Im having problems with these waterers*sigh*

The Chickeneer

~A Morning's Crow~
9 Years
Jan 9, 2011
976
52
138
Central Valley California
My automatic DIY waterers are getting green and slimy. I clean them out, once a week, then they start getting green again
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. It's not the water that gets green, its the walls of the bowl and the inside of the bucket. Why does this happen? How do I stop this from happening
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, any remedies. Thanks
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Do you add anything to the water? Some people add apple cider vinegar and it seems to help with the green slime. If needed you can also add bleach but I don't know the concentration. I'm not comfortable adding bleach to drinking water so I use ACV.
 
What material is your DIY waterer made of? I have read that using white or clear plastic encourages algae growth by admitting sunlight. Some BYC'rs have had success painting or covering white PVC or buckets to block the sunlight that causes the algae.
 
There are some threads, blogs and reports done about Oxine AH that eliminates slime and bacteria in watering applications. It does not degrade metals and plastics like bleaches and other chlorines. Google it. And shagbarkbatams.com has good old info on oxine. I use it in some applications.
 
I put 5 100%(1969-1982) copper pennies in the bucket and don't see any green algae growing yet. The automatic nipple setup is about 2 months old. Will see if the copper pennies did the trick.
 
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A good scrubbing of a all surfaces with a good bucket brush can remove invisible slime on plastic that becomes food for next week's algae crop. Plastic needs to be squeaky clean, not just look clean.
 
When I had the 1 gal. plastic vacuum waterers I washed them out, not just rinsed, every day and had no algae problems. Now I have two automatic waterers (one store bought, LG, and one I made myself) that I just rinse out every 3 or 4 days and have no problems
 
One simple solution from my aquarium days--algae needs light, move the waterers away from the light or cover/paint them and you won't have a problem.
 

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