# Gave my pond a dose of Potassium Permanganate



## Chipmaker

And all I can say is wow, what a difference. Before I had a lot of excess nutrients and lots of suspended particulate matter, and a good buildup of organics from over the years. At most the most visibility in water clarity was perhaps 2 feet and thatw ould be when the water cooled down inthe winter months. I now have better than 10 feet visibility and can see the pond bottom in areas I have not seen since it was still a dry hole in the ground many many years ago. Virtually all of the builtup organics and other unwanted stuff has been oxidized, and it took about a week for everything to start to settle out. All I can say is I wished I had done this sooner, and do plan on doseing the pond at least every year or two from here on out. Just as soon as the winter season and all its rains is over, I'll dye it blue again, to keep down any algae growth, but then again I may dye it with the Lock Ness Black dye this year and see what it looks like. It makes the ponds surface look like a mirrow.........not really a black color, but it does give a lot more color to the pond and prevents algae and submerged plant growth better than the typical blue dyes do.

Potasium Permanganate is pretty neat stuff. Pond turned a dark purple and then chnged to a pink color, and after about 6 hours or so it started to foam and turn a muddy red brown color....... It got to the point that m y submerged lights that are 2 feet under the water in some areas were no longer visible, and these lights are 100 watt quartz halogen lights, which are pretty darn bright. The next morning when I looked at it I thought I had really screwed up big time as the pond was a real mess. Full of heavy floating brownish colored foam and crud. Looked like a large septic tank. Then over a period of time it started to settle out, and clear, and has become awesome in just one week. Once the organics are oxidized they are inert, and will not feed or support any further growth of fungus, pathogens and other unwanted life forms. If you have a natural pond thats nasty and could use a good cleaning I would suggest Potassium Permanganate, but readup on it and get familiair with it before you dose it. Your resulting pond will be awesome in the end. I can see the lights underwater and fish in the vicinity from the house now at night......its so clean and clear.


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## guest

chip does this stuff cause any damage to any water plants? and im assuming it does not harm your fish either?


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## Durwood

That is interesting. How big is your pond and how much stuff did you have to use. I know a guy who put something in his pond to clear it up, but he did something wrong as all his fish came belly up.


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## Chipmaker

> _Originally posted by simple_john _
> *chip does this stuff cause any damage to any water plants? and im assuming it does not harm your fish either? *


Not if its done correctly...its perfectly safe, but you need to know your ponds capacity pretty darn close and figure the amount of PP in regards to the demand level its going to take to do the job. 

I guess in all reality there is always a risk whenever you put anything into a pond..

In regards to plants, plants tolerate it pretty good as its used to dissinfect aquatic plants (as well as fish ) by a lot of ponders. Snails, crawfish and other exoskeleton critters do not tolerate it very well though, but frogs and turtles and salamanders do ok. Any plant such as single celled stuff or simple celled plants like alge and phytoplankton will be wiped out.


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## Chipmaker

> _Originally posted by Durwood _
> *That is interesting. How big is your pond and how much stuff did you have to use. I know a guy who put something in his pond to clear it up, but he did something wrong as all his fish came belly up.  *


Pond is a bit over 1 acre, and contains 1.6 million gal of water......(actuall gallonage figure I do not remember off the top of my head and its out in the shed for future references, but its 1,6xx,xxx gal.

Evidently your friend did not figure out his ponds actual capacity before treating it...or possibly he used a copper based compound which is found in a vast majority of algaecides, and it works very well, however copper is very toxic to most fish, especially so if just slighty more is used than necessary its usually fatal.

I used 19.7 pounds in my pond. Actual amaount will vary from pond to pond due to organics etc, and only a test called a 15 minute demand test will show what dosage is needed to do what you want. If that dosage come up at a level that is too high for fish etc to tolerate at one shot, it needs to be divided into as few of dosages possible to reach that amaount in sucession one right after the other, but not to exceed three consequtive doses. If you reach the need for a third dose things can get pretty hairy..........Doses are given back to back after a color change is noted, so a pond has to be monitore pretty darn close all during this process. You just can't dose it and walk away....Sound like a lot of work, perhaps, but its payoff is well worth it in the end.


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## DeereBob

Chipmaker,
A bit of caution with Potassium Permanganate since in sufficient amounts can cause pernicious amemia in human beings. I killed a cat of mine using the stuff in a water filter that emptied into my basement sink. Cat drank the water over a period of months and got so sick we had to put it down. PP is a reducing agent while chlorine is an oxidation agent which may times do the same things. If chlorine would do the job in you pond it would be safer but may not be as effective. Just don't go swimming in your pond any time soon would be my advice.


