Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction brown film on the water

OK guys here's a question for ya.
I have a 6 yr old 3/4 acre pond here in ohio that up until a few weeks ago had nice blue clear water.
Now there's a brown thin film that covers a portion of it and when the wind blows it into a corner it becomes a thick stringy brown sludge that has no oder. I am continually taking a pool net and trying to remove it when it builds up on the edges.
The pond on the deep end is around 10 ft deep and tapers to a beach and swimming area so at least half the pond i would say is roughly 5 to 6 ft deep and is completely self contained so it gets no outside water source other than rain and snow.It also has gravel on the banks around the entire pond.
I do think it may be getting overstocked with bluegill and am wondering if that may be part of the problem
any ideas on what this might be and how to make it go away?
Thanks for any help.......Larry

I also forgot to mention that i do have two aerators running constantly
and have done nothing different this year that I've done in the past years.
thanks again..larry

I don't know if I have the same conditions as you, but my main pond is also acting strange and the water is strange color. We have had very little runoff this spring so the pond is about a foot low. Have had "just in time" rains so the crops look good, but little runoff. So no water exchange via outflow at the overflow pipe.

I also have aeration running on this pond. Water has almost a blackish look to it and a lot of the FA the went crazy this spring is now floating to the top dead and the wind blows it into a mat along the shoreline.

When I hand feed (actually ride a 4 wheeler around the perimeter while throwing feed out by hand), there are scores of small BG that make wakes coming towards the shore as they hear/feel the 4 wheeler approaching. Small fish are feeding actively. Large fish are absent and very slow to bite. Three of us fished an hour before sunset last night with only a few bites and no fish caught. Fish finder shows lots of fish in schools and around structure.

I might not have thought anything about it, but have an acre sized pond and two smaller ones with no aeration and the water looks much more normal. Greenish tint and healthy looking. My main pond water looks more like creek water that has little flow and lots of leaves. Kind of a dark stained look. And if there is no wind, I get the film on top of the water like you describe. Bubbles around the aeration boils (three double diffusers on a 3 acre pond).

I don't know what to make of it. The ponds without aeration look normal. My best guess is the additional DO the aeration is creating at the lower levels are "processing" the decaying FA. I had no aeration last year (except for a single diffuser for a few weeks last fall) so maybe the aeration along with the lack of normal runoff is just causing a big nutrient load to be recycled and will correct itself over time. Hopefully.

We are seasonably cool here also. 70 degrees at 8 am and this time of year we could be looking at 80 over the night. The polar vortex or whatever it is sure makes for a nice Mid-July here. Maybe has something to do with fish not biting though.

Don't have an answer for you, except to say that my BOW is acting strange also.

Odd too...but i will say my fish are still very active and still chase me in my golf cart wanting fed.and if i drop a pole in within 10 seconds i have a bluegill hitting on it and this will go on all night. But mine too has an odd color to it this year...puzzling for sure....Larry

I wouldn't be too concerned about it. My best educated guess, without photos from your pond, is that it is just a dying algae that happens this time of year.

I unsuccessfully tried searching for some photos from my ponds that probably show what you describe. In general, it is a brown slick that gets blown around the pond by the wind. It usually starts with a green slick, sometimes with some red included, that slowly turns brown as it dies. It kind of like in a tie-dyed pattern of shirts from 1969 Woodstock and Altamont.

One of my ponds currently has the issue. We don't swim in these ponds, and we don't let the dogs in these ponds, just in case it is something other than what we expect it to be.

One easy way to get it to sink is to use a water pump. I have a 2-inch semi-trash pump on a trailer. Put the intake in pond, and spray the floating slick. It quickly sinks, and the pond looks normal. It is probably just cosmetic, but the pond will look a lot better. The fish don't seem to care.

Maybe Bill Cody can tell us exactly what it is.

Regards,
Ken

I think you may have nailed it
I got the impression too that it looks like a dead algae and it just floats where ever the wind takes it.A few weeks before all this started i did spray the banks with Kermax (weed and algae killer). The fish don't seem to mind it at all and the opposite end of the pond where it accumulates always looks good.For fun this weekend i might just take my pump and try to sink it .
thanks so much for your reply and i'll keep ya posted if it eventually goes away..........Larry

Larry:

Do you mean Karmex? If so, can you post a picture of the label (or link to a published label) where it says it can be used in ponds?

I was under the impression that it wasn't labeled for use in water (i.e. ponds).