One thing I found out about feeding the fish. If you use a great food, the fish actually metabolize more of it and less passes thru the fish to be food for FA. I saw roughly a 50% reduction in FA in my pond when I switched to Optimal Fish food. Feeding the same amount poundage wise per month during the growing season.
Not being able to add Tilapia means that you have to have enough plants in the pond to utilize the nutrients, or use copper based algaecides. OR have the water thick enough with dye or a plankton bloom that the secchi disc reading is 12" or less. In the ponds around here, I see no FA in ponds that have approximately 40%-50% coverage in Curly Leaf Pond Weed. Once that dies back the FA explodes.
Since you want clearer water, you need to get rid of as many nutrients as possible now, when the plants are not growing and the majority of nutrients are in the water column. Now is the perfect time to apply a nutrient binder and make plans to source a LOT of underwater plants to plant in the pond as soon as the water temp warms up enough that you can get in the water to plant them. Marginals won't remove enough nutrients for you to notice a huge difference.
Don't want to use copper based algaecides? Not a problem, just break out the wallet and buy Phycomycin. You have to buy it locally because it's considered an oxidizer and has to be shipped HazMat. It cannot be put on a plane, ground transportation only.
