The Proper Way To Treat A Pond With Microbes

Make no mistake, we believe using beneficial microbes in a pond makes a lot of sense...to manage a variety of problems...from odors to water clarity, and at times to keep algae blooms in check.

But to get the best results with any beneficial bacteria product you want to remember a few things, and some of these won't be mentioned on any product labels!

Listed below you'll find a few tips on how to get the best results using any brand of pond bacteria.

Use Aeration

The number one thing you can do to improve the performance of any pond microbial is to have aeration going when you apply the product. The good little bugs used in these formulas are primarily aerobic bacteria, so they need good oxygen levels in the water to do well and thrive. Aeration supports other things in a pond environment too, but where microbes are concerned, you don't want them to be hindered by a lack of dissolved oxygen in the water.

Dose The Product Appropriately

Dosing a microbial product in the right way is very important. Use too little and you won't get the results you want because the product can be diluted by the water volume. Just to note, this does not apply to muck reduction bacteria in pellet form, just the pond-wide microbial treatments.

You should know, or be able to calculate your pond's water volume. In a simple way you can do that by multiplying the length in feet x the width x the depth, and then take this total and multiply it by 7.65 to get a total gallon volume.

Many microbial products will be dosed by gallon volume, and some by acre feet. In either case you want to check the label on the products at at least use enough to cover the water volume amount. This is your baseline.

You will also want to consider what level of nutrients you might be dealing with in the pond. If there is a lot of muck build up at the bottom, or you have fertilized lawns or fields near the pond, the nutrient level could be very high.

Beneficial bacteria products are very safe to use, even in higher concentrations and sometimes we suggest using twice as much initially as the label may indicate. In this way you can account for not only the pond's water volume but also the nutrient influences affecting it. This is the only way to affect something like an algae bloom which is feeding exclusively on the nutrients in the water column. As this nutrient level drops, algae will often regress as well.

Don't Use With Copper Algaecides

Copper based algaecides like copper sulphate, Cutrine, and others, do not mix well wtih beneficial microbes. In fact these algaecides not only kill algae, but also the good bacteria found in a pond. They work much like an antibiotic...taking out some bad things, and some good things along with them.

So beneficial bacteria and copper should never be mixed or applied at the same time. Waiting a few weeks after the chemical application will usually allow it to dissipate enough to begin using the microbial.

And it's a good idea to do so...because just as your doctor might suggest taking a probiotic after a round of antibiotics to build up your good microbes again...the same can be said for a pond. To reestablish a healthy microbial population, you can either wait for nature to get some going in the pond or you can speed up the process through supplementation.

Be Patient

Microbes often take time to work. Don't expect them to work like a quick killing chemical. They, in fact, don't kill anything. They simply alter, or improve the pond's ecosystem, making it cleaner and more balanced in terms of nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen. In doing so they make it much harder for algae to bloom, or remain in bloom if algae is already present at the time of treatment.