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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

any tips on keeping my birdbath clean and possibly stay full longer (1 Viewer)

thelabirder

Active member
my birdbath is constantly becoming full of algae and becoming stagnant, but mainly i need tips on keeping it full for longer (i know it will eventually dry up but any way to slow the process). thanks!!!
 
Well, during the warmer days, I'm usually refilling my 3 bird baths several times a day
which does keep the water fresh. All it takes is a couple of Jays or Crows to bathe the heck out of the water in the baths. ;)

A high pressure hose also keeps the baths clean when filling them so very little algae ever accumulates in the baths.
 
With the birdbath in partial sun I've had luck with Tetra AlgaeControl, the stuff you use for aquariums. After my tree blew down the bath was in full sun, didn't work so good. Now, I have to clean it more often but it's considerably warmer here than in LA, it may work for your full sun bath..??
 
Lots of water where I live so I leave a hose in mine and trickle water in it 24/7. Still need to dump and rinse the basin out, but the water stays fresh and mosquito larva free. It helps that the hose spigot in question already has a slow leak, but a slow drip can of course be a controlled thing. Only drawback is that if the spigot didn't already have a leak it would probably develop one over a long period of time as the running water eroded the internal fittings. At another house, we addressed that by buying an inexpensive hose splitter and using the controls on the splitter to trickle the water, had quite an attractive little drip waterfall going on too, birds like active water. On that setup, we had the water coming out of some copper tubing with the garden hose out of sight, much more refined than my current hose thing. I've seen other people who got quite fancy by building fancy stone towers for the water drip to fall out of, you can go as expensive as you like and probably arrange for a circulating pump with an attached autofiller; people do that for their aquariums, which drain and refill automatically, so a place to look might be at a specialty shop.
 
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