Pond Fish.

[Lol1]

Yes, yes I know, what's fish got to do with caravans? In my defense I would point out that this is an unlimited chat room and I can't be the only one here that keeps fish. Even so, I'll be brief.

Blanket weed, it's doing my nut in. Anyone got a cure/prevention/miracle for eliminating the stuff?

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Could I include tadpoles under this heading - thousands of the little creatures in the pond and then along came the magpies and most have disappeared. Also had six large goldfish and the heron had the lot in one day. Damn birds - they even pulled up some of my onion sets - who wants to be an ornothologist?

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I've got a pond with plenty of plants and lilies. I also have an exterior pump with an ultra violet light we I think kills the spores of blanket weed. I did have a pump with a filter attached which was submerged but had to clean the sponge every day and it was waste of time because it never cleaned the water. The pump I bought is a Laguna Pressure-Flo which cost about

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

It was gulls that took some of my fish. Last November my grandaughter scared an heron off but as I know none of my fish were missing. I have frogspawn every year and inspite of the fish eating some of them a lot survive, confirmed by my spottings of them. I have a smaller pool which runs into the larger one but that as no fish and the frogs spawn in there too. I get lots of damselfly larvae and I'm not sure if they prey on tadpoles. I know dragonfly larvae do and last September I spotted a pair of Common Darters mating and laying eggs in my pond. They live for 3 years as larvae before leaving the water and turning into fully fledged dragonflies.

 

[Martin_E]

Hi Lol,

Lord Braykewynde has some of the solution with the pressure flow system.

Barley straw works as well, this is what the water board use, just put it in flowing water in the pond, you can get compressed barley straw pellets or barley straw extract that seem to work as well I have not used the extract one.

http://www.seapets.co.uk/product-details/stkcode/463260/category/737.html
http://www.seapets.co.uk/product-details/stkcode/443370/category/737.html

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I've seen a metal cage sold to put the small barley straw in. At the Ambulance station I was based at we built our own garden with a very large pond. We were plagued with blanket weed and tried the barley straw treatment but unfortunately it didn't work. One of my colleagues bought a pond book and overnight became an expert. He went to a local pond and got some duckweed which he put on our pond under the impression it would cure the blanket weed by cutting out the sunlight :O( Not only did it cause a worse problem but it also introduced disease to the fish. We lost a lot of large fish and it cost a fortune in treatment. None of this cured the pondweed problem after though.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I've seen a metal cage sold to put the small barley straw in. At the Ambulance station I was based at we built our own garden with a very large pond. We were plagued with blanket weed and tried the barley straw treatment but unfortunately it didn't work. One of my colleagues bought a pond book and overnight became an expert. He went to a local pond and got some duckweed which he put on our pond under the impression it would cure the blanket weed by cutting out the sunlight :O( Not only did it cause a worse problem but it also introduced disease to the fish. We lost a lot of large fish and it cost a fortune in treatment. None of this cured the pondweed problem after though.

....... or the duckweed which turned out to be worse than the blanket weed.

 

[Martin_E]

Touch wood the pressure flow system and barley straw seem to be working in our pond this year.

The pond shop we use used to sell duck weed but as you say Lord B it caused so many problems that on advice from the environment agency they stopped selling it.

 

[Ramblingrose]

We had terrible blanket weed in our pond earlier this year. My husband got as much out as possible by hand. Then from our local fish/pond suppliers, we got a special pad that fits in your filter boxes or you can weight it down in the pond near to running water such as a fountain. Its impregnated with something that stops the blanket weed forming. We used one all last year and it did not harm the fish or plants in our pond. As we do not have a filter system we just put it under the fountain and it worked fine.

Sorry this is all a bit vague but I cant remember what its called but Im sure most suppliers of pond equipment would stock them. It costs around

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Could I include tadpoles under this heading - thousands of the little creatures in the pond and then along came the magpies and most have disappeared. Also had six large goldfish and the heron had the lot in one day. Damn birds - they even pulled up some of my onion sets - who wants to be an ornothologist?

Fish and battered onion rings are quite nice colin.

 

[Damian]

The product Ramblingrose refers to is Barley Straw matting.

It can help against blanket weed as it releases some kind of chemical as it decomposes and retards the growth of the weed.

 

[Martin_E]

If you use barley straw from a farm make sure it is organic otherwise you could introduce pesticides and all sorts into the pond.

Martin "E"

 

[Robert_374242026]

Hi Lol , after spending pounds to get rid of it and come even better i got myself a cane and on the end i put a piece of wire bent round like a spring and just by twirling it in the weed you can bring handfuls out of the pond, hope this helps.

