Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Black Shade Balls

Prob been posted already, but I'm not sure about this idea.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/08/12/bla...n-amid-drought/

Hope there's no fish in that rese!

Hollywood used the same technique to film underwater scenes during the making of "The Abyss"

Sound like some local politician had a "friend" who was selling hem.

A) why black and not white or dirt colour to reflect the radiant heat?

and

B) what a great place to put solar panels to shade the water.

Yep !! So true, The nephew of our mayor was hired to add artistic lights to a bridge that crosses the Red River from Shreveport to Bossier City. Thousands of dollars and the light are a joke when looking at them. A grade school student could have done what he did. I am betting that a similar situation may be going on here.

Tracy

I agree with the Wisconson Biologist's comments in the article linked. It will increase evaporation, especially being black and absorbing so much more heat. It will also stagnate the water and cause some very nasty bacterial growths unless well aerated. But aeration would probably increase evap rates also.

Cutting off light penetration to the water column will increase the anaerobic, anoxic activity. This will lower the water quality and as the WI biologist indicated it will likely increase water treatment costs.

I saw a gimmick like that back in the 90's with small white balls where you dump a bunch of them in your ras tank and it's supposed to reduce the light, add surface area for bacteria to grow on and help maintain water temperatures. I think it originated from the waste water industry.

My question was how the heck do you keep tabs on your fish if you have to scoop all these darn balls out?

Looks like potential all time record breaking monster El Nino is shaping up for California this winter. Part of the Pacific is really heating up! That wiil make them forget all about conserving water for a while!

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/13/weather/el-nino-2015/

Well, fellas, I live out here, and I have to say with reservoirs, just like with ponds...it all depends.

This water is already chlorinated and clean. The biggest threat to the water quality is a sunlight-catalyzed reaction between the chlorine and naturally occurring bromide ions in the water. This forms toxic bromates. A few years ago, this reaction caused LADWP to have to waste 600 million gallons of bromate-contaminated water.

The black balls reduce UV penetration and bromate formation and actually protect water quality. The jury's still out on whether this reduces evaporation. I'll believe it when I see the data.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromate#Reservoir_pollution
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/10/local/me-balls10

Chlorinated water doesn't stay sanitized long...the chlorine gasses off pretty quickly. I really don't see an upside for anything but the ball manufacturer and the salesman that sold that ice to the eskimo's.

It makes much more sense to chlorinate and store in tanks if concerned with carcinogens created by sunlight.

The city is doing that. There's an (unfunded) federal mandate to close all open-air drinking reservoirs. The balls are more of a stop gap until they get them all built.

We used to use about a 3" deep layer of little white balls in our mix tanks for chemical feed to production steam boilers. The idea was to create a layer where the chemical mixture did not interface with air. The theory was that it would keep the sulfite (oxygen scavenger) component of the mix from being used up before it was injected into the boiler.

What would thought on clear balls be.


And since no one else has said it : Why not paint them blue?

If not for the chlorine, it wouldn't be long before they were green. They should be a light green to begin with so when they get nasty you could not tell the difference.

Because your from out there, I understand that there is millions and millions of gallons of water this is being allowed to flow to the ocean because of a small fish? Is this true that they could hold back more water in the reservoirs, and that there is no such thing as this drought out there because they have chosen to let the spring/winter water go to protect a fish in the rivers?

Cheers Don.

Uh, they might have had to allow some water in the rivers to protect salmon and other species, but the drought is very real regardless. The state needs to make some tough choices regarding agricultural and city water use.