Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Oily film on pond surface - 7/07 - Photos added!!

I wish I would have found this forum sooner. You guys are more fun than a cat in a microwave! I also wish I knew where this oil slick was coming from. It is now worse than I've ever seen it. We have few random gas wells around here, the closest being about a half mile away. I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't one under my pond. You'll see what I'm talking about when Greg posts my photos tomorrow.

Try lighting it.

Take pictures

Holy cow...I think i figured out how to upload photos! Here are two from yesterday just before dusk:

Here's 3 from today in better light. In one I stuck my finger in it. It's dirty, but doesn't really feel like it's "slick":

Steev,

Looks like a zooplankton bloom to me. It's always present in warm fertile water, but sometimes it spikes.

When weather is hot and winds are calm, it creates a surface film. Rain and wind will mix it with the water, and you don't notice it as much.

Aeration will help keep it stirred up locally, but you'll still get floaties around the edges. If your pond is no more than 7-8' deep, sudden aeration won't likely hurt anything. But then, aeration isn't as beneficial in a shallow pond anyway. If your pond is deep, be careful as was already mentioned.

Keeping fertile runoff and dead grass/weeds out of the water removes some of the plankton's food, and should reduce it somewhat.

bobad - Thanks. The pond gets NO runoff at all. None. Zilch. Nada. Average depth of the pond is closer to 5 feet, rather than 6 feet that I mentioned in my first post. Deepest part when it's totally full might be 8 feet, but right now, only about 7. Are you saying that full time aeration will NOt hurt? Is there any chance it'll help?

Hi all,

I'm also new to the board and I've got a similar problem. I'm also a rank amateur, so apologies in advance.

I've recently moved to a new place with a water feature in the yard, basically a 14' x 7' rectangular pool, only 9 inches deep, with a waterfall running on a modest looking pump. I'm planning to put a lotus and a few other plants as well as some fish, maybe guppies or goldfish. In anticipation of that, I removed the chlorine tablet a few days ago and an ugly film has developed. (See pictures below.)

I'm wondering what I can do to control it, and what I might need to do in terms of filtration and aeration to accomodate the fish and the lotus. Most of the skimmers I've researched won't work with the shallow depth of the pond. Also, I can't build anything into the walls of the pool as I'm renting this place.

Any thoughts or suggestions you guys might have would be much appreciated!

Here are some photos:

You may want to start your own post, it may get more exposure that way and a better shot at getting you the answers you're looking for...

Very cool looking backyard pond though.

steve glad to see you got them up. Like I mentioned this is gases from decomposing matter, etc. similiar to randy's pond in another thread. Hope for some rain.

I had a similar situation last year with my first year pond. I think we all decided that, becuase my part of the country was rich in iron, ironore, etc., that some of the film may be from natural mineral 'leakage' inherent to the soil. I saw it more BELOW my dam than in the pond itself. But with rain and cooler weather, it disapated. Haven't seen it yet this year, but the really hot weather is upon us. My .02.

It's just so darn...icky! We enjoy swimming in the pond (well...floating on rafts and drinking beer is closer to it) and this stuff just totally discourages that notion. The fact that the pond gets no runoff is good in the respect that no fertilizers or other gunk gets in the pond, but it also keeps this goo from floating away. I guess I'll just keep vacuuming it off as the wind piles it up in one of the corners. I'll also start running my make-shift fountain full blast.