Is your Pond Green with Algae?

With the hot summer months quickly approaching many pond owners are starting to worry about pond algae and the associated mess and smells that it comes with. For those of you who are already seeing algae and green moss in your pond then be warned that it is only going to get much worse if you do not do something about it fast.

The main two reasons algae forms in a pond are;

• lack of oxygen
• excess nutrients, pollutants and other chemicals

So you have two solutions to the problem – a short term fix is to go out and spend several hundred dollars on some pond chemicals to kill off the bloom of algae that is emerging

or…

invest in a long term solution for pond care which is a pond aeration system. To have algae blooming in your pond this early in the year we bet 10 to 1 that you do not already have an aeration system installed in your pond today. Consider taking the long term approach to pond care and invest in a pond aeration system.

A few manufacturers that we strongly support are Koenders Windmills who manufacture both electrical aeration systems and air driven windmill aeration systems. Superior Windmill is another brand of windmills that aerate water. With the cost of energy, the windmills are an excellent alternative to keeping your pond supplied with additional levels of oxygen so that algae and other unwanted vegetation can be controlled and eliminated. The other nice thing about these products, is their reliability, put them up and let them go, you don’t need to do anything to maintain them for years.

Adding fish to consume the excess nutrients in your water is also a good idea, but fish also need oxygen. Avoid fish kill and install an aeration system first before stocking your pond with hundreds of dollars worth of fish such as grass carp, koi, cat fish etc…

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

About Pond Liners

Many pond owners that we hear from are telling us that they have a leak in their ponds and they don’t know what to do about it.

One solution is to keep on pumping more water into the pond to ensure that the water level stays at the desired height… pumping in more water than is leaking out.

The other solution may be to invest in a pond liner. Manufacturers of pond liners have been around for decades but in the last several years new innovations in materials have made pond liners more durable and longer lasting.

The most common pond liners are made out of some form of polyethylene. Companies that have been around for a long time and are offering 20-year warranties on their products are the one’s that you want to strongly consider purchasing from.

Pond liner characteristics that you will want to consider are;

• Is the pond liner chemical resistant?
• Is it UV resistant?
• Is the material flexible and durable enough to withstand extremely cold and/or warm temperatures?
• Is the pond liner strong and durable enough to avoid rips, tears and punctures?
• Is the pond line fish safe?
• What type of surface bottom do you need to prepare in order to ensure the pond liner is covered under warranty and does not puncture?
• Do you have to cover the pond liner with soil after it is in place or is it good in non-soil covered conditions?
• Is the Pond liner approved by the United States Department of Agriculture and for what conditions? – for example – approved for soil or non-soil covered conditions for a certain type of pond up to a certain size.
• Does the pond liner need to be professionally installed or can you do it yourself.

If I was to build my pond over again I would have strongly considered today’s pond liners as a possible solution to ensure that our pond water stays in the pond and does not leak out. Instead to replenish our water we use a windmill water pump system that pumps water from our shallow well up to the pond on a continuous basis. On average about 2 gallons per/minute is pumped into our pond. Keeps the water level at a good consistent height and there are no electricity costs for the operation. The windmill system also aerates the pond so it takes care of the pond maintenance for us without having to invest in pond chemicals and treatments.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

Pond Conditioners versus Pond Chemicals

The difference between pond conditioners and pond chemicals are quite easily distinguishable.

Pond chemicals can be extremely dangerous and toxic if not properly handled and administered. They are called aquatic herbicides similar in form to pesticides.
Why many people are against the use of pond chemicals is because of what these herbicides have been known to do in the past. For example, Agent Orange was a herbicide blend. It was deployed in Vietnam by the U.S. military in the Vietnam war to act as a way to kill the leaves of the trees and foliage so the soldiers could see the enemy. Unfortunately, it affected the health of many of our beloved soldiers.

Pond chemicals and herbicides are also known to cause certain adverse health effects ranging from skin rashes to even death if not handled properly. Direct contact, inhalation from spray or excess usage and leakage into drinking water can all have negative health impacts on humans.

