Nasty dam water

[bladeracer]

Thought some of you might have encountered something similar and have some ideas.

With the storms last year we lost a lot of trees (lots and lots).
Some of them fell into the dams - of course.

One of these dams, we're finding the cows are turning their noses up at the water, even when it's pretty warm weather. We're slowing hacking away the fallen trees to get in and drag out the ones in the dam, but I suspect any damage has already been done, and the issue is going to be fixing the problem with the water itself, not simply dragging out the euc's.

I want to get the water tested just to see that nothing really nasty has bred up in there, but it seems a waste until we've got the trees out. The water looks pretty clean, very clear, no residue left in the troughs, but it does have a dark brown stain to it now, almost like a rich tea. They do drink it, but they wait until they're getting desperate, which we don't think is good for them. Doesn't seem to actually harm them so I think it's just a flavour issue.

Anybody encountered anything like this and have any ideas about fixing it?

Our immediate plan is to pump water to a holding tank through a charcoal filter, then feed the troughs from that and see if that helps.

We finally dragged the last tree out of another dam yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOO5IJ1b-7g
It's a euc but the water doesn't seem to have been contaminated at all by nine-months of leeching out the euc goodness. Still quite a lot of dead foliage laying in the bottom that we need to drag out, but the water is still good in this one, the cows love it. After we dragged it out I measured it with a tape at 32.5m, or 106ft. Bit of a pain to access as it fell from the very edge of the creek with the base trapped between other trees. Cutting the bottom junk off risked losing it down into the creek though, so we cut the tree closer to the middle and dragged it out in two parts. Then we had a guess at where the base was rotten up to and cut 3.5m off the trunk. Rose used the 20" Oleo Mac, which didn't go right through - the cut was about 24".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQfVbQatGdo

[cz515]

Try filling a bottle and then boiling it and drinking it to see if any taste (smell it before boil). If you want send it to envirolab if you want to test it (its in, ringwood).

My logic with animals is if they are thirsty or hungry they will eat/ drink whatever is available.

[bladeracer]

Try filling a bottle and then boiling it and drinking it to see if any taste (smell it before boil). If you want send it to envirolab if you want to test it (its in, ringwood).

My logic with animals is if they are thirsty or hungry they will eat/ drink whatever is available.

I can test it for myself, but that probably won't explain why the cows don't like it.
Yes, sending it for testing is on the cards, but I think it's best to wait until after we have the trees out for that.

Agreed, but for stock their health and comfort reflect their final quality. We'd rather have them happy to drink as soon as they feel the need rather than wait until their bodies are craving fluids.

[Die Judicii]

At a guess, I'd say the issue is Tannin.

[on_one_wheel]

we had a small sheep feedlot up the road, they got a truckload of sheep in from the south east which had been drinking from some of the the best bore water in the country. when they landed here, they turned their noses up to our bore water, the manager of the feedlot waited it out but still they didnt touch the stuff. In the end he had to franticly run a Polly pipe about 2km to the nearest mains water supply.

I recon CZ is on to something, id be betting that the tannin, eucalyptus and whatever else has washed in there has made the water unpalatable, its probably extremely bitter. Iv seen cattle drink some pretty funky water around Maree and especially the Sothern Kimberly but they'd been born and breed on the stuff. its well documented that they don't like change.

Edit : snap, Die Judicli

[Oldbloke]

Could be tannin. But if its pretty black I think it could be some sort of black algae. Google it.

Seen it up the bush recently, hardly any animals drink it. Hardly any game in the area ATM.

Resized_20220216_083708.jpeg (269.96 KiB) Viewed 2784 times

[cz515]

What I meant was. As long as it's not poisonous in a couple of days they will start drinking it (once they get used to the different taste)

[noneyabussiness]

I use some pretty stagnant dam water ( not ours, have a easement to pump it) for our house usage... I pump it into a holding tank amd add a flocculent ( aluminium sulphate) and chlorine, then over a few days pump it through 2 in series pool sand filters on recirculation .. comes out with no bad taste and crystal clear ... ( I have the pump on solar so no extra cost) . I can do 5000 litres at a time..

there are also products that you can add to dams to " clear " them naturally... and most importantly, our house dam has lots of life in it, the best ( fish, Yabbies, mussles etc) all natural filter feeders, it is VERY clean but too small for our usage ( the other dam free so why not ) ... I stocked it myself, no more a mossie breeding ground and can catch and eat the silver perch when need to..

