Lake Dye, AquaShade

[jwroblew]

So the past 2 years I have been dying my shallow lake to keep weed growth down, and it has worked very well. This year I guy I ski with says instead of buying AquaShade / Admiral, I know a guy who knows a guy that can get us the raw ingreadiants for half the cost. Reluctantly I agree. The other day he delivers the blue and yellow dye, I ask him about how to disperse it in the lake, he said just put the powder in and that's it, I than asked the ratio and he said 1:1. That's what I have a problem with, AquaShade has a blue : yellow ratio of 12.5:1 and Admiral has a ratio of 15:1. I know yellow dye is more expensive, but is that the only reason the ratio is so low in AquaShade and Admiral, or is it for other reasons? Plus if I go 1:1 I would think the lake would turn out green, instead of blue.

[A_B]

I would go 10:1 at least, maybe 15:1.

The purpose of the yellow is to block light at a different range of the light spectrum from the blue. We added only blue for years and put some yellow in here and there, and significantly reduced our algae. Yellow is a bonus in my view, not necessarily needed.

 

It for sure is not 1:1.

 

Be extremely careful of the powder, it will get all over everything and as soon as water hits it, viola, everything is blue. We used it one time and it is so light, it blows all over and you don't see it, until wet. I think if I was doing it again, I would mix with water on shore in 5 gallon buckets and dump in that way. Liquid is much easier to handle.

 

I think we ended up tieing the plastic bag to a rope and slitting it with a knife and dragging behind the boat. Be very mindful or which direction the wind is blowing, always be up wind!

 

This pic is evidence of the powder problems.

[jwroblew]

I was thinking of premixing a "concentrate" in my garage in two 15 gallon containers so wind is not an issue. The picture has just made up my mind.

[A_B]

This is a UV light ray vs. dye chart. Blue blocks a majority.

 

http://media.rsc.org/Modern%20chemical%20techniques/MCT4%20UV%20and%20visible%20spec.pdf

 

The other color we got was yellow/red, called Tartrazine. It has more hazard warnings than the blue. Although both are used as food colorants in foods. IT is more orangish in appearance, even though it is labelled yellow dye #3, I think...

 

Once your lake is dyed, you only need smaller amounts each year to recharge due to evaporation and rain runoff. We put too much in one year as a recharge, and eveyone wondered where the palm trees were... It looked like we were in Hawaii.

[eleeski]

Do not premix in your garage!!!! You will never get your garage clean. The dust is pervasive and extremely concentrated.

 

Pick a calm wind and put the material in from a remote part of shore. Do not go from the boat. You will never get the boat clean.

 

Use gloves and a dust mask. Walk into reasonably deep water and carefully dump the material. The big concentrated pile will disperse completely in a day or two. You should be OK to ski in a couple of hours. Back out of the lake washing yourself and the buckets on the way out. You will be Smurfed. Shower with lots of soap. Blue buggers - gross. If you must totally clean your hands, Clorox helps but there will be some blue left on you for a couple of days.

 

Statice Green proved to be more effective than Blue. A bit more expensive. It is worth it to have them mix and package in single use sizes (25lbs per lake).

 

Aquashade is much easier and safer.

 

Kirk wants me to turn the lake purple - just for the fun of it. Maybe I should put various colors in a slow dispersal and get a tie-dye lake.

 

Eric

[A_B]

@eleeski, Green may be a combo of the yellow with blue, which is what we get when we do both.

Do you know the % yellow in the Statice Green?

[eleeski]

It is a stock Keystone color option. I don't know percentages. Your 10:1 sounds reasonable. The lake ends up a pretty blue green and with a little less weed growth.

 

Eric

[The_MS]

I think the powder packs are awesome. Just put on some rubber gloves, walk down the shore and toss them in.

 

[Marco]

Are the powder packs less expensive than Aqua Shade for treating equivilent volumes? We're paying about $45 per gallon for Aqua Shade.

 

Where do you buy the powder packs?

[The_MS]

It is about the same price. We always used Bayou Blue from Tractor Supply. Google Lake and Pond dye and you will have lots to research.

[AggieSkier]

Be careful throwing dye packs out from the shore.

 

A neighbor's yellow lab saw LakeOneSkier throw a dye pack in the lake. The dog retrieved it and ended up with a blue tongue.

[Marco]

Thanks @MS. If there is no cost savings, we'll probably stick with Aqua Shade. We can buy it at our local Producers Co Op, and have gotten pretty good at distributing it by boat with no mess.

[A_B]

I treated my 2K foot lake, that is 18 feet deep, by average of 300+ wide, with about $650 of concentrate. Maybe 1/3 to 1/2 each year to recharge. Depends on rain and hot weather.

[kurt]

this will be my 2nd summer with the lake after it was dug when did you guy's start seeing weed problems with your lakes ?

also is the dye cheaper than doing a weed killer?

[jwroblew]

Weed killer works but you have to do it multiple times during the year, and every year its worse. The dead decaying weeds add nutrients to the water which makes weeds grow even better. Plus after years of decaying weeds the bottom gets real mucky

[A_B]

Our lake is 18 foot deep, so don't really have a weed issue. Ours was algae on the shoreline. We have owned the lake for 27 years, and I think it was around for 10+ years before we bought it. I think algae became an issue about year 15 or 20. We tried cutrane, copper sulfate, etc., little plastic bags of micro-somesuch stuff to eat the algae, nada. Only temporary relief, and thousands each year on bags of stuff, and time to apply.

 

We added blue concentrate and maybe 20 Amurs and it dropped our problems down to almost none existent. Like I outlined above, you can probably treat most lakes with concentrate for around $700 or less, and then figure half of that annually to recharge it.

 

We have skied right after treatment, and it is pretty weird, as there are very dark blue, almost midnight blue pockets you ski in and out of until it is dispersed.

 

It is the only way to go for us. I would assume the dye would knock down the sun that makes weeds grow, as advertised by Aquashade and others.

 

If you look at Aquashade, you will spend a couple thousand to treat it with similar quantity of solids (which is what dyes the water).

[kurt]

AB did you find one brand that works better or is cheaper & where do you purchase ? also can you adjust how much you put in ,our lake is a nice tealish aqua color now and I don't want it to look un-natural I guess. It sounds like our lakes are similar in size mine might be a little shallower on average

[A_B]

Kurt, shoot me an email.

amjbishop

at

yahoo

 

[A_B]

Just in case anyone wants more info on dyes for controlling algae and weeds.

Here is a informational link.

 

http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/aquashade_red.pdf

 

 

[eleeski]

I feel like our environment is so much better protected now. No wonder our taxes are so high.

 

Eric