Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Will "Muck Reducer" help get rid of this?

The muck reducer was 20% off, so I ordered a couple of gallons.

http://www.organicpond.com/Muck-Reducer-pureBACTERIA-by-Organic-Pond-p/pbacteria-128.htm

Will it help get rid of this?



The pictures on their website show a before and after with this same green stuff (algae?) eliminated.

I know I've been told that algae is just like dust, and I need to get used to it, but it thought I'd give it a shot.

We swim in the pond often.

If it works, I'll post it. (Either way, I'll post it.)

No opinions? Has anyone ever used the bacteria type muck reducer? Does it help?
Any info appreciated.
Thx

I could be wrong, but I don't think it will make a difference on either the muck or algae. Your best bet would be to tie up phosphorus to rob plants of essential nutrients. Alum and I think some polymer products claim to help. Also beneficial plants can rob nutrients before algae get it, like hardy lilies and iris.

The main reason is I think the bacteria are already present, they just need O2 to digest muck better. However, once the muck is digested they will free some nutrients back into the water. Ideally you will get enough runoff to flush the pond on occasion as aeration helps remove muck.

Thank you for the feedback. Aeration is in the plan, but won't happen for a year or two.
No plantings yet, it was just filled. I don't see many opportunities for runoff for a while. I don't have that large of a drainage field for the pond.
I was hoping I wouldn't have to skim it off. I'm thinking that may be the only way, if this muck reducer doesn't have any effect.
Thanks again

One of my ponds looked a lot like yours. A couple of months ago I built a floating island that is about 24 square ft. I found sedges and spiral grass a Lowes. I don't know if it really did anything, but over the past several weeks nearly all of the top water blue green algae has disappeared.

I not a home this week, otherwise I'd post some photos. Maybe next week.

P.S. The island is in a 1/3 acre Pond.

Thanks! Please post a pic when you can. I was thinking about a rest stop/island for turtles too, so this could kill two birds with one stone.

Everywhere in your pond that is below the thermocline muck is building up MUCH quicker than above the thermocline. That is due to the absence of O2. Without O2, the muck eating bacteria won't work near as well. If it was my pond, I would focus my energy on getting an aeration system in before focusing on bacteria, no matter how cheap it was.....

The aeration system has many other benefits besides reducing muck.......

Do you mean this is a new pond? If so, there likely isn't any muck to deal with unless there was a bunch of organics in the basin already. If you have this layer of green on top, and high nutrient water in just filled pond, you may need to look into why the nutrient load is high in the first place.

Any fertilizing done nearby that may have washed in? Any agriculture of farm animals in the area of the source of your runoff? You can mitigate some of that by directing water from those sources someplace else or simply don't fertilize in those areas.

When I needed to fertilize the "grass" (if you could call it that) around my pond I used an organic chicken-meal with a non-soluble source of nitrogen with very low phosphorous. I was very careful to not get it too close to the water. It doesn't take a lot of phosphorous to make a LOT of algae so I didn't take any chances. Without that, my grass could barely hang on in the summer. Soil is pretty poor.

Yes, new pond. Little or no muck in the bottom of the pond.
Surrounded by trees though, so I'm going to get a lot of leaves down in the fall.
There are 10 acres of alfalfa fields that drain into the pond. I know they fertilize.
I really can't afford to divert that water, because I do not have another source for runoff.
The pictures on the website where I ordered the muck reducer showed before and after pics that had muck, or green algae just like mine in the before pic, and clean water in the after pic.
I can't swing aeration right now. I need to run electric 300 yards first.
If this doesn't help, I'm only out $50. Not thousands.
How does that saying go? If it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn't. Oh well, if by some miracle this stuff helps, I'll post it here.
Thanks

That's a planktonic algae bloom in my opinion, I get strong ones resembling this at this time of year, I don't worry about them. It's part of the natural cycle - zooplankton bloom should follow and help feed my fish.

Jeff, don't waste your money pouring that into the pond yet. Without aeration, it won't do much, and besides, you don't have any muck in your pond yet. The bloom is planktonic, and much better than an FA explosion....your pond is progressing beautifully. Don't try to over control it's natural cycles or things could go bad, fast.

Ok. Got it. I'll be back up there tomorrow, and see how it looks.
When the muck reducer gets here, it'll go into storage.
Got plenty of other projects to work on.
Got to start getting ready for deer season!

The muck reducer is very likely a bacterial product and may not have a very long shelf life so shelfing it until next year could result in it not working at that time due to the bacteria going inactive. Maybe check with the supplier as to the shelf life. That is maybe why it was on sale due to the supplier not wanting to carry it into the 2016 season. It may have already been old from a spring 2015 shipment. Hopefully it was not from 2014 stock.

Wow, thanks for the info. I have not received it yet. I will check it as soon as it gets here. It is a bacterial product for sure. I may pour some in.. Can it hurt anything? FYI, I was at the pond yesterday. With a northeast wind, the algae had all been blown into a small cove. I was able to net a lot of it out.

This in a relatively new pond could be caused by a green algae (a good algae) as opposed to bluegreen algae which often causes most blooms in older very nutrient phosphorus rich ponds. One easy way to tell if it is bluegreen algae is to skim some of it into a jar or bottle. Cap it. Then several hours later open it and smell the air in the air space above the water. Bluegreen algae will smell very bad similar to moldy rank and terrible. Green algae does not usually produce rank odors but it could be sort of a fishy odor after a few hours.

It had a fishy odor when I was skimming it. I'll be up there again this week. I'll put some in a jar.
Thank you very much for the info!

The fishy odor is not associated with bluegreen algae and almost always caused by other species of algae.

Setter,

Save some money and run some PVC sch 40 down to the pond. You don't have to run electric all the way down there. Pump the air to the pond from where your electric is already! Unless you just have to have it down there for some other reason? Many guys here run air lines 1000 feet or more to get air to their ponds. Much, much cheaper.

RC

Black poly is even less expensive than PVC and it can be had in 500 and 1,000 foot rolls to minimize connections.

Guys, I would love to be able to run pipe down there.. The only problem I have is that it would run through a valley, if I run it underground, or it would be suspended on poles to cross the valley. Wouldn't moisture settle in the valley? Freezing if it's above ground. We see zero days in the winter. Or if it's below ground, still have water in it? Can the blowers push all the water out?
I just do not want to go to all that work, and not have a reliable system.
Thanks

Burying is always going to be best, and you can install automatic water ejectors in low spots, but generally, ejectors are not needed.

As I recall, you also wanted electric pond side for future possibilities. Burying 1-2" poly tubing now, you could simply push wire pond side through the poly later when wanted/needed.

If running the aeration in the winter to keep a hole open, install a TEE with a valve just beyond the air pump outlet and pour a pint of Isopropyl Alcohol into the air line, and install a water separator on the outlet to virtually eliminate freezing worries.