Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Rust colored material in pond water

I have a kidney shaped 6 ac. pond that is 30' deep at one end and 0's at the other . I built it in the 80's and it's been doing great , but the past several years I've been getting a rust colored bloom mostly in early summer when I get direct sun on the water surface . It seems to lay in long waves just below the surface and gets really thick so as to turn the water red . It also seems to be in about 1/3 of the pond area and it seems to be increasing every year both in length of time and area covered . I wonder if it's Serratia or perhaps even an Iron Bacteria as we have lots of Iron in this area . Is there anyway of identifying what this is ? Also is it a danger to my dogs health as he both drinks and swims there daily ? Thanks Orville

I wanted to add that I dipped out a sample yesterday and it looked like suspended dirt in the container . It apparently died over the night , fell to the bottom and turned whitish/gray and has a foul odor , like a wet dog smell ..

I don't know what it is, but hopefully Bill Cody will chime in. He probably knows, or knows what questions to ask you to get it figured out.

Sounds like Euglena .
Does it resemble this???

Thanks , no , it is suspended in the water itself , this appears to be on the surface . Also it isn't that red , it's more of a rust color . It seems to be about 6" below the surface and goes down out of sight . It lays in long feathery rows much like fog would . If you put dye in the water and took your hand and swept past it , it would look about like this stuff . I put some under a scope and they appeared to be little round , rough globs , like little barrels ???

I solved the mystery , it's Synura Golden Brown Algae .