Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? White bubbles/foam

I started up the aeration a little early this year in hopes I could help the aerobic bacteria get a jump start on this spring's goose poop and last years decaying vegetation. I see white bubbles floating away from the diffuser boils. Some small amount of white foam stays after the aeration is shut down.

I found an old thread that seems to discuss something similar.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=232853

In that old thread Bill C provided….



My questions are, is my small amount of white foam due to dissolved proteins and, if yes, will continued aeration eventually clear the problem?

Thanks RAH. Mine is not nearly as heavy as that but might be the same cause. Will aeration eventually get rid of it?

I think the foam will come and go if you have watershed input. I have seen it often in streams after heavy rain. Plant material can have "natural" soaps in it. I don't think it hurts anything.

Thanks for the input! Makes me think that, since it comes and goes with new watershed or other input, something in the BOW transforms the foam causing stuff to something else. I think I will keep aeration going under the assumption that the "transformation" process requires DO.

When our stream floods, big gobs of foam form where the water runs into the bank at a bend, or at a log jam. I think it's natural. Sometimes I have foam at the edges of my ponds on very windy days, where the waves hit the banks.

Just closing the loop....after a week of running the aeration 6 hours a night, the bubbles/foam are gone.

Bill, if you stop taking bubble baths in the pond, the white bubbles will go away on their own.