We are in the middle of a drought locally so water quality is excellent (4-5' of visibility).
I think you want between 18-30" of visibility. 48-60" is probably a sign that your water is infertile (someone correct me if I'm wrong, I'm still learning about fertilization).
Or there is a dense weed population that is utilizing the nutrients before the phytoplankton can get going.
kinda both - the inlet to the pond is a bit of a wetland, which has transitioned over the last 5 years from 90% bull tongue/10% grass to 80% tall grasses. The grasses do a great job of controlling the silt coming down the feeder creeks and outlet from the pond above. They also seem to pull a lot more nutrients than the bull tongue. These years with little rain = huge curly leaf pondweed stands. Unusually high spring temps killed off the curly leaf a bit early. Result, I have some very clear (relative) early summer water. We got over an 1" of rain last night and about 3" in the forecast for the next 5 days. The downfall to the clarity, I have a GBH that is on the pond daily and the BG beds are deeper than I've ever seen - 4-5' on the downward slope of the shoreline which makes it hard to gauge the size/numbers. Hence, I need to get the cloverleaf going to get a decent survey.
