Pond Weed Trouble

[TiffanyJayne]

When we moved into our house there was a jewul 3 foot with 2 huge goldfish in it, after a few weeks one passed away and i was informed they were about 5 years old, the tank started to leak and for my fellah's birthday he wanted a small pond in the garden so we got one, filled it with the hose pipe and all i'd known of fish was my mum took the fish out of her tank, emptied it, filled it with tap water and put the fish back (we knew nothing of filters and tapsafe back then) we put the remaining fish in the pond and i bought him 2 comets and 2 sh'kins to go with it. Immidiatly afterwards i started reading up on fish and how to look after them and the next day went out a bought a filter for the pond that filtered double the amount i needed and i got some pond safe for future cleaning.

i went into my lfs recently and asked how to rid pond weed and they said rather than waste money wait a week or two because the cold weather will kill it off, now i've noticed there's huge lumps of it growing all over it i've tried using a broom handle to pull it out but it's not getting enough of it and all though it's not very big in terms of diameter it's quite deep and i've rocked all the sides to plant next year and now worried if i use something smaller like a brush i may well fall in.

Any idea's on how i can get it out or kill it off without harming the fish, it seems to get worse the colder the weather.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Where abouts do you live in the world and do you know what type of pond weed it is specifically? Does it look like this;

http/www.ehow.co.uk/about_6565367_pond-blanket-weed-treatment.html

?

 

[TiffanyJayne]

I live in Nottingham, UK

Yes it looks just like that, i've seen bottle treatments for it but i haven't put any treatments in the pond in 2 years and would rather not start now.
I clear alot out last week and it's been cold and raining since then yet it's come back with avengence.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yeah blanket weed is a pain to get rid of. Things you can do to help get rid of it;
1. Keep the pond very clean by removing any dead plants, leaves, general waste etc. Blanket weed does die off a lot in winter but it can have a growth spurt in autumn if the pond is in a sunny location and leaves have been blowing into the pond etc. The more you remove any sources of excess nutritients (dead leaves, plants etc) the less the weed will thrive.
2. Live pond plants: pond plants are better adapted at absorbing nutrients than pond weeds are and when well established they can outcompete weeds for nutrients.
3. Shade: In the summer grow lillies in the pond to shade out sunlight, while in the winter perhaps create a screen to shade the pond from direct sunlight. Reducing sunlight to very low levels can control or kill off pond weeds (which aren't as efficient at absorbing sunlight as proper established pond plants etc).

So basically if you reduce plant nutrient levels (removing any decaying matter etc) & light levels you will be able to keep the blanket weed at bay and may even kill it off completely (i killed off my duck weed problem completely using these methods)(i live in Somerset). I have blanket weed in my pond and have kept it at bay using these methods for a couple of years now, only needing to remove some of it every couple of months (it does stop growing completely during winter too).

If you do decide to use chemicals to kill it off completely, make sure you manually remove as much of the weed as possible before treating the pond as a large scale die-off of blanket weed can decompose very quickly and play havoc with water quality (or even create such a spike in nutrients that it creates other problems like algae blooms). For the most part blanket weed is a natural phenomenon found in natural habitats, and as long as it is controlled (IMO natural methods like the ones suggested being the best/safest) it can offer a habitat/safe zone in itself for critters like dragonfly, damelfly & water beetle larvae, tadpoles, frogs and fish fry etc.

 

[TiffanyJayne]

Thank you very much, it is under a small tree but it's always been shaded and i clean it out every few days, well i did when it wasn't chucking it down with rain.I'll give your suggestions a go and hope to rid it soon =)

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

No worries, glad i could be of help .

 

[mark4785]

Blanketweed has a tendency to start growing in November based on two years of experience. It will persist right through to Spring and then die off, being replaced with green water.

The best way to stop this yearly cycle is to add plenty of barley straw pouches into your pond when there are no algae issues or when the algae appears to be dieing off. This is because barley straw is a natural algae preventative, not a cure.

As mentioned above, shade will help prevent algae issues and is a much easier solution to employ.