Mark

How Pond Fountains Can Help With Algae Issues

Whether your pond is small or large, it goes without saying that aeration in some form is very beneficial.

Over the years we’ve mentioned that sub-surface aerators, or putting a diffuser at the bottom of the pond is highly desirable.

That’s not to say that a fountain on the surface of the pond won’t be of help or aid in the aeration of the pond. There are some ponds (those that are less than 6 to 8 feet deep) that can benefit just as much from a fountain as they would a bottom based aerator.

The short video above explains how a fountain provides useful oxygen and circulation to a pond, along with improving the beauty and appearance too. Be sure to watch it when you can, and as always if you have questions, please leave those in the comment section below.

To learn more about the Kasco JF Series Fountains (our favorite) visit this page.

How Pond Dye Can Help With Your Algae Or Weed Problems

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Summer time can be hard on a pond. Of course you’ll commonly see very high temperatures and along with that comes a lot of sunny days.

I’m normally partial to a little sunshine and like John Denver, I like it on my shoulder now and then.

But it can beat down on a pond and stimulate a lot of unwanted algae growth.

In fact, apart from high nutrients in the water, which is the leading cause of algae blooms, all day sun exposure is a huge catalyst for algae of all kinds, and for weed growth in shallow waters.

In the past, we’ve talked about shade as a viable tool to help with algae problems on a small pond. For really little water features, some people have actually used umbrellas, or shade sails with good effect, and had their green water issues clear up quickly.

But if a pond has any size at all to it, providing shade isn’t all that easy to do.

That’s where pond dye comes into play and it can help quite a bit when it comes to sun exposure.

Since the question comes up now and again, it’s important to note that these dyes are non-toxic formulas and are designed to go in the water.

Most are concentrated so a little can go a long way, and you don’t want to get the stuff on your hands or clothes. It won’t come off easily but you could always go as a Smurf to the upcoming Halloween party if you wanted to make the most of it.

The purpose of the dye is pretty straightforward. You want to block or inhibit sun light from reaching too deep within the pond since this can stimulate plant growth under the water.

When using the dye, the goal is not to create a solid mass of color that you can’t see through. A few golf superintendents that we know have done this to combat weed growth and it does work, but makes for a pretty funky looking pond.

Correct use, would be to add enough dye to a pond to start to tint the water. You can still see through it, but with the right amount of tinting you’ll start to refract and diminish the light’s penetration into the water.

I usually advise looking over the dosing instructions and starting a bit below the recommended amount and then working up to a level of tint that you actually like to look at. When done correctly some of these dyes will look very natural and be pretty hard to spot for the untrained eye.

Pond Dye Options

In recent years, new formulas of dye have been developed that expand the color options beyond just the typical blue color. Both black and black/blue combinations are now common for both small and large ponds and I find these two colors to be a bit more natural looking in the water.

Currently the formulas are made of either concentrated liquids (for large ponds, 1 quart of dye will treat a 1 acre pond up to 4 feet deep) as well as what some people find to be a more convenient blend in powdered form. The dye powder is encased in small, water soluble bags that can simply be tossed in the pond and as the packet dissolves the dye get’s released pretty quickly.

With a bit of aeration running to help with circulation, you’ll normally find that an entire pond, even large ones, can be fully affected within 24 hours or less.

I normally expect the dyes to last for up to 5 or 6 weeks in ideal cases. In some ponds they may last longer and in other ponds it will be less. A lot has to do with the turnover rate of the water in the pond, how much rain you might be seeing in your area and so forth. Generally if you can get a month or more out of each treatment, that’s pretty good and it makes pond dye a viable tool for pond management.

Finally, it should be noted that I don’t view pond dye as an all-encompassing tool for things like algae reduction. Often it will help some but it’s not enough to turn the tables and clear the pond up completely. This is why we usually will use it on conjunction with things like beneficial bacteria or specific weed treatments, which may help more directly.

