Pond Dye Application

Is your pond one of those ponds that just does not look a brilliant blue color after applying your pond dye?  What happened?  Why doesn’t it look like the pond down the road that always has great color?

Each pond is unique.  It has unique characteristics that include suspended sediment, leaf debris, minerals, algae, etc. that affect pond color.  Here are a couple of issues that affect pond dye appearance in a pond and what might be done to alleviate these issues in the pond. 

Tannins caused by decaying leaves can cause a brownish “tea” color in the water.  If blue is added, then the pond appears to be bluish green.  There is very little that can be done to remove tannins from the water.  The best recommendation for a dye in a pond laden with tannins would be to use black dye to produce a natural, flat appearance to the pond.

Another common dye color problem is the presence of brown sediment in the pond.  Often, this situation will actually settle out the color and leave the pond owner with the impression that the dye did not do its job.  Because the dye actually flocculates the suspended clay particles, the dye and clay particles settle out of the water column and accumulate on the pond bottom.  This makes it appear that the dye has done nothing to the pond, since it takes a lot of dye to flocculate all of the clay out of a turbid pond.  The issue of removing the turbidity from a pond should be addressed by adding alum (aluminum sulfate) to the pond in order to flocculate out all or most of the clay particles in the pond.  Only after settling all of the clay out of the water column should dye be introduced.

Green planktonic algae can also affect the appearance of pond dyes in the pond.  The green “pea soup” algae blooms overwhelm any other color and leave the pond with a green appearance no matter how much dye is used.  The algae in this case must be dealt with and dye can be used during treatment.  Once the planktonic algae is controlled, the pond dye will show through and leave the pond owner with a pleasing pond color.

In rare cases, minerals can actually color pond water naturally.  Some minerals leave a blue color naturally to the pond.  These are usually deposits from a natural spring that flows into the pond.  In this case little to no pond dye is necessary to keep the pond color in a good balance. 

Finally, it is important to read the label on your pond dye.  Be sure to use the correct amount of dye for your pond.  Follow the label and be sure to freshen your ponds colorant especially after a heavy rain.