing again and see what I have left.
Frank, I do have crawfish. I see them along the ponds shoreline and when raking the matts I find some in the mat. I believe I would have to have a commercial crawfish pond if I wanted to have stopped the bushy pondweed. And even that may not work. I feel like the feeding of the fish over a five year period contributed to the vegetation growth through high nutrient water, along with the clear water. It made the perfect storm!
I feel like this has set my goals for the pond back at least 3 yrs.