The dye however is supportive of these applications and will help as you “stack the deck” against unwanted plant growth.

Be sure to check out our New Powdered Dye Packets that make working with pond dye, clean and easy!

If you have any specific questions about pond dye that we can help with be sure to leave those in the comment section below and we’ll try to provide a few answers.

Our Pond Fresh Chlorine Filters Have Been Modified

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Chlorine and Chloramines are simply not something you want in your fish pond. Yet they are found in virtually every municipal water source.

So, if you have a fish pond, and live in a city with a muni water supply, be sure to check with your city water department to find out what they are using to disinfect the water.

Chlorine on it’s own will evaporate from a pond in decent time, usually within 24 hours, if you’re filling it up for the season. You still really don’t want to add any chlorinated water to an existing fish pond. Chloramines however last much longer and so simply waiting for them to wain usually isn’t convenient.

There are several ways you can take these chemicals out of the water. Various tablets and liquids can be found online and they work pretty well.

We’ve chosen to go a different route and offer a filter which will remove virtually all of these substances easily. This makes it good to use for gardeners as well as pond owners.

Recently though some changes have been made to the Pond Fresh filters that you need to be aware of. In order for them to work well, the flow rate of the water through the filter must be managed. You need a certain amount of latency for the filter to actually take out something like chloramines.

So now you’ll find several tubes on each end of the filter to keep the flow rate within acceptable limits.

For gallon capacities, be sure to check our website for details. Again, be sure to contact your city water supplier to know what you’re dealing with, and then you can figure out the expected life or the gallon capacity of the filter more specifically.

The video below will go into more detail on the modifications and specs.

Pond Aeration Questions – This Video Is The Answer

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If you’re researching large pond aerators, more often than not, you end up with a lot of questions. I get them all the time.

What is an aerator actually going to do for my pond? How does it work? How do I get the right size system for my pond? What’s installation like, can I do it myself? And what about maintenance, is it hard to do?

These are questions that come up time and time again and with good reason. For an investment like this you need to know what you’re getting into.

Fortunately there are some really useful resources out there that answers most of these critical questions.

I’ve prepared a video, with the help of our friends at Airmax, that covers them very well and I think you’ll find it really helpful, even if you already have an aerator in place. But particularly for those that are looking to get an aerator up and running in their pond, this is absolutely critical information to have.

Pond Algae Loves Phosphates

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Pond algae needs certain things to grow really well. It’s a plant after all, and if you ask any good gardner what they like to see come growing season, it’s a nice balance of sun, rain, and some really good, nutrient rich soil.

For a pond owner, that “soil” might be at the bottom of the pond, or when it comes to nutrients in general, they could even wash into the pond in various ways. However they get in there though, the focus needs to be on reducing or managing these nutrients to keep algae in check.

Whenever you hear of someone having success on algae blooms, without using some kind of killing tool like an algaecide, you can bet that what really happened is that somehow, some way, the nutrients were simply made unavailable for algae to use to grow well.

While there are a number of nutrients in pond water, the one that probably has the most influence on algae is called phosphorus. Some experts have noted that for every pound of phosphate in a pond, 500 pounds of algae can be produced! So that’s quite a stimulant.

Phosphorus is a key element in nature though and it really is a beneficial thing to life on earth. It’s just that too much, in the wrong place (like your pond) can be a problem.

Where Phosphates Come From

Phosphates can come from a lot of places but the most common sources are, well, quite common.

If you live in agricultural lands, then fertilizers containing phosphorus are used frequently. Runoff following rainy days, can go directly into the pond or via source water from incoming streams and spike the nutrient in a pond. Leaves, as they decay, can give off phosphorus, as does the waste material from waterfowl like geese and ducks.

If you feed your fish, many commercial fish formulas contain phosphorus (some of it is quite healthy for fish) but if a lot of the food goes uneaten, it would be added directly to the water.