Pond conditioners are commonly known to be environmentally friendly products that only use natural ingredients to address unwanted vegetation, algae and other pond concerns. These forms of pond care do not even require Federal Licenses for they are non-toxic. Pond conditioners are made up of natural and environmentally friendly enzymes and bacteria which combined with adequate amounts of oxygen seek out and destroy unwanted pond growth in a sustainable and sensible manner.

The handling and administration of these forms of pond care are much easier and user friendly. When applied with oxygen, pond conditioners provide a long term approach to pond health.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

Pond Care Classes For Pond Owners

Pond owners have the chance to tap into the knowledge of pond care professionals at no charge. That’s right, this is the time of year where local grain and feed stores and other sponsors conduct free seminars for pond owners. In North America, many of our homes in low density communities have a pond on every property.

The community pressure to ensure that your pond is kept well manicured, healthy and clean is growing. To help pond owners in this effort local commercial businesses usually sponsor pond care classes.

Pond care classes are conducted by industry professionals who present on ways to maintain and clean up ponds. They will teach you about things like; various types of pond vegetation, and alga; types of aeration, and any other issues that you may be experiencing with your water.

You can find out about these pond care classes in your local newspaper and if there is one in your area be sure to attend. The one item that they will always be brought up is, pond aeration. The process of putting oxygen into water.

There are many ways to do this as these professionals will discuss. One of the more innovative ways that you will come to know about is, windmill aeration. With the high costs of energy – windmills are taking the place of the traditional electric aeration systems.

You can learn more about these products by going and visiting some of the web sites of two of the leading manufacturers of windmill aeration systems in North America – Koenders Windmills and Superior Windmill.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

Pond Owners Beware of Mosquitoes

We know its time to alert and educate pond owners of the potential dangers of mosquitoes when we see mosquito activity being published on most North American weather forecasts. Who would ever imagine that we would start checking mosquito activity as we habitually have done for many years with hot cold temperatures.

Pond owners are usually people that enjoy the outdoors, especially during the warm summer days and evenings, activities such as fishing, swimming, BBQ’s are great fun for us all. Unfortunately, there is another party that loves summer too, the mosquito. Mosquitoes are not only one of our worst pests, they give us itchy welts when bitten and can carry various diseases that cause us to worry about the health of our family members and friends.

There are over 2000 different species of mosquitoes in the world and 1/10th of those kinds can be found living in North America. They primarily live in damper more humid areas of the continent.

Mosquitoes go through three life stages before most of us realize they’re around.

First, adult females lay eggs on the surface of shallow water (this is where pond owners will have a problem if they do not keep their ponds healthy, clean and well circulated) or on damp soil. Depending on the species, some eggs will hatch within 2 days while others will survive a whole winter.

When the environment is suitable, mosquito larvae emerge from their eggs. The larvae survive by eating microorganisms in the water and breathing oxygen from the surface (here again is where pond owners can eliminate the chance of mosquitoes surviving on their ponds by keeping their pond water healthy and clean, it eliminates any food source for the larvae). This stage of development typically lasts a week or two.

Mosquitoes then become pupae. This stage of development lasts from 24 to 98 hours and is similar to the transformation that caterpillars go through when the become butterflies.

Finally, the mosquito rests on the surface of the water four about 24 – 48 hours before flying off to reproduce and bite people and animals. At this point they live for about 1 month.
Keep your pond healthy and clean by providing it with adequate levels of pond aeration and stock it with plenty of fish. Fish enjoy eating mosquitoes that are resting on the pond’s surface. You need to make sure that the water is clear so that the fish can see the surface and again this can be achieved by aerating your pond.

Aside from bugging us Mosquitoes also carry various mosquito-transmitted diseases:

West Nile Virus

The most publicized disease in our region of the world is West Nile virus. Medical Scientists suggest that West Nile Virus is now an established seasonal epidemic on the North America continent. West Nile Virus can cause inflammation of the brain and be fatal however this is quite slim and according to the Canadian Disease Center about 150 people per/yr will develop severe illness.

Malaria

Malaria is a more common illness for humans that is transmitted by mosquitoes. It causes up to half a billion infections per/yr and close to a million deaths.

