Information required, please!

[Jenny]

I understand that last year we had some changes to EU water quality regulations (and our water tastes and smells much nastier as a result!).

I have a small shallow pond (that needs replacing as it's not really wildlife friendly) and whilst we normally have loads of rain, keeping levels up is usually ok. This last fortnight we've had no rain and loads of sun, with little wind and, having used up the contents of my waterbutt to top up the pond, I'm concerned about the pond and wildlife if topping up with mains water as I don't know the effect of the chemicals added will have.

What is the impact on our wildlife who use ponds and waterbaths of this change? Did any of you notice any changes to your ponds last year or since?
And have you had trouble getting waterbutts if you live (as I do) in a normally water plentiful area? I have had one order on hold for nearly a year because of the drought in SE England and the backlog of demand but I don't want to poison our wildlife here. If anyone is feeling sarcastic, having a water meter here would cost twice as much as our rates bill before any water is used - I use waterbutts because it is sensible to conserve water. I wish I still had water off the hill - tasted better, okay brown and with odd bug but you get immunity to that!

Any advice to mitigate the impact of chemical treatments would be appreciated. Thanks, J.

[tarling]

Hi Jenny,

I think the recent improvements to water quality regs are extremely unlikely to make any discernable different to either the taste of your water or it's suitability for wildlife. I monitor our pond water and have seen no changes here. The changes may be due to local treatments or your supply coming from a different source perhaps? If in doubt contact your water company and/or use a filter for the water you drink.

Usually it's the disinfectant gas chlorine dissolved in water that gives the taste and smell (this is why cats sometimes won't drink fresh tap water - the chlorine if it comes off is a heavy gas and sits on top of the water - just where kitty is sniffing it). In general for wildlife you don't want too much chlorine but you do want dissolved oxygen (which is what makes a cup of tea taste fresh - why we use freshly drawn water for tea-making).
For most wildlife there's no problem at all adding some (say up to 10%) tap water to a pond. I think it's helpful to add water of about the same temperature and to mix well. When you consider some of the sources of water that you do see wildlife drinking, then your pond is probably the equivalent of finest mineral water - and of course the birds can often be choosy and drink elsewhere if something smells off.
If you have fish in your pond it might be more of an issue, but unless you're considering Koi I really don't think it's a worry (but you can always use a suitable treatment such as TetraPond Watersafe if you do have fish).
It seems as if there are plenty of waterbutts in the local garden centres now - after some shortages last year (never mind the water shortage, what about the waterbutt shortage!)


Anyway some possible tips:

1) rather than add tapwater directly into your pond via a hose, try a fine spray onto the surface (may help lose some chlorine, gets a more even mixing of temperatures and may help oxygenate).

2) again using a find spray add your tap water to your waterbutt and then leave it for a while to equilibrate and lose some chlorine (at the worst period I've used a pond bubbler in the waterbutt to drive off chlorine while keeping oxygen - but for a wildlife pond this would not be necessary unless you were really trying to replace most of the water in the pond).

Good luck, Stephen.

[Jenny]

Stephen,

Thanks for your comprehensive reply. :) Using the fine spray sounds a good idea (perhaps in combination with my solar fountain (?)) for the pond. The dog will have to be incarcerated though, as a hosepipe means a game to him!!

We have had our water "improved" over last couple of years - more chlorine and fluoride etc. - that we didn't have with our water off the hill (spring). Believe me, I would rather drink London's 7 x recycled water than this stuff! ;) I've contacted our water lot and they "are investigating" as I'm not the only complainant!

I don't have fish (they'd not stand a chance with the heronry down the road!) - know I could deter them but then would have problems with sparrowhawk as she's often catching birds on the edge of the pond.

Err, this is going to sound like we're really in the sticks - well guess we are - but no garden centres!! However, my local building suppliers are searching for a waterbutt for me and that means I don't have delivery charges (most companies won't deliver to an island:mad: ) and I'll get my 20% discount!! Might get two with the link system!

