Why Aquatic Application Rates Are Set This Way

Every aquatic account starts with the same four application rates, one more shipped rule it can pick, the same starter symptom list, and the same product-to-symptom tags on the setup catalog. This page is the "why" behind them: the label line each number comes from, how the treatment plan turns a target concentration or a per-acre rate into pounds or ounces on a visit, and the two site fields that change the answer. It is written so a customer, a state inspector or a new applicator can check the engine against the label.

How to attach a rate, what Default available and Unit blocks rule mean, and how to enter a label rate by hand live in Dosing Rules and Application Rates. How symptoms turn into products lives in Configure Treatment Protocols.

How the Plan Sizes a Product

The treatment plan starts from the acreage being treated. On a pond visit that is Acreage Treated on the job, or the site's acreage when the visit has none. On a lake visit it is the site acreage derived from the approved lakeshore band. What happens next depends on the product's Rule type:

• Target concentration rules state the rate the way the label does: so many parts per billion or parts per million of the water being treated. Fluridone, copper sulfate and pond dye ship this way. The plan multiplies the treated acres by the average depth to get acre-feet, then multiplies the target by the rule's rate per acre-foot per ppb and by the acre-feet. The rate per acre-foot comes from the weight of an acre-foot of water, 2,718,000 lb, so one ppb of product is 0.002718 lb per acre-foot; when the label states the target as active ingredient, the product's strength converts that into product. The target is capped at the label maximum, the lake ceiling on a Lake Treatment visit and the pond ceiling otherwise, and a capped line carries a caution: "Fluridone Herbicide: 200 ppb requested, label ceiling for pond is 90 ppb; sized at 90." Every concentration line on the plan shows what it delivered and the water it sized for, 90 ppb over 10 acre-ft (2 ac × 5 ft), in the unit the rule's label reads (copper's line reads 1 ppm over 10 acre-ft (2 ac × 5 ft)); a target the ceiling cut down reads 90 ppb (label ceiling) over …. A product the applicator adds by hand is sized and capped the same way, and the add shows the same caution. When the site has no depth, or its depth is recorded as 0, the plan assumes 4 ft and the line ends (4 ft assumed).
• Per acre (linear) rules multiply a flat amount by the treated acres. Flumigard's 12 oz per surface acre is one. A hand-built per-acre rule can also carry depth anchors, an amount per acre at each average depth; the engine draws a straight line between anchors and clamps outside them, and when the site has no depth it uses the flat amount and the plan line reads base rate (site depth not set).
• Symptom-specific formulas on a product win over its base rate. When more than one tapped symptom has its own formula for the same product, the plan applies the larger amount and names the symptom it chose, because one application has to cover the toughest target on the list.
• Copper products carry a floor, Skip below total alkalinity (ppm). When the site's recorded Total alkalinity (ppm) is below it, the product is left off the plan and listed under what was left off, with the reading. When the site has no alkalinity recorded, the product stays on the plan and the plan carries a caution asking for the test.

All of that is visible on the applicator's plan step in the mobile app and on the job's plan on the web.

The Shipped Rules

Four are attached by name. The fifth, the submersed flumioxazin rule, is offered on the product form and never attached by name, because the same jug is used foliar far more often.

The rule is always stored in the product's own stock unit, and a concentration rule's rate per acre-foot converts with it: fluridone reads 0.087 fl oz per ppb per acre-ft stocked in fluid ounces, 0.0027 qt by the quart and 0.00068 gal by the gallon. Fluridone stocked as plain oz is read as fluid ounces, because that is how trucks are labelled. Flumigard follows the jug: Flumigard SC or Clipper SC in the name means fluid ounces, anything else means dry ounces.

Fluridone, worked

Sonar A.S. is 4 lb of fluridone per gallon. One ppb of active ingredient in one acre-foot is 0.002718 lb of fluridone, which is 0.002718 ÷ 4 gallons of product, or 0.086976 fl oz. At 90 ppb on one surface acre:

The label's own formula, quarts per surface acre = average depth (ft) × ppb × 0.0027, gives 31.1 fl oz at 4 ft. The engine's 31.31 is within 1% of it; the difference is the label rounding 0.002718 down to 0.0027. Half an acre at 4 ft is 2 acre-feet and 15.66 fl oz, which is the preview the product form shows for the shipped rule.