Phosphorus Isn’t All Bad

It’s important to not give the impression that phosphorus or phosphates are all necessarily bad things. They aren’t. As mentioned before, the nutrient is critical to healthy life on earth. Plants benefit from it greatly, as does every living thing. Without it we’d be in a world of hurt.

But it’s critical to remember that algae and other aquatic weeds use it for rapid and expansive growth so if you’ve got an ongoing, hard to control, weed or algae problem, then phosphorus really should be analyzed. If the readings are fairly high then it makes sense to do something about it.

The funny thing is, it’s not really accurate to say that phosphates were reduced in a pond. They don’t go anywhere really. But the most effective way to reduce their effects, is to bind to them with something that makes them unavailable as a food source for algae.

Aluminum Sulphate Binds To Phosphorus

One of the most common binders that you’ll see marketed today is called Alum, or Aluminum Sulphate. It’s an excellent chemical phosphate binder. But one precaution related to Alum is that it’s very acidic and it can drop the pH of the pond water very quickly in some instances. It’s for this reason that I’d suggest avoiding the use of unbuffered Alum. Buffered formulas that include Alum along with Sodium Bicarbonate will help to offset some of the effects on pH.

Some specialized formulas use polymers along with lower doses of Alum and these have much better stability in terms of how they affect pH. Then there’s another, all natural, calcium based solution which is completely organic and won’t affect pH at all. Currently we prefer this formula over the others. It works more slowly but is an effective tool for taking the available phosphates away from the ravenous algae cells that love them so much!

And what about dosage rates. Well, from product to product you’ll find some variability here. Follow the suggested label directions and dosing of whatever you’re using. Remember though that these rates will vary a lot based on the amount of phosphorus in your pond water. Higher doses of any binder will be required for high levels of phosphate. In most cases you can add repeated doses as needed while checking phosphate levels as you go. The goal should be to keep them down around 10 to 30 ppm or less.

Click here to view our complete line of phosphate binding products.

Winter Ponds Can Be Dangerous

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Sometimes I find myself questioning if certain topics are worth talking about. Standing on thin ice would be one of those but in truth, it’s a very important thing to talk about.

The proof in this is the various news reports you see every winter, where people, pets, or even wildlife end up falling through the ice and either get rescued (which is a good thing, but there are risks to the rescuer’s too) or they end up freezing to death (and that’s just not a good outcome).

So with that in mind, here’s some helpful advice from the Penn State Extension service.

Always know the strength and thickness of the ice on the farm pond before doing any activity on the ice. Because ice is a complex formation no ice is completely safe. Newly frozen ice is typically stronger than old ice. Ice that has thawed and refrozen can be weak and potentially dangerous. Temperature, precipitation (e.g., snow, sleet, rain), age of ice, water depth, and water quality are all factors involved in the strength and thickness of ice. Just because ice may be several inches to a foot or more thick does not guarantee its strength.

Before attempting to cross a frozen pond, conduct an inspection to determine the ice’s thickness by drilling a hole through and chipping at the ice every 10 feet out from the shore. Examine the ice for thickness and color. High density ice is present if the ice comes off in chunks when it is being chipped. Low density and deteriorating ice is present when the ice comes off in flakes or thin layers. Inspect the ice conditions every time you go onto the ice because condition, strength, and stability of ice can change quickly depending on the temperature, weather, and sunlight. Ice that has been exposed to air temperatures above freezing (32 F) for six hours over a 24-hour period can rapidly lose strength and stability. The following table outlines the type of ice and its potential stability.

You’ll find a very useful reference table on the PSE site as well as some other safety tips (year round) that might really be helpful to you. The fact is, people and animals do drown in ponds every year, and unfortunately many of the victims are children.

But with the right mindset, training, and awareness, many of these tragedies can be avoided.

Disclaimer: No that is not me in the picture standing by the “thin ice” sign. Personally I wouldn’t do anything that crazy (or insert other word as required) and I hope this fellow remained above the water line. – MW