Stephen, pardon my ignorance, but what's "bubbler", please? Jenny

[PiratesAhoy!]

Stephen, pardon my ignorance, but what's "bubbler", please? Jenny

Hope he doesn't mnid me replying for him, but I suspect he means something similar to this:

http://www.improvementscatalog.com/home/improvements/91392-water-wiggler.html

Doesn't look like CJ sell them at the moment.

[tarling]

Thanks PiratesAhoy! and Jenny

Sorry - I should have been clearer: a pond aeration pump is what I meant by 'bubbler' - as is often the case a web search engine might have identified it! In a similar way to the sorts of airstones or bubbling units we see in fish tanks there are little unit for ponds nowadays - usually mains power to a very small quiet pump and a long piece of tubing to run it to the pond ending in a piece of finely pervious stone (like pumice).
The one I happen to have got is a Ubbink Air 100 (£12 from a local garden centre: Woodcote Green Nursery, consumption 3W gives 100 l/hr down 10m of tubing) - but there are plenty of others, see for instance
http://www.cmcaquatics.com/main.asp?category=Air+Pumps
or
http://www.aquatics-warehouse.co.uk/acatalog/A000_INTERPET_167.html
or
http://www.petsparade.co.uk/koi-pond/aeration/
etc. etc.


I only got such a pond aeration pump because I've got a lot of fish in my pond - probably too many for the size of the pond. However I didn't overstock the pond: I just put 5 smallish goldfish in a dozen years ago and they did the rest! A local heron pops down to do a bit of population thinning now and again, but meanwhile I need to keep a fairly vigorous filtration and oxygenation regime in place - and plenty of the right sorts of bacteria. Even in a London postcode we get plenty of birds come to the pond; the highlight for us was a grey wagtail, and we get frogs, newts, dragonflies and damselflies, fox come to drink, heron pops in for a snack now and again. Once we had a rather proud pair of mallards for a day or two – but it’s much too small for them.



Anyway I can also use the 'bubbler' in a waterbutt to oxygenate that a bit (and I understand it helps displace the chlorine if I've topped up the barrel with tap water). **However I really emphasise that I think this would be totally unnecessary if you're just providing a wildlife pond which the birds can use for drinking - even if you are topping it up with your local drinking water.**

Yes: we got two waterbutts with a link system and it does last longer over the summer. Ahh - the penny had dropped - the St. Andrew's flag and talk of an island: now I see why garden centres and delivery may be a problem...

By the way fluoride is pretty tasteless in drinking water. Are you sure it’s something added to the water rather than taken away – I can imagine that for someone used to good sweet spring water – perhaps slightly peaty or with a good deal of dissolved minerals then heavily purified and processed water might taste flat – and then if chlorine was added it could be quite a surprise! If you are NOT metered have you tried leaving the tap on for a while to get to deep-main water and seeing if that is any different - if so it might be your local pipes. Anyway if your Water Company are investigating and being encouraged by a number of complaints that should help. There are plenty of good web sites on water quality for the consumer. Unfortunately as far as I know there are no regulations on the taste of drinking water!

Good luck, Stephen

[Jenny]

Stephen,

Thanks for further explanation - I know what you mean now about a bubbler! I've put my solar fountain in pond as having to add quite a lot of tap water and with the sunshine it's worked well. We've also had about six hours of rain in the last 24 hours so that's helped a bit! I did let it run on a bit (not on meter - that would cost £1000 pa before we used any!!) but do hate wasting it.

It would appear that we do have a problem; starting from the header tanks for our village all draining at once earlier this year (don't DARE ask how that happened:rolleyes: ) and with all the building work going on it seems pipes are having to be flushed more regularly:mad: . BTW no apology for no water for nearly 36 hours and no bottled water in stock so not supplied - bit drastic when it was bad weather and ferries weren't running so bottled water ran out! My waterbutt came in very useful then!!!

Jenny