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Reaction in bird bath

Can any one point me in the right direction please,Ive been returning every year since 2004 to my clients garden to undertake additional works, on my last visit back in Feb 09, one of my tasks on their list was to power wash, water only, an old bird bath nestled in a dark corner of their large garden.I set the base stone 10mm below lawn surface and glued the components together with a 5;1 mix and levelledOnce completely dried I continued to mix a slurry mix of Vandex BB75 of which was applied to the entire bird bath.Having returned yesterday for my next set of instructions my client asked what has caused the markings in the bird bath?I couldnt answer them but told them id find the answer through members at LJN, can any one identifiy the cause of such markings?The birds continue to drink and bathe from their bath with out keeling overthanks for your timeKerry

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  • Looks like an algae, they're not all green.
  • It's a micro organism called Haematococcus which is very common never use anti fungi cleaners as this could harm the birds.

    We had to move the bird table to a sunny area which helped the problem.
  • Thank you James

    What i need to do is find the name of such algae, as I need to know as much as my client, again thanks.
  • Thank you Martin

    You have saved me some quality Saturday time, will read up on this micro organism

    The unit is situated on a S/W facing elevation, move to north?
  • Yes we did still didn't totally solve the problem though.

    The best advise I can give is to jet wash once in a while and leave it to dry in the sun, this should help.
  • Spoke to my client,

    the bird bath remains in place as they have excellent viewing points from within the house. Ive no problems adding this bird bath cleaning task to the next list

    This is the exact reason why LJ will continue to grow, such a great site of which i'm very glad to be involved with

    Thanks all have a good weekend
  • We get exactly the same problem in bird baths that we sell (manufacturer calls it stoneware, but really its just concrete!) - just give em a good scrub every now and then, and they're fine.
  • I see this in 3 gardens. The material of construction does not seem to be a factor nor does the position in the garden. Despite the customers cleaning them regularly it comes back in no time flat. I guess a sealer applied after a good clean could sort the problem out. But as been said people are not going to risk the the health of the birds to find out.
    I actually think it looks attractive, but then again according to the wife I have no taste.
    She doesn't like it though when I say is must be why I married you then. Oops I never learn, bet she reads this later.
  • Very thankful for this info too because it might arrive in the bird baths I make and I'll need some answers. I havn't had any of my designs at home for long enough to experience this but our good old plastic standby has had it for years, and I thought it was just because I didn't clean it enough. Indeed, seems to make no difference and beneficial to the water.

    Found lots of links including this description
    http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.micros...

    ....and a good answer from source http://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070718015920AAvtPxg :

    Remedy....decorate baths with red interiors!!!!!!
  • We had a client who said it was cement left over that was the cause of the problem even though we had only used it on the base. I actually belived him at first until I read in to it a bit more.
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