[bladeracer]

At a guess, I'd say the issue is Tannin.

Yep, we're pretty certain tannin is the main issue.
So, how do we reduce the tannin levels?

[Oldbloke]

This could be it. Seems to fit.

https://pondinformer.com/why-is-my-pond-water-black/

[bladeracer]

we had a small sheep feedlot up the road, they got a truckload of sheep in from the south east which had been drinking from some of the the best bore water in the country. when they landed here, they turned their noses up to our bore water, the manager of the feedlot waited it out but still they didnt touch the stuff. In the end he had to franticly run a Polly pipe about 2km to the nearest mains water supply.

I recon CZ is on to something, id be betting that the tannin, eucalyptus and whatever else has washed in there has made the water unpalatable, its probably extremely bitter. Iv seen cattle drink some pretty funky water around Maree and especially the Sothern Kimberly but they'd been born and breed on the stuff. its well documented that they don't like change.

Edit : snap, Die Judicli

When we were low on water a few years back we were bringing cubes in on the ute every day from town.

Yes, oddly enough, when it's raining they'll happily guzzle out of a muddy puddle rather than drink the stuff from this dam.

Stubborn and set in their ways is certainly a good description for the beasts, they like routine

I take apples most times and walk around feeding them "apple lollies", slices about 10mm thick. Only about half of the adults like it though, none of the calves bother until they're about a year old. And any depressed animals (from losing a calf) won't have apple either.

[bladeracer]

This could be it. Seems to fit.

https://pondinformer.com/why-is-my-pond-water-black/

Thanks Ob, it's pretty much what we're thinking, including the ways to address it.
I'm building a charcoal filter we can run in the pump line to see if that'll help as it's cheap and easy to try.

There doesn't seem to be much we can do with the water while it's in the dam until after we can remove the trees, which requires cutting access into them for the tractor to drag them out. So pumping to a holding/aeration tank will be our fix until we get the trees sorted I think.

[NTSOG]

"... it does have a dark brown stain to it now, almost like a rich tea."

I also suspect the colour is due to tannin. Where my wife grew up in Northern Wisconsin there are hundreds of lakes all surrounded by native forest. All the lakes are tea-coloured due to tannin from the trees and other vegetable matter. I 'drank' a fair bit of it water-skiing and didn't suffer any ill effects.

Jim

[Bugman]

This is an interesting post. I have no idea but would like to find out what may be causing this "problem". Let us know how you get on.

[Die Judicii]

Could be tannin. But if its pretty black I think it could be some sort of black algae. Google it.

Seen it up the bush recently, hardly any animals drink it. Hardly any game in the area ATM.

Resized_20220216_083708.jpeg

The important thing to note is,,,,,,,,,,,

(As per the picture)
If there are reeds and rushes growing around the perimeters,, and they themselves are not showing signs of dying back,,, there isn't any major
problems in the water or soil itself,, except maybe taste/bitterness that "spoilt cows" don't like.

Reeds and rushes are the best purifying things going for water,, and provided for free by Mother Nature.

[bladeracer]

Could be tannin. But if its pretty black I think it could be some sort of black algae. Google it.

Seen it up the bush recently, hardly any animals drink it. Hardly any game in the area ATM.

Resized_20220216_083708.jpeg

The important thing to note is,,,,,,,,,,,

(As per the picture)
If there are reeds and rushes growing around the perimeters,, and they themselves are not showing signs of dying back,,, there isn't any major
problems in the water or soil itself,, except maybe taste/bitterness that "spoilt cows" don't like.

Reeds and rushes are the best purifying things going for water,, and provided for free by Mother Nature.

Yep, lots of reeds...and ducks living in the dams. Just heading back down there now.

[on_one_wheel]

Reminds me what I've been missing.... a good feed of yabbies.
There's almost no dams around here because the rainfall is so low and the catchment just sucks it all away, there's a massive pipeline running from the River Murray that goes through here, everyone is tapped into that.