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## Chipmaker

Actually Potassium Permanganate is an oxidizer and one hell of a heavy duty oxidizer at that. 

You can't lety PP get around any organic, petroleum or chlorine based items etc etc, and breathing in the dust will make toast of your sinus cavity and lung tissue. Just getting the crystals on your hand or skin will make a nice dark brown stain that looks like you smoke 100 packs a day and it does ot come off.........you have to wear it off....since its a caustic chemical it will give you severe burns, if its in contact with the skin for any length of time in both dry and liquid forms.........However in the liquid state its pretty docile and behaves pretty well, and other than getting it on you and making your skin turn brown or in your eyes and goinbg blind from chemical burns to the corneas, it was used as a treatment for Psoraisis, athletes foot, toe nail fungus, intestional dissorders, and a heap of other medical treatments, some of which are still in use today. Its used by some large cities Sewer departments to clean out sewer lines that can not be snaked, it reduces debir buildup on intake filters etc on dams and drinking water utilities facilities, and a heap of other odds and ends.Used in water softeners. Used as a super duty sanitizer in the poultry raising industry, but its main use most any more is in aquaculture.

Oh, and its in high demand by your local neighborhood drug labs...........in the manufacture of meth.......Just a few crystals of this stuff and a single drop of brake fluid or oil will make a violent reaction........and make a nice flash of bluish white flame.........but like all chemicals if used improperly its some very bad stuff.......As to going swiming in the pond, as long as it has lost any pink or purple color its safe to swim in or even drink. The folks at the university told me that you could theoretically take raw sewage and treat it with PP, and then drink it and not have to worry about any organisims as long as there was no virus in it. It has been used to purify water in some out of the way places in Africa at one time as well. Once its been consumed in the process of eating up organics etc it turns the brown color and is then considered inert. It does nothing against a virus, where chlorine will take care of that as well. Chlorine in concentrations sufficient to eat up organics in a pond like PP does would be large and very fatal to any life forms. 

Its still some pretty neat stuff. Mix up a stock solution of it, and experiment on various things.. Wash a spoon really well, even use the dishwasher, then put that spoonin some PP solution. Odds are you will get some brown to appear on the spoon in various areas especially in and around any engraving or embossed designs. While that spoon may look spotless, the PP has found all minute traces of residual debri and zapped it..........and here you thought you had perfectly clean dishes! I took some Oxi Clean that miriicle detergent sold on TV that has all those exhorborant claims as to removing all dirt.......the washcloth that was soaked in that stuff for a day and rinsed numerous times, and knowing exactly where it had original grime in it, resulted in a white wash cloth with a heavy brown stain right where the grime was even after it appeared to be clean after soaking in Oxi clean.......


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## Aaron357

Where do you get this stuff?


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## Chipmaker

> _Originally posted by Aaron357 _
> *Where do you get this stuff? *


Most any Industrial Chemical Supply should either have it or be able to get it.. You will have problems if you try and buy it in a quanitiy over 2# though and it will require a ton of paper work, but small quanities should not be a problem......but buying from the major suppliers will probably mean having to buy it in large quanities. 

I got mine at Industiral Chemical Supply which has warehouses nationwide.

Another source is Koivet.com and also...
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/2482/cid/1588

Aquaticeco's Potassium Permanganate is in liquid form and is available in 5# containers without any problems other than high hazzmat charges. Liquid form is not of much use to the backyard illegal meth labs., so acquisition is much easier. IIRC its about $25 bucks a container from that source......


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## Chipmaker

> _Originally posted by DeereBob _
> *Chipmaker,
> A bit of caution with Potassium Permanganate since in sufficient amounts can cause pernicious amemia in human beings. I killed a cat of mine using the stuff in a water filter that emptied into my basement sink. Cat drank the water over a period of months and got so sick we had to put it down. PP is a reducing agent while chlorine is an oxidation agent which may times do the same things. If chlorine would do the job in you pond it would be safer but may not be as effective. Just don't go swimming in your pond any time soon would be my advice. *


Deerebob...........I assume what you mean that PP is a reducing agent is that it eats up organics etc? 

Its commonly referred to as a "reactive oxidizer" meaning that it violently reacts with organics where as chlorine is a non- reactive oxidizer, even though it kills stuff it just does not react violently as PP does.


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