The last row is why Avg. depth (ft) matters. A flat per-acre number applied to a 2 ft pond is double the seasonal ceiling. Ponds with significant outflow lose concentration and are a poor fit for fluridone regardless of the rate; the product's applicator note says so.

Copper, worked

Copper sulfate labels are written in parts per million, and toxicity to fish is inversely related to total alkalinity: the dose that clears algae in hard water can kill fish in soft water. Extension guidance is that a safe dose in ppm is roughly total alkalinity ÷ 100, and that copper should not be applied at all below 50 ppm (Oklahoma State says 40). The shipped rule is 1 ppm of product, 2.718 lb per acre-foot. On one surface acre:

Two more copper rules ride on the product as applicator notes: treat no more than half the pond at once when algae is heavy, because decaying algae strips oxygen and that is what kills the fish; and do not tank-mix with Aquathol K, because copper endothall precipitates.

Setting a Rate as a Concentration

Open the product under Inventory and tick Application Formula. Everything below is the concentration path; Per acre (linear) keeps the multiplier, example acres and depth anchors exactly as before.

1. 1

   Pick the rule type

   Rule type offers Per acre (linear) and Target concentration. On a new product whose name we recognise, the shipped rule is attached on its own and the form says "Default rate for Fluridone Herbicide — edit if your label differs. It follows the stock unit until you change the formula." When the formula is unticked on a recognised product, or an existing product has no rule, the form offers Use the default rate (…) with the shipped rule in words; clicking it fills every field below. An existing product that already carries a rule is left alone.

   A Flumigard, Clipper or flumioxazin name ships two rules, so the form says "This looks like Flumigard Herbicide, which ships more than one rule — pick the one your label states." and offers Use a shipped rule with Flumigard Herbicide · 12 oz per acre and Flumioxazin (submersed) · 200 ppb of active ingredient (label 200–400 ppb) · 0.085 oz per ppb per acre-ft.

2. 2

   Enter the target

   Target takes the number, and the ppb | ppm toggle beside it says how the label reads it. Switching the toggle restates what you typed rather than reinterpreting it: 90 ppb becomes 0.09 ppm, and the stored rule is unchanged. Copper sulfate and dye labels read in ppm, fluridone and flumioxazin in ppb.

3. 3

   Say what the label counts

   Label states the target as is Active ingredient (Sonar, Clipper) or Product (copper sulfate crystals, dye). Active ingredient needs the product's strength, and the stock unit decides which field appears: Liquid — lb active per gal on a volume unit (Sonar A.S. is 4), Dry — % active on a weight unit (the Clipper and Flumigard granule is 51). A product stocked in plain oz shows both, because oz is fluid ounces of a liquid or ounces of a granule; fill the one the jug is, and when both are filled the dry one is used. A product label needs no strength; the rate follows from the weight of water alone.

4. 4

   Enter the band

   Label min, Label max and Lake ceiling read in the toggle's unit; the lake ceiling is optional and only applies on Lake Treatment visits. Saving a target outside the band is refused, on the form and again on the server, with the same sentence: "The target of 200 ppb is outside the label band of 45–90 ppb (lakes to 150)." A minimum above the maximum is refused too. A lake ceiling above the label maximum widens the band: a target between the two, say 120 ppb on the shipped fluridone rule, saves, is applied as stated on a Lake Treatment visit, and is sized at 90 with the caution on a pond.

5. 5

   Check the rate

   The form shows the number the plan will use: Derived rate: 0.087 fl oz per ppb per acre-ft. (copper: 2.72 lb per ppm per acre-ft). It re-derives whenever the strength or the stock unit changes. For a label that states its rate by volume rather than by strength, such as dye, or one whose printed rate differs from what the strength gives, click Enter from label instead and type it into Rate from label (gal per ppm per acre-ft); Aquashade is 0.25. While a rate is typed the strength field is set aside and the rule saves without a strength, so the number you typed is the number the plan uses; Use the derived rate (…) brings the strength back. A product label on a weight unit has nothing to type, since its rate is the weight of water, so it shows only the derived line. When nothing can be derived and nothing is typed, one amber line says why: "Enter the product's strength to derive the rate, or enter it from the label." for an active-ingredient label with no strength, or "A product-by-weight label has no rate in gal. Enter the rate from the label." for a product label on a volume unit.