[cz515]

Ducks are not good for the water quality/ taste


Good hunting though

[bladeracer]

Yep, lots of reeds...and ducks living in the dams. Just heading back down there now.

And other wildlife

[on_one_wheel]

Ducks are not good for the water quality/ taste

And texture

[bladeracer]

That's very cool, but we have mountains of rainfall here.

Lots of yabbies here too, and turtles and frogs. No muscles and I've never seen any fish.
The mozzies are fairly common here, but not so much around the dams, they just seem to live in the grass.

At Farm World on the weekend they were selling fish and yabbies and such for stocking dams. We keep considering it but haven't done anything yet, perhaps that might be a way to address this issue though.

I use some pretty stagnant dam water ( not ours, have a easement to pump it) for our house usage... I pump it into a holding tank amd add a flocculent ( aluminium sulphate) and chlorine, then over a few days pump it through 2 in series pool sand filters on recirculation .. comes out with no bad taste and crystal clear ... ( I have the pump on solar so no extra cost) . I can do 5000 litres at a time..

there are also products that you can add to dams to " clear " them naturally... and most importantly, our house dam has lots of life in it, the best ( fish, Yabbies, mussles etc) all natural filter feeders, it is VERY clean but too small for our usage ( the other dam free so why not ) ... I stocked it myself, no more a mossie breeding ground and can catch and eat the silver perch when need to..

[bladeracer]

Ducks are not good for the water quality/ taste


Good hunting though

Hmmm...well, all our dams have duck families living in them. Maybe if there are are too many ducks it's an issue?

Don't like the taste of duck and hate cleaning them so I don't bother shooting them.
Lots of quail around this year as well.

[Blr243]

Is tannin harmful ? Pretty sure I have drunk a stack of cape York creek water with plenty of tannin. Should b ok just to taste the water and spit it out I think. That might give u a bit of an idea what’s goin on in there

[bladeracer]

Is tannin harmful ? Pretty sure I have drunk a stack of cape York creek water with plenty of tannin. Should b ok just to taste the water and spit it out I think. That might give u a bit of an idea what’s goin on in there

I see lots of websites about "removing tannin" as part of various snake oil diets but I doubt it's actually harmful, lots of people live on bloody tea and coffee

[Die Judicii]

Is tannin harmful ? Pretty sure I have drunk a stack of cape York creek water with plenty of tannin. Should b ok just to taste the water and spit it out I think. That might give u a bit of an idea what’s goin on in there

I was gonna say beforehand,,,, if yer drinking it at least your gut lining won't rot.

[Die Judicii]

Is tannin harmful ? Pretty sure I have drunk a stack of cape York creek water with plenty of tannin. Should b ok just to taste the water and spit it out I think. That might give u a bit of an idea what’s goin on in there

I see lots of websites about "removing tannin" as part of various snake oil diets but I doubt it's actually harmful, lots of people live on bloody tea and coffee

Are there many Wattles around the dams Mate ?
They are extremely high in tannin,,,,, hence the old timers doing Wattle Bark Tanning.

If weather permits,,,,, it'd probly be advantageous to get a "Long Reach Excavator in and desludge the worst ones.

[bladeracer]

Are there many Wattles around the dams Mate ?
They are extremely high in tannin,,,,, hence the old timers doing Wattle Bark Tanning.

If weather permits,,,,, it'd probly be advantageous to get a "Long Reach Excavator in and desludge the worst ones.

Indeed, around this one dam there are Varnish Wattles, an excellent point.

No way to get any machinery in there without clearing lots of trees. Best I can do is a long chain to drag the fallen trees out. But removing the crap in the bottom (by hand) is on our list of chores while we're pulling the trees out. Rose thought this issue started when a first big tree fell, she thought a large branch had "punctured" the bottom of the dam and stirred this all up - maybe she was correct.

[bigpete]

At a guess, I'd say the issue is Tannin.

Yep, we're pretty certain tannin is the main issue.
So, how do we reduce the tannin levels?

Chuck some skins in

[Oldbloke]

Lol tannin = tea well, bloody close

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/tannins-in-tea