Help! Water, algae, and Florida heat!

[CarpCharacin]

My best advice would be to keep it out of direct sunlight.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Yeah, just looks like pretty standard algae. Put it out of direct sunlight, and don't worry too much about it. Fish live happily in tanks coated in that stuff, after all. Most algaes aren't toxic.

 

[blackdog043]

Try putting copper in the waterers. If you use pennies, they have to be older than 1982. Pennies made 1983 to date are not pure copper. You can use copper fittings or pipe also. Should still be till organic I guess.

 

[MaryZoe]

Yeah, just looks like pretty standard algae. Put it out of direct sunlight, and don't worry too much about it. Fish live happily in tanks coated in that stuff, after all. Most algaes aren't toxic.

That's what I'm hoping to hear...for my chickens' sake as well as my own!

 

[MaryZoe]

That's what I'm hoping to hear...for my chickens' sake as well as my own!

Try putting copper in the waterers. If you use pennies, they have to be older than 1982. Pennies made 1983 to date are not pure copper. You can use copper fittings or pipe also. Should still be till organic I guess.

My chix are not really organic. I can't afford all that organic feed. But I would prefer copper to bleach. For the environment's sake as well as my chix and my own.

 

[Fishkeeper]

I don't think I would put bleach in their waterer. Copper, probably not preferable? I'm not sure their systems are equipped to handle it in unusual amounts, though I don't have any expertise with copper and chickens.
Maybe try a cloth cover over most of the waterer to reduce the light that gets in? Or put it in the shade. But, really, it should be fine. The nasty blue-green cyanobacteria (not an algae, though it's sometimes called one) is saltwater anyway.

 

[blackdog043]

Copper, probably not preferable?

Look up copper for chicken waterer. I've not heard of any harm done to them. Also people have copper pipes in houses that the water comes from. You can also use copper in bird baths to prevent algae.

Since your name is fishkeeper, don't put copper in anything that you have fish in. I've read that copper is harmful to them. It can lower the oxygen concentration if you have to much in the water.

 

[Anime2lover]

Here are some pics. One of the base of the watered (you can see where it’s hard to clean), and one close-up of a spot I’ve apparently missed for a couple of weeks.

We often got the same in our wateres and it never really caused us trouble. We did make sure to clean it though. We also use our own home made waterers wich are made using solid colored pipes. Havent seen any algea in them yet so far. Had them about a year.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Copper is okay for fish, it's even used as a medication, but is deadly toxic to invertebrates. If you use copper-based medication in a fish tank, it gets into all the decor and silicone, and then you can never keep inverts in that tank again.

Like I said, I don't have any experience with copper and chickens. I'd be inclined to avoid it if I could, just in case it might cause their kidneys some trouble, but I'm certainly not going to say it's toxic. I'm just not inclined to put things into my animals' water to fix things that aren't really a problem, like what are basically aquatic plants.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Bleach is used to keep stuff from growing in human water all the time. Here's a link to the DOH website that suggests it: https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/emergency-disinfection-drinking-water
And here's a screen shot of some of the info:

That being said, I'd be worried about putting it in my chickens' water, too.

I switched from a white bucket to a black bucket, and that seems to have helped with my algae problem. Of course, maybe it's still there but I can't see it as well anymore...

I'm interested in hearing what others suggest. Glad you started this here thread!