Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Inquiry about surface film on my pond

Hello,
I have a question about a phenomenon on my private pond. I've had it for about 5 years and it's always very clean and pretty in appearance. This year going into fall we started getting an almost oil slick looking layer on the top, which the wind pushes around a little bit. I've done the usual googling and read anything from biofilm, to pollen to algae, not sure if I should be worried about it or not. The pond is maybe 1/3 acre and about 10-11 ft deep, spring fed. It's a popular swimming hole so we'd like to keep it nice.

I'm hoping the picture links below will be enough to look familiar to someone that's experienced the same thing. I'll appreciate any feedback you can provide. Thank you!

[img:center]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1azVz8va2gl-XD2f4TdTnFaKrzl5rcvN4[/img]

[img:center]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CpxwBUnwJctCpu_2VlswN2B9cRyrogU0[/img]

I had some fun surface scums going on this year and talked with the forum here (starts about half way down - 7/10/19)...

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=39072&Number=508352#Post508352

I never really found out what it was specifically, but it ran it's course. Most of the time, these things are nothing to be concerned about and quite difficult to diagnosis without a specialist getting involved. I found the following guide that, at least, helped me determine that my scum was not the death hand...

Pond Scum Field Guide link...

https://www.townofchapelhill.org/home/showdocument?id=28866

The oil film at my pond seemed to come an go with wind activity and, certainly, rain. Once, the pond got neither for several days and it turned into a pretty interesting floaty scum (see thread link above), but was short lived and all is good now. In fact, the surface conditions at my pond have been very nice for the last several weeks/months. I can tell you that the rag weed and mares tail pollen were off the charts this year around my place and it makes me wonder if floating pollen can fuel surface biological activity???

At any rate, welcome to the forums from another Missourian! Sorry I can't answer your questions directly, but, hopefully, I have given you some ammunition.

Is there still this film on your pond now?

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm inclined to just let it go thru winter, seems like something that will go away...certainly hope so!

There are lots of things that cause surface films. I did not see much of a film from the picture. It is hard to tell the features of the film just from the picture. Some surface films are very hard to get a good picture of it so it shows the characteristics.

Quarter Acre, thank you for that link to the field guide. I've had a surface film on and off that looked like an oil sheen. It seems to be bacterial instead.