Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Something new

One of the things you can count on with having a pond(s)is that things are always changing with a living breathing ecosystem, and I can't speak for others, but I keep observing and learning new things.

This fall along with some bacterial problems with my trout in the trout pond, which seems to have subsided, my trout pond water has turned a rich brown the last couple of weeks. I've seen brown due to iron during times of year the iron bacteria and aquatic vegetation is not doing their job, due to lower temps, but never this rich of a brown color.

I don't believe it's iron related but could be wrong. It's probably hard to tell in the picture but it's almost a coffee brown but it's not due to sediments or clay particles. There are leaves falling into the pond, but I can't believe the tannins in the leaves could have this effect so rapidly in such a large pond, but again I could be wrong. At least its never happened before.

I don't believe it's an algae die off although that would make sense this time of year, but there wasn't much phytoplankton in this pond to begin with. I believe it's some type of brown algae that finds the new fall conditions, which consist of water temps in the 40's and no flow through beneficial to this species. I've sent a sample to Bill Cody to take a look.

BTW a seechi dish reading was 32 inches.

Diatom bloom?

Dave,

I didn't think of that. Have you observed this kind of thing before? If so why and when?

After doing a short search on the Internet it seems they usually occur after a temperature rise and increase in light intensity. Perhaps a recent warm up and bright skies causes this if it is indeed diatoms?

I suppose Bill Cody will solve this puzzle.

I did read if it's tannins to fill a clear jar with the water and see if it settles. According to what I read if it doesn't settle and there are no suspended clay problems then it's tannins. Whatever it is it's not in a hurry to settle if it settles at all. In a clear jar it appears weak yellow.

We see a rich brown color like then in the summer when the creek behind out hunting cabin slows to a trickle. The deeper pool which is close to 10 feet deep turns from a intense bluish green to a rich coffee brown just like you described. It stays that way until the fall when it clears back up to the bluish green color...

Spring:


Fall:

And it has nothing to do with sediments being washed in?

Nope, there is no water flowing that time of year... It's a trickle at best.

Pretty darn dramatic change. I assume (yeah, I know) that the green involves some sort of nutrient input and the brown indicates a lack of flushing of too many nutrients. Am I off base here?

Cecil -- Bill will indeed know best. The typical progression of algae blooms around here is something like this. Early spring diatoms; early summer green algae; heat of summer blue-green, early fall another green bloom; late fall a diatom bloom.

Or maybe it was all those leftover teabags I threw in there the other night.

You must drink a lot of tea Tom!

I have thought of the remote possibility someone could be dumping in Clorox Bleach into my well pit which would account for the stress of the fish and it would really cause the iron to precipitate making the water quite brown. I do have one neighbor that doesn't like the fact that I pump well water as he called the division of water to see if I was doing anything wrong. Fortunately I'm not.

I need to lock up the well area somehow and put up a remote camera as I have several thousands in profit to loose if someone was to do that. Hey what can i say. I'm paranoid!

Land mines Cecil... Land mines... Don't forget to map them out as well though!

Considering the bad luck I had with the infrared remote scarecrow that detects animal movement and blasts it with water I don't think the landmines would be a good idea. I don't know how many times I went out to the pier and suddenly realized the scarecrow was hooked up. By that time it was too late. A quick turn and run always ended up with a wet butt!

BTW the neighbor that probably has trouble with my well (I don't know this for sure but he has complained about lesser things like the sound of my aerator compressor even though it's at least 200 feet away) is a retired police officer. He's got the personality of a brick wall.

Yeah, some cops get a little too salty over the years...

All of the other cops or ex cops I know are great people to deal with. Yourself included.

On an funny note the retired cop kind of shot himself in the foot recently (figure of speech). My other neighbor waved at him a couple of times while out cutting his grass and this guy apparently ignored him. At least the other neighbor thinks so. The retired cop has said he's interested in an adjacent six acres that belongs to this neighbor that thought he was being ignored. The neighbor confided in me it would be a cold day in hell when he would sell to that &^%$#@! (Or something to that affect.) I told him if he ever wanted to sell I'd be interested. I could add several more ponds on that six acres.