Dones 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

Bing, Aquashade is registered with the EPA for weed & algae prevention, but it has a label warning to not apply to water that is to be used for human consumption. Below is a link to the manufacturers web site:

http://www.appliedbiochemists.com/

I'd email your question to them.

Aquashade, and other pond dyes, will prevent submerged algae from growing, but it will do nothing for mats of algae on the surface or duckweed. Also, you have to consider other effects of the pond dye. It will prevent beneficial submerged aquatic vegetation from growing, which can inhibit the ponds capacity to process nutrients, which can lead to more algae. Pond dye can also disrupt the food chain, which is a problem if you are managing for quality fishing.

I'd look at other alternatives in your situation, like aeration, encouraging beneficial native aquatic vegetation, and spot cutrine plus treatments, if necessary.

Your water-filtration system makes a lot of sense. Have any photos you care to share with Pond Boss readers? If so, send them to me at:

Mark McDonald
Editor, Pond Boss
34 Herff Road
Boerne, TX 78006

Aerial photos, shots taken from an elevated camera, would be especially instructive. Your methods and materials would be of great interest to a broad cross-section.

BTW, in ponds that have a lot of flow-through, water dyes are less effective in controlling vegetation than in ponds of standing water.

Thanx,

McD

Bing - From pond owners experience in northern midwest, reasonable amounts of aquashade (0.5 to 1ppm) will be removed by a couple steps of your treatment process.
1. chlorine will bleach it out, possibly chemically deteriote it. Check with Applied biochemists for verification.
2. Activated carbon filter will absorb most of the remaining organic residual from the acid blue and acid yellow dyes in aquashade.
3. Alum treatment may also have an impact on aquashade by absorbing some of the dyes. Ask Applied Biochemists for verification.

NOTE. Aquashade also contains an emulsifier and dispersing agent, monoethanolamine at less than 1%. This is not appproved by the US Food & Drug Admin. (FDA) as a food additive but it is allowed in as a pharmaceutic aid. I am pretty sure (Ask Applied Biochemists) that acid blue and acid yellow dyes are approved by FDA as food additives. EPA says you cannot use it in drinking water because it does not have a EPA registration permit. Check it out.
PS I would not drink water with aquashade, I would have my treatment system remove it so I did not have to drink it.

Another Note. No component in your water treatment system listed above has the ability to remove copper from the water, unless the whole house filter includes a reverse osmosis system (RO)or an ionic resin filter. Water treatment standards (EPA) do not allow water comsumption with copper levels above 1.3ppm.
Ohio EPA does not allow municipalities to use Cutrine in reserviors for algae control because of its potentially long residual time in the water column.

When I was a kid, my grandparents pulled their water for bathing and the commode out of a pond. Drinking water came from a well, when it developed problems, drinking water came from a tank that caught the run-off rain from the roof of the house. My grandpa would move the drain pipe from the gutters out of the tank untill it rained a while, to wash dust and bird poop off, and then he would move the drain pipe so that it filled the tank. And that is what we drank.

When you state that the water from the pond is being used in the home, is it consumed by the people, or just used for washing? That would make all the difference in the treatment needed.

Bing said that the water was good tasting so they are drinking it. From his description his water treatment system is high quality. The only question I had was the RO filtration. One could safely drink his water without the RO filtration. His water with the carbon filtration is more pure than water provided by many "cities". Very few cities pass their water though carbon filters which, when properly maintained, remove lots of dissolved organic chemicals such as agri herbicides, dyes, etc, plus many others.