6. 6

   Read the preview

   Example acres and Example avg depth (ft) drive one line that reads the way the plan will: 0.5 ac × 4 ft = 2 acre-ft → 15.66 fl oz at 90 ppb. A blank example depth reads "4 ft (assumed)", and a target the ceiling cut down ends "(label ceiling)".

7. 7

   Save

   The server recomputes the derived rate from the strength you entered, never from the number the form showed, keeps a typed rate as typed, checks the target against the band again, and stores the rule with the concentration fields. A rule you built by hand stays exactly as you saved it; attaching a default never rewrites it, and switching a product from per-acre to concentration is a choice you make on the form, never something an update does for you.

Symptom-Specific Formulas work the same way: every row has its own Rule type and, for a concentration row, the same controls. + Add Symptom-Specific Formula starts the row from the default rule's type and copies its concentration fields, so a watermeal override at 400 ppb on the submersed flumioxazin rule is one edit to Target. A row that fails validation is named: "Formula for Watermeal: The target of 500 ppb is outside the label band of 200–400 ppb."

What Ships Without a Rate, and Why

Diquat, Aquathol K, Hydrothol 191, imazapyr, aquatic glyphosate and the chelated coppers (SeClear, Argos, Cutrine, Clearigate) arrive with No rule. Their labels rate them by target species, average depth and water temperature, or by spray volume, and there is no single number that is right for a Midwest shelf. Guessing one would put a wrong rate on a real pond.

They are not bare, though. From the setup catalog each one arrives with the symptoms it treats already tagged, an irrigation warning where the label restricts treated water, and the label cautions an office would otherwise type by hand: diquat binds to suspended sediment, imazapyr carries a 120 day irrigation restriction, Hydrothol can kill fish, the chelated coppers are gentler in soft water but not exempt from the alkalinity check.

Every dosed catalog product also arrives with a water-use restrictions table — days before swimming, drinking, livestock watering, irrigating and eating fish are allowed again — marked Not confirmed. Those days are starting points from memory of the labels, not verified readings, and a blank row means the catalog had no value rather than zero. The customer notice never prints a date from an unconfirmed product; it says to ask the applicator instead. Read each label, correct the rows and use Confirm against label before the season starts. The mechanics are in Water-Use Restriction Notices.

A dash is a blank row: the catalog does not claim a value, and neither should you until the label gives one.

Starter Symptoms

The industry list under SettingsSymptoms and in SettingsSetup Wizard is one chip per species or condition an Upper Midwest applicator chooses a product for:

• Algae: Filamentous algae · Planktonic algae · Blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) · Chara (muskgrass)
• Submersed: Curly-leaf pondweed · Sago pondweed · Clasping-leaf / flat-stem pondweed · Eurasian watermilfoil · Coontail · Elodea · Wild celery (eel grass) · Naiad · Starry stonewort · Submerged weeds
• Floating and floating-leaf: Duckweed · Watermeal · Water lilies · Lotus · Floating weeds
• Emergent and shoreline: Cattails · Phragmites · Purple loosestrife
• Water quality and other: Water discolor / clarity · Muck / sediment · Swimmer's itch (snails) · Other

Blue-green algae is its own chip because it is its own decision: peroxide products are the first choice, and copper can lyse the cells. Eurasian watermilfoil is named in full because native northern milfoil is generally left alone and state permits distinguish them. Swimmer's itch is a snail treatment, and water discolor is what pond dye answers.

Earlier accounts were offered Algae bloom, Milfoil, Pondweed, Hydrilla, Fish kill odor, Shoreline erosion weeds, Fountain clogging vegetation, Irrigation pond weeds and Customer-reported weeds. Those were retired on 2026-09-19: some were not treatment targets, some were duplicates, and Irrigation pond weeds invited techs to record as a symptom what is really the site's Irrigate with Water? flag. An account that already adopted one keeps it.

