Water trough for deer has algae?

[Lynn21]

I put a water trough in my feeder pen about five weeks ago and now it has mossy looking algae growing in it . a buddy of mine said you can put a couple of chlorine tablets in there and it will clear it up . my question to you guys is what would that do to the deer that drink the chlorinated water? Harmful? Any of y’all ever done this and noticed anything unusual? I’m even wondering if the venison would taste different?

[justletmein]

Leave it be, algae is keeping the water clean.

[techzan]

Pinch of copper sulfate will stop algae from growing.

[flywise]

They drink from creeks, mud holes and ANY source they can find.....it’s not a problem

[TheHammer]

Is it getting in the trough or a tote/tank? Trough is fine, tote or tank not so much.

I have some stuff called aqua shade that prevents algae growing in both. Worth every penny.

[Roy D Mercer]

Chlorine is very strong. They won’t drink it. My experience is the nastier the better.

[Shane]

Put a piece of copper and/or silver in it, and it will keep the algae from growing.

[lilavidhunter]

Throw some minnows in it.

[D4H]

We put goldfish in our ranch water troughs and they keep them very clean. We also put 4 inch pvc pipe about 4 foot in length in the trough for the gold fish to hide in when the cranes get after them. We buy the goldfish at bait shops. Bait shops are cheaper than buying them at Walmart. Our pasture troughs are 8 foot diameter and 500 gallons each. We have about 4-6 goldfish in each.

[sailor]

Is it getting in the trough or a tote/tank? Trough is fine, tote or tank not so much.

I have some stuff called aqua shade that prevents algae growing in both. Worth every penny.

This tank, was treated with Aqua Shade......

[deerwatcher51]

The deer will still drink it.

[Fishndude]

We all drink chlorinated water every day.

[TheHammer]

This tank, was treated with Aqua Shade......
[ATTACH]1046651[/ATTACH]

Aquashade is most effective for water deeper than 2’ deep. Looks like it did it’s job there!

Doesn’t do anything for shoreline grass

[texan16]

Buy a small bucket of 3" chlorine tablets. Break one up and put a few pieces in the trough. Deer will still drink it. Heck my dogs have been drinking gallons of water out of my swimming pool at the house every day for years.

[Smart]

Algae in your trough is fine IMO. Deer drink from algae laced ponds and rivers everyday. My landowner's concrete troughs and cisterns have had algae in them for his entire 30 years of owning the place. We check them from time to time for him and they are coated. He has no natural water holding unless it rains and that's only for a few days. I do scrub my own feeder pens' troughs once a year with a deck brush but that's really only to get all the silted mud out of the bottom the coons have put in there "bathing" after eating corn in the mud... I don't scrape the algae out intentionally....I just brush it all to get the mud rolling around good so I can dump it in place and hook it right back up. My water trough cameras show the deer, turkey, coons, bobcats, foxes, skunks, squirrels, birds etc drinking out of it everyday. Now I do put 1/4 bottle of chlorine bleach in each tote on fill up but that's to keep the inside clean. It's not enough to keep the trough clean but my tanks have been clean since 2013-2014 ish. I have 4 totes so 1 gallon gets me covered each fillup.