"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...
In article , Nick Maclaren
writes
It has more of a scientific basis than the miniature pyramids that
were sold to resharpen razor blades and recharge batteries, but
probably less than the health-giving properties of 'snake oil'.

Heather, here is what was going to be a faq on blanket weeds but
never
made it.

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Algae, which includes blanket weed, thrives on nutrients, sunlight
and
carbon dioxide in pond water. This is why blanket weed topics always
crop up on urg at the start of summer. Sunlight levels increase,
pond
water starts to turn green and blanket weed grows.

For starters -

Are you sure that nutrients (compost, growmore, miracle grow, dead
vegetation, plain old soil etc) are not being washed off your garden
and into the pond when it rains?

Are you sure you are not overfeeding your fish and that the extra
food
is rotting to provide blanket weed food?

Is your pond a new one? Don't keep filling it up with 'new' water to
try to clear it because if you do, you will just set yourself back
to
square one every time as most tap water contains levels of Nitrate
from
farmland runoff thus increasing your problem.

No. There are strict limits about the concentration of nitrates in
tap water. They are quite low.

[snip]

Franz