My Water troughs are growing mould....

Ben n Deb · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 10:55 am

Hello.

I have a number of water troughs in my pens, and a few of the bigger ones are growing mould... One of them is the dark green mould that grows on the sides of the drum and goes all slimey.

another mould is growing in another drum which turns the water a horrible rusty brown colour which absolutely stinks!

What can anyone suggest about cleaning them, as it grows very rapidly, especially now the weather is heating up.

Also, I've read somewhere that you can put bleach in the water to help deter the mould. Would that not hurt the birds? I'm not sure how much they said to put in the water.

I have ducks and geese as well as chooks using the water troughs.

Roova · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 12:30 pm

Unfortunately one of the only ways to keep mould (or algae in this case) away is regular cleaning and scrubbing of the sides of the water containers.

Sunshine on water will pretty much always result in algae growing. Algae itself won't hurt the ducks / chooks but you don't want water sitting there too long in summer because if it does become stagnant that's what will harm the ducks / chooks drinking from it.

You can put shade over the top to try to slow the growth down but algae is not something you can really stop without the cleaning and scrubbing. Personally I wouldn't be putting bleach in the water - it can't be good over time. It would also have to be pretty strong to stop a natural process from occuring.

Its a pain thats for sure.

kaydavid · **Joined:** Fri May 21, 2010 7:36 pm **Posts:** 10

Hello,
We use apple cider vinegar in our water and find it very successful ....we use it 2 tbs per litre of water. It also works well for warding off parasites and germs .
Give it a try, you will be happy with the outcome.

Ian Clayton · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 1:02 pm

Hi All

You can puchase a trough blox from your rural store that will control algae and slim. We sell them for $2.95 each. You can only use them is concrete, plastic and fibreglass troughs not for use in steel it will rust them out.
The active ingrediant is copper sulphate. This should be safe for chooks because they add copper sulphate to Laying Mashes. One 200g block will treat 7000 lt of water. They are easy to break up for small containers.

Regards

Ian Clayton

Roova · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 1:45 pm

As long as injesting copper sulphate in both their water and their laying mash doesn't mean the levels are too high it would be worth looking in to.

Maybe do a search on side effects of copper sulphate so you can not only keep an eye on your poultry, but also to make sure the levels aren't dangerous for humans eating any resulting eggs. You might need to know what levels are in their feed and what levels are in this additive first.

I would want to be 100% sure before trying it.

Ben n Deb · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 2:51 pm

Hmmm,

I've got apple cider vinegar in my fridge... bought it ages ago, n don't like it in cooking [smilie=a_doh.gif]

. Will definitely give that a go!

As for the trough blox, I'll have a look into it. Atm, I'm only feeding my birds mixed grain & wheat, so there's no copper sulphate in that - unless they're putting in without telling us!

It's such a pain all the algae, as the trough's are quite large so my ducks and geese can swim, so you don't want to have to change them every day, but the algae is growing too fast!

Thanks for the replies so far!

Ian Clayton · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 3:34 pm

Hi All

In the Course Laying Mash we sell the Copper inclustion rate is 8mg/Kg

Regards

Ian Clayton

speks · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 10:58 pm

there is a product used for preventing algae growth in water for parrots called aviclense. It is harmless and safe for them so it may be safe for chooks...I can get the container in the morning and look at ingredients and list and make sure it is safe....works well but maybe the apple cidar vinegar would work out cheaper and if it helps with prevention of worms etc then it is a double good reason to use that instead...I perfer natural to man made...so will look at that for the parrots as well, see if they will drink it...thanks for the tip

Speks

THECHOOKSTIG · **Posted:** Fri Oct 01, 2010 5:17 am

The wife uses apple cider vinegar in the chooks water after a light scrub of the dispenser it doesn't stop it all together but it means I only get her to scrub them out once a week.

She also uses it to rinse off the 5 dogs at bath time for flea prevention

ozonaire · **Joined:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 1:00 pm **Posts:** 2

the best method for eliminating moulds as well as providing healthy water for your birds is to instal an ozone system(small version of what bottled water companies use.)
visit our website www.ozoneapplications.com.au

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