Close to the bottom layer, I saw a number of algae. All of the ones that I observed in great detail were diatoms, from jack-shape to rod-like. One I determined was Scendedesmus (Forest 1954), with stacked, bulbous green discs and a filmy layer around it as it remained stationary. Harder to identify was something that was a free-moving type of algae that looked like a yellowish grub beneath the microscope, with a purple/red-hued line running from front to back. This may have been one of two genus seen in Algae of Illinois, Cymbella or Epithemia (L.H. Tiffany and M.E. Britton 1952).
These diatoms appeared, actually, all throughout the layers of water.
Nearby, I saw an exciting shelled amoeba (Patterson 2003), with green pseudopods reaching out to engulf food.
I may have seen some paramecium, and one other organism that I couldn't quite identify (like a work, with a whiplike tentacle or flagellum that would attach to plant particles as the mouth end flailed around eating things), but I'll need more research to say for sure.
Perhaps the most exciting thing I saw was a type of protozoa, bell-shaped and connected to a branch of tentacles (I think), with whirring cilia around its base, determined to be an Epistylus genus of ciliate (Patterson).
Next time, I should be observing the results of inserting a food pellet, stimulating this pond life... a lot!
Sources
Forest HS. 1954. handbook of Algae. Knoxville (TN): University of Tennessee Press. p. 135.
Britton ME, LH Tiffany. 1952. Algae of Illinois. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.276, 282
Patterson DJ. 2003. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa a Colour Guide. Washington D.C.: ASM Press. p 23, 112.
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