Algae in water and Winter Water

Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 09:47:56 -0600 Subject: FEL-L: Nelson Waterers

These work real good for all cats drinking water, they're easy to clean and they have a heating element in them. The heat element is adjusted so that the water doesn't get warm yet it doesn't allow for it to freeze. These are the best on the market . Nelson Manufacturing Company, 319-363-2607 Found their website, it's: http://www.nelsonmfg.com

Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 06:38:24 -0500 Subject: FEL-L: Re:Bluing

A fellow animal breeder told me that they put a couple drops of laundry bluing in their water buckets to prevent algae from forming. Here in Texas algae forms often in less than a day. Does anyone know of any side effects?

Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 06:56:01 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: FEL-L: Re:Bluing

hummm...I've always been under the opion that if it killed the algae, how good could it be for the cats ? I always try locating the water in shade, lower hte light reaching it, and less algae is likely.

Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 07:54:10 -0400 Subject: Re: FEL-L: Re:Bluing

The USDA reccommends that (chlorine bleach) be used with drinking water to control unwanted bacteria... City water supplies mostly use chlorine. Its not such a bad thing as long as all the free chlorine is converted before consumption... If not, then the free chlorine is very carcinogenic and it's long term use under these conditions result in cancer at some point... You need to test the water continuously. On the other hand, the vast majority of wild algae ranges from completely harmless to slightly beneficial... It's a judgement call.

We avoid all this hassle by treating all water with ozone which sterilizes it, removes heavy metals, insecticides, and other environmental toxins... Our open water will stay clear for days even during very hot weather, otherwise the algae gets it about a day.

Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 11:07:36 -0400 Subject: Re: FEL-L: Re:Bluing

> John, I was going to mention this myself...could not UV sterilization be used also to acheive the same result ?

Absolutely!! We use one of the big inline UV systems on our hot tub and UV would be fine for any potable water sources... Simple, low cost systems come in all sizes and can be found easily at spa supply places. The reason we use ozone injection for our big water system is that it also deals with the heavy metal and organo-phosphate contamination of our well water here. Its also uses a big RO unit and many filters.. The processed water is sterile, and of almost distilled quality... But this is a special case system where the basic water supply itself is highly toxic.

A good watering system could be built around a recirculating system if you needed to conserve, with an inline UV device, a 5 micron filter, and a small holding tank/pump with some kind of automatic top off control... We use something like that but mostly to keep everything from freezing up in the winter.

Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 11:28:17 -0400 Subject: Re: FEL-L: Re:Bluing

I see where I should have been more explicit the first time around with ozone... Sorry to disappoint you but it has to be manufactured on the spot... See my response to Jack Carter. Ozone generators come in all shapes and sizes and two different varieties, UV inline units for putting in the plumbing, and gas injector types which require a big holding tank. The inline types only sterilize the creepy crawly bacteria and virus... It takes the gas injector type with holding tank and special filter to get rid of metals, fertilizers, etc. as well as the bugs.

Then you have to use a reverse osmosis system and heavy filtering to get rid of the heavy mineralization and gummy organic stuff typical of shallow water wells in farming country... All in all, however, it's not too expensive to do all this, but it's something that specialty people should install and service if you're not too handy with plumbing and the engineering required...

Instead of ozone, for simple control of algae in the cats drinking buckets, etc. you might try some of the "Oxygenated" water that's showing up in health food stores... We haven't tried that but it should work almost as well as chlorine for sterilization and there would be no side effects... Maybe someone wants to check that out....

Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 12:03:42 -0400 Subject: Re: FEL-L: Re: Ozone/bluing

Regretably, ozone is very short lived in either gaseous form or disolved in water. Therefore it must be generated on the spot. There are a number of low cost in-line UV units which can be found at commerical pool or spa places... These will only sterilize, however. To remove heavy metals, organophosphates, and other toxins requires a more sophisticated system involving a large holding tank, pressure pump, misc. stuff and an ozone gas generator... The whole thing could be put together for about $1,000, but your water would have to be very bad to justify this.

There are actually three things you could replace chlorine bleach with for sanitizing drinking water: One is plain old hydrogen peroxide bought in drugstores... A half a teaspoon in a bucket of water will whack bacterial contaminants (like algae or e-coli). There are absolutely no side effects except it seems to cure gum disease.

Another is the "super-oxigenated" water you can find in health food stores. Again, no side effects.

Another good but pricy approach is a professional peridontal mouthwash product. No side effects but control of tooth bacteria and gum disease.

Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 19:32:44 -0400 Subject: Re: FEL-L: Re:Bluing

Hmm, Well, perhaps i am out of line, but how about changing the water? We only have two cats, so perhaps I am mixing apples and oranges, but we change the water at least two times a day, more when it freezes so they have a supply of water to drink.

We are on well water too that stinks so we purchase bottled water for us and the animals (two lynx, 4 parrots, 1 dog, 2 humans). Yes, yes...I know if you have alot of them, that this is impractical, so perhaps i am out of line here.

Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 18:42:53 -0400 Subject: Re: FEL-L: Re:Bluing

Not out of line at all! That's a safe and easy plan for your cats... Our own use volume runs about fifty gallons a day normally, but if emergency arose, we would go to bottled water and get by on about 5 gallons a day.

You might get interested in an undersink reverse osmosis/odor filter system... They are low cost and provide a pretty good volume... If your water has biological or heavy metal/organophosphate contamination however, you can get a very low cost, manual fill, table top distiller unit that will produce about a gallon an hour of water completely free of odor, toxins, bacteria, etc.... For about $700 you can get a full automatic distiller that will churn out up to about 4 gallons an hour and operate on demand so you always have several gallons of pure water available.

Thanks for your comments... If we were in the low usage range, we would use (and have) bottled distilled or quality spring water too. It's vital that cats have quality pure water.

Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 22:35:46 -0500 Subject: Re: FEL-L: Re:Bluing

You're right as far as I'm concerned. Even though we are on well water (which luckily tests very clean) we change our animals water constantly. We could use chemicals, or ozone to battle stale water... however, neither is cheap, or more importantly, neither address the temperature quality for our animals

During the summer, the temperature here soars (especially this year!). As a result, our animals ( Lions, Tigers, Bears, Leopards, Mtn. Lions, Jaguars, ect...) need cool drinking water - as well as cool swimming water - in order to deal with the heat. Their water containers, swimming pools, and cleansing water are refreshed constantly in order to provide clean, cool, water.

Even though we go through 2- 3,000 gallons per day, it's worth it for our animals health. In order to supply that kind of volume on a daily basis we use a cistern. The water accumulates in it continually, and we draw from it as needed.

Each day when cleaning the compound the animals run in and out, having you soak them over and over with a 2" fire hose - resembling a scene from something like "water world'. Cool Water, Pat Craig Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center