Products Arrive Tagged

The treatment plan reaches for a product only when it is tagged for the visit's symptom, or a Treatment Protocol rule names it. Every product in the setup catalog names the starter symptoms it treats, so a product added from the catalog arrives tagged to the ones your account has. A product you add by hand with a catalog name gets the same tags unless you set the picker yourself, and the inventory form offers Tag suggested symptoms whenever it recognises the name. Attach Recommended Rates tags any untagged catalog product in the same click.

Tags are suggestions from the label, not a protocol. A tag makes the product a candidate; a rule under SettingsTreatment Protocols decides.

The Depth the Plan Uses

Three of the four attached rules are concentrations, so the depth of the water being treated decides the amount. The plan takes it in this order:

1. What the applicator set for this visit. In the wizard's Site details, Treating part of this site? opens acres and average depth for this visit: a shallow cove, half a pond, the band along a shore. Saving rebuilds the plan from those numbers, and each concentration line shows the acre-feet it used. Sign-off locks it.
2. The site's average depth, from DirectoriesSites or the site CSV.
3. Nothing recorded, or a depth of 0: a concentration rule is sized as if the water were 4 ft deep and the plan line ends "(4 ft assumed)"; a per-acre rule with depth anchors uses its flat amount and reads "base rate (site depth not set)". Either way the plan carries a caution naming the products.

Two more things to know:

• A lake site's depth field is the average depth of the treated band, not the lake's mean. Sites linked to the state catalog used to arrive with the lake's DNR mean depth prefilled; they no longer do. If an existing lake site still carries exactly the catalog's mean depth, the plan does not size with it: it falls back to 4 ft and asks for the band's depth, either for the visit or on the site. A depth the office typed that differs from the mean is trusted.
• A concentration rule doses the whole water column. A pond that averages 15 ft is 15 acre-feet per surface acre, and fluridone at 90 ppb is 117.42 fl oz per acre there, still exactly 90 ppb. If what you actually treat is the mixed layer of a stratified pond, set the visit's depth to the depth of that layer under Treating part of this site?; the plan sizes for the water you named. Hand-built per-acre rules with depth anchors keep their last anchor as a ceiling, as before.

The Site Fields That Change the Answer

Set these on the site under DirectoriesSites, or bring them in on the site CSV (site_depth_ft, site_alkalinity_ppm, site_is_irrigation):

What Is a Judgment Call

• 90 ppb for fluridone. The label allows 45 to 90 ppb in a single pond application; the default sits at the ceiling because it is what applicators use on ponds, where outflow and dilution work against a lower target. It leaves no room for a booster in the same season. Lower it on the product if your ponds hold concentration well: Target is the one field to change.
• 1 ppm for copper sulfate. The middle of the 0.25 to 2 ppm label range. Heavy filamentous mats in hard water are often treated higher; soft water needs lower. The floor of 50 ppm follows the label and extension guidance.
• 12 oz for flumioxazin. The foliar ceiling, chosen because duckweed and watermeal are the common use and under-dosing them wastes the treatment. The submersed rule is shipped but never attached by name, because it is the less common use of the same jug.
• 4 ft as the fallback depth. A typical Midwest farm or retention pond. It is only ever used when the site has no depth, and the plan says so.
• Largest formula wins when tapped symptoms disagree. One application has to cover the toughest target; the label ceiling is the guardrail, and a concentration line is capped there whatever the winning formula asked for.

If your company uses different numbers, type them into the product and save. The rule on the product is the rule the plan uses; the defaults only fill an empty one.

Verify It Worked

1. Open SettingsTreatment Protocols. Under Application Rates, the four recognised products read Has rule, with the rule in words: Fluridone Herbicide reads 90 ppb of active ingredient (label 45–90 ppb, lakes to 150) · 0.087 fl oz per ppb per acre-ft, and the coverage list shows each starter symptom covered under Pond Treatment and Lake Treatment.
2. Open a pond site under DirectoriesSites and record Avg. depth (ft) and Total alkalinity (ppm).
3. Run a pond visit in the mobile app, tap Filamentous algae, and build the plan. Copper Sulfate shows an amount that changes with the site's depth, and its line ends with the water it sized for, such as "1 ppm over 8 acre-ft (2 ac × 4 ft)"; on a site recorded below 50 ppm it is listed under what was left off instead.