How Blue? How much Dye?

[Horton]

First of all let me say I hate the look of dye in my lake. Sadly there is no choice unless we are willing to let weeds take over. Dye is theoretically the safest and easiest way to stop weeds.

 

So how blue? How much is enough? I put a football sized white in the lake so the very top of the rock is 18" below the surface. My plan is that as long as I can not see the rock the lake is blue enough to stop the weeds but I totally just made that up. Does anyone have a more scientific suggestion?

 

FYI be careful on the south side of my dock. There is a big white rock there : )

[bishop8950]

You will need a lot of dye to take visibility down to 18".

 

Some lakes color with less than 10 gallons of concentrated dye. From the lakes I know, its more like 10-20 gallons. For some lakes (typically murky already) can can be well over 20. I am not aware of scientific calculation but its simple. Keep adding till you are happy.

[sunvalleylaw]

None. Let the water be water. I am not skiing on a sweet sport drink, I am skiing on water.

[BraceMaker]

@sunvalleylaw fertile waters will make that more like skiing on a lawn than skiing on water! There's a very small lake in southern wisconsin that I had friends on, they had an apparatus that was essentially a sickle mower bar suspended under a pontoon boat, it would drive around and cut paths through the weeds - which would be raked up behind the boat onto a barge and mulched to sell as fertilizer since they fix so much nutrients.

 

Only thing was if you ran too late at 1/3/5 and crashed you'd have to feel around under the weeds for your ski.

 

 

 

[Horton]

@bishop8950 the lake had not had any dye in it for at least 6 months and I added 6 gallons of Mirage. I can not longer see the rock so I guess I am good.

 

@sunvalleylaw trust me if I had a choice there would be no dye. Around here you can ski in blue water or you can be overwhelmed with growth or you can try to use VERY nasty chems.

[bishop8950]

@horton did you pour all 6 gallons right over the rocks?

 

Thats a good result for a small amount of dye

[Horton]

? @bishop8950 I did 2 gallon at a time. waited a day or two and then 2 more.

 

I take my scotch neat not on the rocks.

[lkb]

Is there a way to get enough dye to prevent growth but not have the water look like blue kool aid?

[skiinxs]

I did 10 gal of Sensia blue and one gal of black last spring that made it a natural looking blue (as if you were in the Caribbean) and not the really fake looking blue of some of the dyed lakes I have seen. (Color actually looks significantly different on a clear cloudless day than a cloudy day). I ended up with around the 18" visibility that you have now. Toward the end of the summer (and still now) it ended up a little more green than it started. I am sure I will need to add more when the spring rains finish. We already had quite a few grass carp of varying ages, but they were not even close to keeping up and the weeds were getting pretty bad. After the dye I could not find any weeds or algae by early summer.

[A_B]

We are 18’ deep, 2000’ long and average 400-500 wide. First charge of blue due was probably about 40-50 pounds of solids. Take Solid % content times weight of a gallon times number of gallons used. That was really blue and doubt we could see 18” down.

 

We probably could have used 30. Now we can see aboit 2-3 feet down when we are fully charged for early Spring and then it evaporates over summer and I can see my ski about 4 foot down. Not crystal clear but can tell shape and color of ski.

 

So 18” seems pretty good to start Spring with. First time.

[sunvalleylaw]

Ah yes. I forgot about that, since I ski up here pretty much in the great white north. I did ski a lot on a lake in Tacoma/Lakewood (Steilacoom Lake) which was treated with copper sulfate to keep the growth down. We had some pretty bad toxic blue algae one year. I forgot weeds were such an issue in those fertile waters down south.

 

So, as little as possible I guess.

[eleeski]

Buy at least 1 gallon of Aquashade brand dye. You will get a colored plastic worm with it. Match the shade of the worm and you have the optimum coloration.

 

Your 18 inch rock is a decent measure. Don't set it deeper.

 

Excess blue only means you put in more than the minimum. Won't affect skiing or anything else. Not enough blue and you suffer with weeds.

 

If the spray from my boat is blue, I don't grow weeds.

 

I need more dye.

 

Eric

[fu_man]

Question: Does the dye in the lake affect your gel coat? Does the bottom of the boat turn blue?

[eleeski]

No. No.

 

Eric

[ISP6ball]

As long as you have a blue boat.

 

Just kidding :)

[ripa38]

I skied Precision last night with Donny. It was not nearly blue enough. I want more blue Horton.

[Jordan]

Use less than these guys!!!!

 

 

[skiinxs]

That's what happens when you put dye in your lake on a windy day!

[jercrane]

There is an expert for everything. I would talk to these guys. https://weedersdigest.com/

They have been enormously helpful for me.