All You Need To Know About Pond Dyes
Many garden centers and agricultural supply stores sell consumer-grade pond dye products. This may be convenient, but NOT your best value. Most pond dyes, either gallon or quart are rated at 1-2 million gallons treatments per bottle. Ultimately you must refer to the individual label for proper dosage.
The pond and lake professionals at Smith Creek Fish Farm can assist with calculating your pond or lake volume if needed. One Acre (43, 560 Square Feet) one foot deep is equal to 325,851 U.S. gallons Generally Pond Dyes are sold in 3 color options.
Standard Blue Pond Dyes
Standard blue pond dyes like Crystal Blue or our full concentrate Smith Creek Blue Pond Dye Acid blue #9 is the main ingredient to create the blue color. Acid Blue #9 is an organic compound classified as a triarylmethane dye, which refers to its chemical structure. Known under various commercial names, it is a colorant for foods and other substances.
Blue-Green Pond Dye
Blue-Green Pond Dye is a blend of blue and yellow dye-making a turquoise blue or “ocean-like'' color. The addition of yellow dye increases the green coloration and blocks a wider spectrum of UV rays than the standard blue pond dye color alone.
Black Pond Dye
Black pond dye blocks vision very well looks nice as a reflection pond and is an efficient bird blocker.
Black Pond Dye Concentrate, (Shop Now)
All pond dyes can help prevent fish from being eaten, injured, or killed by predatory birds. The blue heron and other wading or diving birds prey on spawning game fish, cruising trout, and valuable Koi.
Blue/Black pond dye Is often mixed at 60% blue and 40% black. Some of our customers prefer to buy them separately and mix the two pond dye colors as they like.
How do Pond Dyes Work?
Pond dyes work by coloring and tinting the water a shade of dark blue, black, or blue-green. Tinting your pond water not only covers the brown or greenish look, but it acts as a sunscreen for your pond or lake, keeping out excess sunlight. UV rays can damage your beneficial bacteria.
When using Beneficial Bacteria Products it is a good idea to use pond dye to block excessive sunlight that would harm the bacteria you are trying to propagate to consume your excess muck and organic nutrients.
When do you Apply Pond Dye?
Aquatic pond dyes should be applied in early Spring. March and April applications are best. In southern states, pond dye is often applied year-round.
How do you Apply Pond Dye?
Application of pond dye is as easy as pouring the dye into the water or throwing it in a pond dye toss pack. Your pond dye will quickly spread throughout the pond, usually within a few hours. If you have a fountain or aerator you should run it during application. Pond dye and lake dye will naturally diffuse throughout the water and there is no need to use a sprayer to spread out the application evenly. Pouring the dye directly from the bottle at three or four spots around the shore is sufficient.
Be careful! When applying the undiluted pond dye concentrate will stain clothing and skin, but once diluted in the pond or lake, it will not stain. Smith Creek now carries Water Soluble pond dye toss packs to make the application faster and cleaner!
The initial spring application will begin to fade, within a month or two, as runoff from rain dilutes the dye concentration. Gradually color is lost due to photo-degradation and biodegradation because the dye is an organic compound. As the dye fades, “touch-up” applications may be needed. Maintaining the correct level of blue color throughout the season. Professional quality dyes, that are EPA registered, can be easily purchased online where legal or applied by certified aquatic applicators in your area. ***Pond Dyes are not pesticides and should not be considered an alternative to EPA registered pesticides. Summary The key to effectively using pond dye is to make the initial application early and continue to add more pond coloring as needed throughout the season.
Please contact a Smith Creek Fish Farm expert if you have any questions about our products or need advice.