I have had a small pond at the bottom of my garden which no matter what i do i cannot stop blanket weed forming .
I have tried all sorts of chemicals i even invested in a better filter with built in UV and then i installed a Blagdons Blanket weed kit to the feed pipe but no luck.
I have 2 pumps one for the filter and one for the waterfall, i only have 2 fish at the moment as ive lost a few over the last couple of weeks. I also have quite a wide variety of plants and a two level pond one shallow and one end deep.
Please help i'm on the verge of closing the pond down as i just get disheartened as no matter hwat i try it just comes back.

Cheers

Ian

"i.shaw4" wrote in message
...
I have had a small pond at the bottom of my garden which no matter what
i do i cannot stop blanket weed forming .
I have tried all sorts of chemicals i even invested in a better filter
with built in UV and then i installed a Blagdons Blanket weed kit to the
feed pipe but no luck.
I have 2 pumps one for the filter and one for the waterfall, i only have
2 fish at the moment as ive lost a few over the last couple of weeks. I
also have quite a wide variety of plants and a two level pond one
shallow and one end deep.
Please help i'm on the verge of closing the pond down as i just get
disheartened as no matter hwat i try it just comes back.

Cheers

Ian
I no longer have a pond. When I did it was about 6ft dia. I used a hoselock
pressure filter with UV, and two basic box filters. The only blanket weed I
got was on the surface of planting baskets....easy to remove. I 'never' used
chemicals and never would. Good planting and filtration is the answer.
--
Pete C

Chris's advice is all good.

But don't go too far on the surface covering, otherwise the pond will not warm up in spring. Usually advice is to cover about a third - I reckon you could go to a half without problems.

An additional thing is to remove nitrogen - put in a rapid growing plant to absorb nitrogen, and keep removing it a) so it can't die, rot and return its nitrogen to the pond b) to encourage yet more growth. Watercress is often recommended.

And, of course, keep removing blanket weed. Much easier done in a fish pond than in a wildlife pond when the blanket weed is often full of young newts.

"kay" wrote


Chris Hogg Wrote:



Another thing that plants, and algae, like is good light, in order to
photosynthesize. So reducing the light reaching the pond will help
reduce the blanket weed. This can be achieved by having much of the
surface of the pond covered with water lily leaves or leaves of other
pond plants. These plants will also compete with the algae for the
available nitrogen, and so help keep down the algal growth.


Chris's advice is all good.

But don't go too far on the surface covering, otherwise the pond will
not warm up in spring. Usually advice is to cover about a third - I
reckon you could go to a half without problems.

An additional thing is to remove nitrogen - put in a rapid growing plant
to absorb nitrogen, and keep removing it a) so it can't die, rot and
return its nitrogen to the pond b) to encourage yet more growth.
Watercress is often recommended.

And, of course, keep removing blanket weed. Much easier done in a fish
pond than in a wildlife pond when the blanket weed is often full of
young newts.


And don't forget that tap water usually contains lots of nitrogen so filling
or topping up the pond with it will increase nitrogen levels. You filter (if
it's biological) will be turning the waste from the fish from toxic nitrites
to less toxic nitrates (fertilizer!) so whilst a filter is excellent to
maintain "sweet" water in your pond it has it's down sides.
Some people with larger ponds have the outflow from their filters run along
channels filled with plants like Watercress which take out a lot of the
nitrates, and which are excellent on the compost heap.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On 15/05/2013 15:41, Bob Hobden wrote:
"kay" wrote


Chris Hogg Wrote:



Another thing that plants, and algae, like is good light, in order to
photosynthesize. So reducing the light reaching the pond will help
reduce the blanket weed. This can be achieved by having much of the
surface of the pond covered with water lily leaves or leaves of other
pond plants. These plants will also compete with the algae for the
available nitrogen, and so help keep down the algal growth.


Chris's advice is all good.

But don't go too far on the surface covering, otherwise the pond will
not warm up in spring. Usually advice is to cover about a third - I
reckon you could go to a half without problems.

An additional thing is to remove nitrogen - put in a rapid growing plant
to absorb nitrogen, and keep removing it a) so it can't die, rot and
return its nitrogen to the pond b) to encourage yet more growth.
Watercress is often recommended.

And, of course, keep removing blanket weed. Much easier done in a fish
pond than in a wildlife pond when the blanket weed is often full of
young newts.


And don't forget that tap water usually contains lots of nitrogen so
filling or topping up the pond with it will increase nitrogen levels.
You filter (if it's biological) will be turning the waste from the fish
from toxic nitrites to less toxic nitrates (fertilizer!) so whilst a
filter is excellent to maintain "sweet" water in your pond it has it's
down sides.
Some people with larger ponds have the outflow from their filters run
along channels filled with plants like Watercress which take out a lot
of the nitrates, and which are excellent on the compost heap.

Have you thought of Aquaponic gardening?
http://www.motherearthnews.com/organ...#axzz2TNhrrfCT