Malaria can produce a wide range of symptoms; Fever, Body aches, High Temperature, Coma, and even death. The areas of the world that are primarily affected by this disease are;

• Central and South America
• Hispaniola
• Africa
• Asia
• Eastern Europe
• South Pacific

Dengue Fever

Dengue fever is contracted in the tropics by a variety of human feeding, day time biting mosquito. Illnesses such as sickness to rare blood disease can be contracted from this pest.

Yellow Fever

This illness is prominent in South America and Africa and is transmitted from human to human via the mosquito. Yellow fever has a vaccination.

There are a number of things pond owners can do to ensure they do not get bitten by mosquitoes.

• Limit the possibility of having pond water conducive to mosquito breeding by keeping your pond healthy and clean.
• Properly aerate and circulate your pond water.
• Apply mosquito repellent but ensure that if you are putting it on children that you have child safe repellent.
• Stock your pond with insect eating predators such as koi fish, or less decorative bass.
• Wear long-sleeves, long pants and socks when outdoors.
• Stay indoors during peak mosquito biting times such as dawn, dusk.

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com

Government Facts on Pond Aeration Using Windmills

Citizens Concerned about the Quality of Municipal Pond Water

Listed below is an email to Pond Owner Magazine from a concerned citizen about the health of their Municipal Ponds. What we have done is published our answer along with links to government studies that prove pond aeration works.

There are several forms of pond aeration – clearly the most effective is Bottom Up Aeration which aerates water from the bottom of the pond to the top.

One of the most ineffective methods of pond aeration are fountains. They are both costly to operate and only provide aerating to the top few feet of the pond’s surface.

One of the most effective methods of aeration are windmills. Koenders Windmills has recently developed a 25 FT Uni-Pole Windmill aeration System especially for Municipal Ponds. The uni-pole prevents people and animals from climbing up the windmill and it just below the 30 FT height restriction some times imposed for windmills by regional by-laws. Koenders Windmills have been building windmill aeration systems for 20 years and helps do away with the use of chemicals to treat water which is regarded as a short term fix to any pond algae problem. The cost of these units are a fraction of what the costs are of fountains and for under $5,000 both your ponds could be aerate on an ongoing basis with no costs of operation. Windmills aeration systems self operate and a practically maintenance free. They run of the free wind and are built to last decades.

Here are a few government studies about the positive effects of pond aeration for you to present to your local government – also have your local government read the other articles that are posted here on Pond Owner.

PFRA – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

PFRA Study on Water Quality

Copper treatment for dugouts
PMRA Information Bulletin

Dugout aeration Flash animation

Dugout covers

Dugout coagulation

How to aerate your dugout

Myths about dugout aeration

Solar powered dugout aeration

Why aerate your dugout?

Basic electric
aeration installation details and standard aeration drawings: (pdf files)

• small single
  diaphragm
• small
  dual diaphragm
• Koenders compressors
• installation
  components
• bleeder
  device options
• diffuser connection
  1
• diffuser
  connection 2
• condensation
  tank construction

Research paper about performance characteristics of aeration devices

Dugout aeration system operation(1,174Kb pdf)

Electric powered air compressors for dugout aeration (246Kb pdf)

- – - – - – -

Hello Pond Owner,

Our community has two large ponds in our central park.

For years, the Parks Department has been running fountain aerators with a high GPM to supply extra oxygen to the ponds to aid in the natural cleanup process.

However, because of improper maintenance, those aerators have repeatedly broken down, and at the end of last summer, all of them died and are no longer functional.

A small committee of concerned citizens is asking the city to replace those fountain aerators with new, high GPM fountain aerators because we are concerned about the health of those ponds. When the aerators have broken down in the past, there was noticeable odor and algae buildup along the shore. We also want the city to allow a private company to maintain the new aerators (install, removal, cleaning, heated storage, and maintain the seals and oil) so they are taken care of properly.

The city has decided to remove the funding for new aerators so we are trying to get them to amend the budget to fund the two new aerators. They say there are two schools of thought about pond aeration, and one school says aeration does nothing to help with the health of ponds.

Our committee thinks otherwise, but w e need some proof. Here’s my question: Do you know of any research studies that show that fountain aeration helps ponds stay healthy?

We would appreciate any help you could give us.

Thanks,

R. B.

Fitchburg, WI

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
www.pondowner.com