Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Someone spilled paint in my pond?

Water temps have been averaging between 66° to 73°...If we get a good rain or wind from the north it mixes in the water column pretty good and appears to just be a bloom...As the water settles and it surfaces again it looks just like the original pictures.. Sometimes heavier sometimes lighter...

Thanks for the Birthday wish...

Happy Birthday!

Some pics from today on my lunch hour...

If it's any consolation, my pond looked that way most of the summer too. It has been going away as the days get colder and we get a bit more rain. I figured in my case, some sort of aeration/diffusers would help. With seeing yours, I am beginning to wonder if the aeration doesn't help, I am assuming you have some kind. Do you?

I have one diffuser running off of a windmill and one running 24/7 off electric...Going to go with a new system in the spring with 2 vertex diffusers and relocate the wind mill to shallower water to be left year around, probably under the dock...

Aeration IMO will not reduce that type of bloom and its biomass an appreciable amount. You might be able to mix the pond strong enough to put most of the surface bloom blended into the water column but the amount of growth will prevail. I think excess phosphorus and possibly a shortage of nitrogen is feeding that particular type of bloom. If it were my pond with the surface film pushed into a fairly narrow band at one end, I would spray the film with diluted Green Clean Pro liquid or dissolved Phycomycin. Both with same active ingredient. The algae should decompose fairly quickly and recycle some nitrate and phosphate to stimulate other more beneficial planktonic algae. Ideally one wants to spray the surface film before it forms reproductive spores to regenerate next year's same type bloom.

How old was the Phytomycin? It should have at least killed what was on top. PM me for info to test the reactivity of the Phycomycin. Make sure when you mixthe granules into the water that all are dissolved before spraying. Get good even coverage of the surface film. also then take about 1/2 to one gallon of granules and spread it fairly evenly over top the film to get the algae that is suspended under the film. It is possible that you are killing what is currently on the surface and more is floating to the top from in the water column .

How long of a period of time does this spore making take. Are we talking about as soon as you see it on the surface, a week or so, or is it an all summer process?

Spores or akinetes which are resting stages to survive harsh conditions of Cyanobacteria form close to the end of the vegetative growth period or as filaments age and are influenced by environmental factors. I am not sure but I suspect it happens over the course of a 3-7 days. Akinetes of Cyanobacteria are essentially specialized DNA storage cells.

So when you see this stuff forming on the surface, it would be good to take care of it every three days?

I would "hit" it with Phycomycin every time you see it forming those scums along one shoreline or blown into corners - windrows. This is called 'trimming the bloom'. Phycomycin and similar peroxyhydrates leave no residue and can be applied frequently with basically no side affects and are quite safe. They actually release dissolved oxygen when working which is a good benefit to using them.

PM sent to you Bill....

You probably don't remember, but you helped me with algae, RBT, and phycomycin before. I still have some left, and I want to be prepared for next year if this stuff appears again. The bloom lasted too long for my liking this year, and by your description it probably will be back next year from all the spores.

Thank you.

I just purchased it from a local cleaning supply house that had to order it in special...

Hate to admit my STUPIDITY, but...

I can assume it is pretty new by the reaction I got by NOT cleaning out the itsy bitsy bit of Cutrine Plus that was left in my hand sprayer...Needless to say I never had to pump the handle on the sprayer for the hole 2 gallons...Took the tip off of the spray wand for fear it was going to blow up...

I almost blew up a 50-gal spray-tank the first time I used Greenclean (on a golf course, no less).
Without my knowledge, the customer's tank held about a gallon of CUTRINE PLUS mixture before we began filling it with water. I added about 5 lbs of Greenclean Pro into the tank and then screwed on the lid due the rapidly rising foam. Imagine my surprise when the tank began to rapidly bulge - significantly! I cautiously unscrewed the lid to avoid a tank-exposion. Once the lid came free, an 8" diameter exothermic geiser went skyward - probably 6' vertical.
I'm sure the entire spectacle was quite entertaining to those who were watching this free circus - from a distance.

Water temp is down to 59°-61° and most of it has settled lower in the water column....I did spray another couple of gallons of Sodium Percarconate when is was surfaced on blown to one side...

Fish are still feeding pretty well even with the cooler temps...Goal is to get a couple of friends over in the next week and pull some BG out for deer season...

I didn't know deer were attracted to BG! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......

LOL! Nice....

You would be amazed at what the deer over here eat!!!

And it's back... I hate this pond!!

Pond is warming up fast.. Surface temp is 73° today and water clarity is about 30"..

The pond is almost a brown color with little flecks in the water..

Kelly, it's still pretty damn funny!

Stay with it Sean.....dust off the sprayer!

Goal was to physically remove as much of the FA as possible in the next week or so to remove some of the nutrients.. Changed up plans and sprayed it with sodium per carbonate today as well as spread the powder around the edge of pond... We will see how this plays out I guess..

Update...

With the help of several members here I think I am finally going in the right direction... A very big THANKS to all that helped especially Bill Cody who helped with water testing and several ideas and suggestion via PM...

We decided that I had a typical HAB because my nitrogen to phosphorus was way out of balance.. My Ortho-p was .079 and my Nitrates were 1.1 which put me way short of the suggested 20 to 1 ratio of beneficial blooms..

The approach I took was start a bacteria program and try to get the nitrogen levels up.. I did simple things like spraying surface films with phycomycin and then added bacteria after to gobble up the nutrients being released.. Also added a slow release zero P yard fertilizer even around the edge of the pond which I normally don't do... Spraying would get me a few days of better appearance but I could still see the suspended particles in the water..

June came and went with little headway made.. Then July came and I decided to take a little more of an aggressive approach via some out of the box thinking of Bill... I got a gallon of 28% liquid nitrogen and added about a 1/3 of a gallon to see what would happen.. Really didn't see an immediate change, but had a day with a perfect wind to spray the surface films.. Sprayed with 9:1 ratio Cutrine with 2 ounces if reward mixed in...

That was in my opinion of the turning point...I don't know if the added nitrogen plus/or the copper/reward being enough to push things in the right direction, but I am seeing a LOT nicer looking pond.. Have only had to treat with phycomycin once since then..

A few pictures along the way... Will have to get some new ones to show the pond now..

Awesome progress. Glad you posted, as I was wondering how things were coming along. Bill kindly offered to help with my pond also, but shortly thereafter my issues disappeared.

Post those new photos!

Couple pics on my lunch today...