 

[parker1158]

Hi Lol

His lordship appears to have the balance right to stop the dreaded weed. A filter with UV running all year, lots of plants and shade for half the day usually does it, I built a pond for my mum under these criteria and she never gets blanket weed. One of the most important pre-requisites to building a pond is the position of it but of course we don't all have that perfect spot and that's were the problems begin.

My pond is a very large dedicated Koi pond (circa 4,000 gallons) it is in full sun all day and has no plants whatsoever. What I do have though is a bottom drain and a chambered filter system with a vortex pre filter and two 30 Watt UV's. This works for me in that the UV's clump the weed together and restrict it sticking to the pond walls it is then a case that it goes down the bottom drain and ends up in the bottom of the vortex where it can be flushed every so often. Any that does get through the vortex is trapped by the brushes in the first chamber. Occasionally I do take it from the bottom of the pond if it builds up using a grass rake, easy for me because there are no plants and the pond is square.

So I would use a decent filter with UV run all year round and go for Roberts suggestion of a stick with wire or nails on the end to scoop the weed out. You could increase plants although if you are not careful you then cannot see the fish. Barley straw does work but as with all 'blanket weed cure all's' read the small print most if not all do not claim to eradicate it merely reduce it and I for one never put anything in my pond unless absolutely necessary.

In the hobby there is a general consensus of agreement that one should choose between keeping fish or plants i.e if you want to keep fish then you should choose a pond built for easy maintenance with a filter system and no plants, if you want the natural pond fill it with plants and let nature stock it, but no fish. Of course most people want a bit of both but they are not ideally compatible hence why they often end up being in need of constant maintenance.

Hope this lengthy rant is of use.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

My pond is south facing but I have no problems. The main consideration, if like what Martyn said, is having a natural pond, but with fish, is to get the plant balance right. Before I installed the pressure flow filtration I had little problem with blanket weed. When the water warmed up I had the usual algae bloom turning the water green but it soon settled down but my water was dirty from detritus. Now with the pressure flow I don't get the bloom (green water) and my water is clear.

The outlay of about

 

[Icemaker]

Our pond is built under the same conditions as lb's, we use a biological filter plus a uv filter both running permanently.

We have around 40 fish in the pond including some young koy but mainley orf some of which are now about 14 inch's.

Don't over feed as this will cloud water allso and try to keep some shade as suggested prior. to keep the herons at bay (we have quite a few) we have had to resort to a net unfortunately, the plastic decoys don't work but letting our 2 cavalier spaniels out works a treat.

 

[Lol1]

Thanks for the info so far, my fellow members. Most of which has confirmed that what I'm doing and have got, is close to what I have now..

I don't have a big pond, approx 1000 gallons and it's a nice uniform, rectangular shape. It gets half a days sunlight (afternoon) and is flourishing. The four chambered filter and UV are doing well, I know because the water is clear and the one plant that I keep is growing so fast I have to take out a black bin liner full of plants every couple of months. However, I think that may be part of the problem, clear water, a functioning filter and on top of that we live in a hard water area.

Over the years I have tried most of the suggestions, Barley (didn't seem to do much at all) chemicals (killed off my other plants too) and lilies (koi found them fun to dig up) so I'm looking for alternatives now.

How can I get my Ph down, I know koi do well in hard water but so does blanket weed and has anyone tried the electronic blanket weed killers?

 

[LMH]

Have you ever thought of just getting a budgie? Lot less trouble than ponds.

Lisa

 

[parker1158]

Hi Lol

When you say get the pH down do I take it you mean more acid rather than down in numbers as it were. If you mean more acid you will struggle, have you thought about collecting and using rain water? That is what I do, it should be neutral. Another point Koi and plants rarely get on especially as the Koi mature as they are natural burrowers and you will need to keep any plants well protected or sectioned off. Also what is your stocking level and feeding regime like? To many fish will create a lot of 'by product' which will feed the weed, to much food will have a similar effect. I my pond I have seven mature Koi at around eighteen inches, I consider this to be maximum stock (although I am tempted to add one more) and I have not as yet fed them this year (although I will start soon)

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

My pond is fed by rainwater directly off my conservatory roof. There is a question about pollutants in the air and also whats settled on the roof being washed into the pond but so far I've had no problems with disease or unexplained deaths. The fish usually breed each year but most fall foul of predators.

 

[Ramblingrose]

The product Ramblingrose refers to is Barley Straw matting.

It can help against blanket weed as it releases some kind of chemical as it decomposes and retards the growth of the weed.

No its definetely not Barley Straw matting, it looks like a large square sponge and its impregnated with chemicals.

 

[sharon_374304017]

hi

we have got the blaggdon electronic blanketweed killer and since having it fitted never had any trouble with the dreaded weed ,if you are going to install one and do have excessive weed you will have to keep removing it by hand untill the unit can manage on its own it took me about 4 weeks daily for me to get rid of the weed .