Hey all,

I have what looks like a sheet of cellophane coating the top of my
whiskey barrel pond. At its edges it looks quite thick and milky. It
dissipates when it rains, but quickly returns. Also, it caused the
water lettuce to die. Its leaves turned yello and slowy disintegrated.
I at least pruned the little lettuce it was piggy backing and it is
doing very well on its own, so I am not out of that. The hornwort died
as well. Both had been doing very well. After my previous bout of
trouble I removed the fish, a couple plants, and also the pump that
was circulating the water(it had become severely clogged by a mix of
potting soil and the roots water lettuce.)
To prevent mosquitos I added a dunk, and also I added an algae
reducer and pond clearzyme block. I think it may be the block. I
wonder if maybe I used to much. It said on the pond kit, it treated up
to 250 gallons. So I figured that in a 25 gallon pond it would just
last a long time.
Since it clears up a little when it rains, though it has still
been getting progressively worse and worse, I was planning on doing a
partial water changed and then adding the pump again as I am making
some modifications. My new setup will be the original barrel pond and
an urn style planter (Actually a modified trash can) behind it with a
small falls into the barrel.
Do you think the renewed water circulation will clear it up?
What about the chemical block? since it floats on the surface, I was
also think of skimming it with cheesecloth or something. Has anybody
else experienced this? What is it? One other question: The mosquito
dunk sank?! Though it didn't seem to be working much anyway. How can I
get rid of the larvae? I tried removing them manually but there are
quite a few. Has anybody tried "Mosquito Bits."
It isn't all bad news though. A water lilly bloomed and another
bud is about to breech. It certainly has been a trial. Whew!