Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Lake dye for pond where water is used in home

Does anyone know of a lake colorant that can be used in a pond where the lake water is used in a water treatment plant that supplies the home with water? I have a very effective water treatment plant to use the water from my 3 acre pond as treated household water. The water is treated with alum to remove the sediment, and then chlorine to remove bacteria. Next the water goes through two holding/settling tanks. After that it goes through a sand filter, an activated charcoal filter and a whole house filter system. The tap water is clean, good tasting and tests better than local "city" water for bacteria, etc.

However I've got algae and other things most of us read these posts to learn about. I have used cutrine plus for algae and diquat for duckweed. However, I'd much rather use something rather than cutrine or copper sulfate for the algae. Most people locally have great luck with lake colorants, however, none seem to be approved where the water is consumed.

Can you advise, is there a safe dye for that? Or can I assume, with all of those filters, etc., that my water will be safe?

BING

If I were using pond water as household water and drinking water the treatment process should include either UV light assembly as Theo noted or one of these treatments as chlorine treatment, iodine treatment or hydrogen peroxide treatment, all designed to kill bacteria and other micro- organisms. These processes are a part of the entire treatment process described by Bing above. "The water is treated with alum to remove the sediment, and then chlorine to remove bacteria. Bing = Chlorine injection, then the water goes through two holding/settling tanks. After that it goes through a sand filter, an activated charcoal filter and a whole house filter system."

All of the items in the home water treatment for pond use are commonly available from private water treatment businesses. If you really want the safest water for drinking then run the water from the house use through a Reverse Osmosis system aka RO drinking water tap. I have one on my "city house water" for drinking plus it goes to the refrigerator. When all steps are operating properly this makes the drinking water safer than municipal tap water. Some newer municipal water treatment systems are using large RO filters to blend RO water into the final finish water to improve the final quality.

4-25RedLeg
Firstly he/she posted this. ""I’m curious by this (topic) as I have a VERY clear pond currently and will be drinking from it as well here in NE Ohio. I can easily see nearly 5’ deep.""

FYI there are pond management methods that can promote the pond to maintain clear water. IMO few pond management companies know enough about this topic to provide good techniques to or for maintaining clear pond water. One has to fully understand the whole aquatic ecosystem to "get it". IMO one of the MAIN tasks to maintain clear water is to focus on reducing nutrient inputs and nutrient content in the pond. Nutrients grow plankton and plankton density heavily influences water clarity along with suspended detritus. Reduce the nutrient content and this reduces plankton and detritus content / production. Numerous other eco-factors of clear water come into play for this concept of having clear water.

Okay by technical definition water transparency of 5 ft deep is not IMO a definition of VERY clear water. It is clear water but not very clear pond water. I help manage ponds where Secchi disk water clarity is easily 10 to 15ft. There are ecological methods that help promote clear water conditions. There are several municipal water reservoirs where I analyze algae in the water with Secchi clarities of 8-15 ft. This 10-15ft of water clarity I consider as very clear,,, and then there is ultra clear water as with Secchi disk readings of 30-60+ft as in many low nutrient natural lakes (oligotrophic) and as a famous example Lake Tahoe.

One does not need to use chlorine as most municipalities do to kill the bacteria. As I noted above, options are UV light, iodine, and hydrogen peroxide. Without proper routine monitoring chlorine as drinking water disinfectant can cause residual chemical concerns called Trihalomethanes.

However all bacteria in drinking water should be killed because just one of the wrong common bacteria can cause health issues. E.coli is very common and just one example. E.coli at some density as rare to common is present in almost all pond waters. E.coli bacteria comes from the manure of all warm blooded animals - birds to humans. E.coli strains are good ones and bad ones. IMO it is not worth the health risk of not killing all bacteria in drinking water by one way or another. Even if it is by boiling the water.
Another current national water born illness is the cyclosporiasis outbreak caused by cyclosprora that is a single cell protozoan and not a bacteria. It normally occurs in manure, often human manures.

IMO drinking pond water without proper treatment is a liability to all visitors to that water source.

Interesting stuff

Red Leg,

I did some AI searching yesterday. One of the things I searched was food-grade dyes. (Which are obviously fit for human consumption.) It said there are some good blue dyes that might work for that application. I assume they will be quite expensive, but maybe worth you doing some additional research?


P.S. A few years ago, I contemplated building a cool-water fish species pond at my warm location. I speculated about buying some cheap tarps (or even super-cheap used bill board tarps - there is a current thread on those) and using those for shade. I would put the most reflective side "up".

They would quickly be destroyed in Kansas winds by any method of suspending them above the pond. So I figured why not float them? I would build some large rectangular frames with 3/4" PVC pipe to exactly fit the tarps I bought.

Floating them in the pond should reduce heat gain due to sunlight penetration, reduce evaporation, and they will probably develop a nice population of periphyton on the wet side of the tarp and pipes.

If the tarps are NOT reflective enough, you may need to suspend a portion of the tarp to create an insulating air gap. Leave a little give in your tarp attachments, and suspend some sealed jugs under the tarp to float a large percentage of the surface area. You could partially fill milk jugs, bleach jugs, etc. to get the exact amount of buoyancy you desire.

Just thinking out loud. You can probably come up with some better solutions that will match your specific requirements better.

Good luck on your pond project. I suspect lots of members envy you a little bit for having a pond that is too clear!

Several very important questions about your pond water, dye, yellow perch concerns.
1. Do you bottom diffuser aerate this pond?
2. What is the actual measured depth of the pond when full?
3.. Do you have a secchi disk?
4. Are you using pond dye - if yes what brand?
5.. What green type plants do you have growing in the pond?