Pond "Foam" Problem

[mrtrumpet]

I have had recurring instances this year of heavy amounts of "foam" blanketing my pond. The good news is that it doesn't seem to be bothering fish or plants. However, it is annoying and I'm wondering what might be causing it.

Water chemistry checks out. A little high on Ph at about 8.5, and a little high on amonia at .25. I cleaned my filters and am hoping that helps the amonia. And the most recent outbreak follows a dusting of sodium percarbonate to remove string algae. But it's been over 2 months since the prior dusting and foam has still occurred regularly.

Pond is 1,000 gallons, approximately 6x10, 4 ft deep at maximum depth. Stream and 5 falls are about 30 feet long and drop aggressively and narrowly down a mountain side, roughly 45 degree angle. Lots of aeration in the stream that hits the small pond at the bottom with lots of bubbles. I'll try to upload a video to demonstrate this if anybody thinks that's the issue.

Foam seems to get worse after a neavy rain, which we've been having a fair amount of recently. Acid rain, maybe? We are East of the Appalachian Mntn. border (50 miles) from Tennessee and the TVA coal fired power plants.

Anybody have any idea what's causing this? Pic attached.

Thanks.

 

[MitchM]

There shouldn't be any ammonia reading at all.
What do you have for circulation at the bottom of the pond?
Have you ever tested your rain water for ammonia?
Which direction does your prevailing wind come from?

 

[sissy]

To me it just looks like undisolved oxygen .I get it and it is white like that also .When i turn off aerator to see what happens it is gone in about a half hour ..

 

[mrtrumpet]

Thanks, guys. Mitch, prevailing winds come from the West. Have not tested the rain for ammonia. Good idea to check for that and anything else. Also have no circulation in the bottom. Just the liner covering the dirt. I think the ammonia reading was because I hadn't cleaned fish poop out of the filters in a while. At least that's what I'm hoping. I'll check again in another day or so to see where it's at.

Sissy, I think you may be right about undissolved oxygen. The force of the water coming down the mountainside appears to maybe be too much for the small pond. But I don't have an aerator (except in winter) so I guess my only control is to slow down the flow and see what happens.

Thanks for your ideas!

 

[barryian]

I have had recurring instances this year of heavy amounts of "foam" blanketing my pond. The good news is that it doesn't seem to be bothering fish or plants. However, it is annoying and I'm wondering what might be causing it.

Water chemistry checks out. A little high on Ph at about 8.5, and a little high on amonia at .25. I cleaned my filters and am hoping that helps the amonia. And the most recent outbreak follows a dusting of sodium percarbonate to remove string algae. But it's been over 2 months since the prior dusting and foam has still occurred regularly.

Pond is 1,000 gallons, approximately 6x10, 4 ft deep at maximum depth. Stream and 5 falls are about 30 feet long and drop aggressively and narrowly down a mountain side, roughly 45 degree angle. Lots of aeration in the stream that hits the small pond at the bottom with lots of bubbles. I'll try to upload a video to demonstrate this if anybody thinks that's the issue.

Foam seems to get worse after a neavy rain, which we've been having a fair amount of recently. Acid rain, maybe? We are East of the Appalachian Mntn. border (50 miles) from Tennessee and the TVA coal fired power plants.

Anybody have any idea what's causing this? Pic attached.

Thanks.[/QUOTE]

Sodium percarbonate will cause some foaming but should dissipate with water changes over 2 months if you've done them. There are de-foamers that work instantly in minutes but it should clear on its own. Also, did you add anything else that might react with the SP? Also, you have a pH of 8.5 as do I. The ammonia is quite toxic at high pH levels so I'd be more concerned about the .25 than the foam right now.

Meyer Jordan had given me this link and chart. Great tool .... I put the screen shot at .25ppm.
Ammonia is in the toxic range ....

http://www.koiphen.com/forums/koicalcs.php?do=calcnh3c

 

[MitchM]

Thanks, guys. Mitch, prevailing winds come from the West. Have not tested the rain for ammonia. Good idea to check for that and anything else. Also have no circulation in the bottom. Just the liner covering the dirt. I think the ammonia reading was because I hadn't cleaned fish poop out of the filters in a while. At least that's what I'm hoping. I'll check again in another day or so to see where it's at.

Sissy, I think you may be right about undissolved oxygen. The force of the water coming down the mountainside appears to maybe be too much for the small pond. But I don't have an aerator (except in winter) so I guess my only control is to slow down the flow and see what happens.

Thanks for your ideas!

If you have no circulation on the bottom, you may have a buildup of organic matter that is decaying.
You could try adding some aeration on the pond floor or redirecting a pump downwards to stir up the detritus and get it to your filter plus give bacteria exposure to more oxygenated water so the detritus can be broken down.

 

[mrtrumpet]

Haven't checked the ammonia again, but probably will tomorrow. Appreciate the heads up on getting that to 0.

However, I did slow the stream down and also added a rock to the last falls to minimize the splash/oxygen. That did the trick with the foam. Now we're back to a still pond...

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Pond foam is typically caused by an excess of animal based organics in the water column. Foaming is often observed immediately after spawning and after some pond treatments, especially those that promote the increased production of a fish's slime coat, which is constantly being shed. It is particularly noticeable in ponds with a waterfall, aerator, or other sources of water turbulence. It will, over time, dissipate as a result of bacterial action and solar UV exposure.

 

[budgenator]

Foaming is almost always caused by air getting mixed with protein, just like whipping egg whites into meringue. The Problem isn't that you have foam, the Problem is you have enough protein to foam up; protein beaks down to Ammonia and that stresses your fish and can overload your biological filtration. Overloaded biological can suck out too much oxygen from the water.
What I do is

1. Cut back on feeding the fish, less protein in
   
2. Increase aeration (yes this makes more foam),
3. Clean out as much muck from the bottom,
4. Clean the filters, but not too clean, you want them unclogged but with enough biological action to eat the protein and ammonia
5. Crank up the pond skimmer, the skimmer collect the protein foam
6. Scoop the collected foam out of the skimmer and feed it to you land plants, more protein out.

If it's not a lot better on a couple weeks, you probably need more filtration and likely more aeration in the filter so the biologicals work better.

 

[mrtrumpet]

Thanks again guys. Mr. Budgenator, how does one "crank up the pond skimmer?" I think I've done everything else. But I didn't know a skimmer could be "cranked up." Or maybe I don't have one.

Also, for anybody keeping score, Ammonia test yesterday registered 0. Yay!