How do I get the bad bacteria out of my breeder pen ponds? I have heard of barley balls and copper sulfate as well as enzymes and chemicals. What works best for the least amount of expense? any suggestions?
Joined Apr 2009
1,428 Posts | 0+
Northeast Wisconsin
They have automatic ritchie waterers but they still drink from the yucky pond. I valbazen for the flukes but the young ones get sick when they drink from it. I practice the disease triad so I want to kill the source rather than treat for the symptom. Of course our beloved govt officials(DNR) wont let us fill in the pond which was my original thought. Fencing it off is an option but I would rather have a clean healthy pond and not worry about it. You are right, I learned from Eugene and Carol a long time ago "water/mud and deer dont mix" is what they told me. Any Ideas?
You could use some kind of a fountain or I have seen some pump air into an aerator with an air compressor. That will move the water and get rid of the algae. You could even throw in some goldfish to help clean it.
get a aquarium test kit and test the water and it will tell you what you need . it test PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate. also call https://www.thepondguy.com/ 866-POND-HELP
He's not allowed to fill it Scott...so I would fence it Grundy and fence it ''yesterday''. Do not waste any time on keeping them from that water. Nothing but problems will arise from it...big problems...as in dead deer!
Thanks guys for the great info. I contacted 4 local lake n pond contractors and they all said start a program next spring. Too late and costly to do anything now, not cost effective. Luckily, the drought is helping and the ponds are drying up, and the deer dont get to ingest it any more.There are no more sick deer. Hopefully they stay dry until freeze and we can start our management of the ponds program. A rare occasion indeed when you thank a drought. But in this case it is good. Thanks for the advise it helped.
I would say that pumping it dry would be the least expensive. If you want the water there, I would suggest making the pond as "healthy" as possible. This would mean adding a fountain or aerators, some plants and animals to the pond to keep the water as clean as possible, and possibly cleaning the bottom of the pond to remove sediment. I would think there would be some fish you could add to eat off mosquito larva and other little pest. This would certainly be more time consuming though.
Joined Oct 2009
3,165 Posts | 1+
upstate ny
Grundy said:
Your land,Your pond and they say you cant fill it in. I thought we were in a different world than that. I would ask no questions and take care of my animals!!! Fill it in!!!!!
Joined Apr 2009
1,428 Posts | 0+
Northeast Wisconsin
It must be classed as a wetland, which you cannot fill. Also it would be nearly impossible to pump dry then either. Eliminating it from the fenced area is about all you can do and keep your deer healthy.
Joined Apr 2009
1,562 Posts | 0+
cental Pennsylvania
I have a spring fed pond in my stocker buck pen, 5 years and no trouble, its small, only about 24 foot diameter, 3 feet deep. I stocked it with bluegills, maybe about 8-10 of them a few years ago. those handful of bluegills have now turned into about 100 or more. I also had to add some baby snapping turtles to lower fish numbers, also some common water turtles to eat some of the bullfrogs and tadpoles. It is acually a pretty healthy little ecosystem in there, I think that helps keep the water healthy and keeps all the biting bug larva in check, I dont feed the fish at all, so in a summer evening the fish are jumping and eating bugs off the water surface all night long. I tried aquatic plants, but everytime i add something the bucks eat it immediately. My bucks will actually lay in the water of the pond edges on the hottest summer days, helps relieve some of the stress from the heat and bugs. The pond does get some algea if its hot and we dont get rain for a few weeks, but my bucks love to eat the algea.
I majored in fisheries and aquaculture in college, there are so many bad things in stagnant and even running water that no matter what you do for treatment, you will not solve the problem. Aquatic insects, crustaceans, birds, manure, runoff, etc. all contribute to the concentration of pathogens, microorganisms, parasites, toxins, and pollutants especially in stagnant water. E. coli, giarrdia, dysentary, crypto, norovirus, just to name a few. I would exclude it immedietly. Your local health dept. will ussually test water samples for free and tell you all of the nasties that are present in a sample.