blanket weed and Cloverleaf not working

[Emma Killilea]

Hi there,

I have a spring fed pond in my new house. Water flows in from a pipe and leaves via a different one and flows down the hill.

Blanket weed (long, thin, green strings) is a scourge in it. It blocks up the exit pipe, which has a sort of filter on it. The pond then overflows.

Twice now, we've syphoned off the in-pipe to prevent water flow and keep the existing water in the pond. Then we have treated it with a full dose of Cloverleaf. We left it for 7 days each time and we left 2 weeks between doses. Neither time has it worked and I have no idea why. The water goes milky, I make sure it is all mixed in and evenly dispersed around the pond but the weed lives on. It thrives in fact!

Any advice please?

Emma

 

[addy1]

I have never used cloverleaf. I have used peroxide, at the rate of 1 liter per 1000 gallons. Do you have fish? Sounds like a neat pond, always has fresh water.

Welcome to our group!

 

[j.w]

Emma
Can't help you w/ the algae problem but sounds like a nice pond w/ free water flushing through all the time. I'm thinking it may be futile tho to add the peroxide as your pond has water flushing in and out all the time which will dilute the peroxide and defeat it from killing the algae. Could you make something to snag/trap the algae from getting to the filter and plugging it up? I don't know what that would be but some kind of bigger screen deal maybe stopping/catching the algae from entering the filter area. Otherwise I think the only way you are going to be rid of it is to hand pull it out and if you aren't there all the time you can't do that. Maybe build a metal screen box to put around the sucking filter pipe? If you built it big enough hopefully water would still go through but algae won't.

 

[j.w]

Just saw this on Ebay but maybe it is not big enough. Think you might be able to make one if you are handy. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lake-Pond-Water-Filter-Screen-Irrigation-Sprinkler-App-/170687041546

 

[Emma Killilea]

Hi guys,

Thanks so much for replying. It is a great pond and I love the idea of having fresh water arriving on the property all the time.

I have inherited an orf and a goldfish and there are very large tadpoles in there as well as baby newts. I'm not sure if these are the protected variety so I'll assume they are. There are no plants in there at the moment.

Just to be clear, before I did both Cloverleaf treatments, I redirected the fresh water using a 3m pipe. Therefore it didn't wash away.

Can I use salt or peroxide with the wildlife?

I'm stuck! Thanks!

Emma

 

[JohnHuff]

First things first. Give us more info about our pond.
What is the size of your pond?
What location is it in so we know the weather/temperature conditions.
What do you have in it, plants and fish?
Where does the spring water come from?
Mud bottom/liner etc?

 

[Emma Killilea]

Hi John,

Thanks for replying. The pond is 100% concrete. It's a square 2.25m each way. It's only 30cm deep.

I don't know where the spring water comes from other than 'up the hill'.

There are no plants in it at the moment but there is an orf and a goldfish. There are also very large tadpoles and some newts.

Location wise, it's in the sun most of the day. It's in the middle of the garden, surrounded by plants.

Does that help?

Emma

 

[JohnHuff]

Location wise, it's in the sun most of the day. It's in the middle of the garden, surrounded by plants.

I mean is it Alaska or Arizona type weather.

 

[Emma Killilea]

Sorry! Forgot this is the world wide web! It's in England so not too cold. I'm in the North so we do get snow most winters. There was none this year though. When I bought the house in May there was no blanket weed and now it's just stuffed with it.

 

[JohnHuff]

Algae is a plant. And for it to grow, it must have 2 things: sunlight and nutrients. I'm wondering if the spring has runoff from a farm or a garden.

How much water is coming in from the spring?

Do you have any shade over the pond?

The fact that you had no weed in it in May is easily explainable that the weather conditions weren't right for it. I'm sure that as the weather gets colder, it's going to disappear as well.

When the spring is running, it will do not good to add additives because it'll just flow out the other end.

Probably the first thing I'd do is investigate what is upstream of your pond and where the spring is coming from. It might be as simple as Google maps to see if there are farms or gardens upstream of you.

 

[Emma Killilea]

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply. There are just houses upstream. No farms or rivers, etc.

As I mentioned, I prevent the spring running into the pond by diverting the water, before I add the Cloverleaf. I also wait a day for the pond to drain off before adding it.

There is no shade over the pond.

I'm after a solution to the weed that does not involve me bending over and physically removing it because I suffer from joint problems so bending over is hard.

Emma

 

[JohnHuff]

I'm afraid to say that one of the prerequisites of owning a pond is backs and knees that will stand repeated bendings.

As I have mentioned in my earlier post, algae is a plant. In order for it to thrive, it must have 2 conditions: sunlight and nutrients. You will need to starve your pond of only one in order to prevent the blanket weed from growing.

Do you feed your fish a lot?

Do any of the houses above you have lush gardens that they fertilize a lot?

 

[Emma Killilea]

Hi John,

I don't ever feed the fish and I don't know whether the any/all the neighbours up the hill use fertilisers. It's a city centre property so the area is heavily built up: lots of houses with small gardens.

What I'm after is something that will remove the current weed. I'll look at prevention next. Any suggestions?

Emma

 

[JohnHuff]

You might consider testing the water to see if it's heavy with nitrates and phosphorus.

If nutrients is the cause of your problem then:
- Because it's a natural spring, I don't think I can recommend you plugging it up. You could consider redirecting it so it bypasses your pond. If you do that, then you could neutralize the nutrients in the water by either:
a) using additives
b) using other plants to soak up the nutrients
c) filling up the pond with water (from the tap perhaps) that doesn't contain a lot of nitrates or phosphorus

If nutrients isn't the cause of your problem, then perhaps keeping the pond in shade.

I think in any case, this problem will go away with the onset of colder weather.

 

[adavisus]

A pleasant feature, a spring fed pond, might as well work with what you have rather than struggle against it, trying to impose pre conceived notions of what you think it ought to be

The Cloverleaf description fails to specify the ingredients so theres no clue what might stop its effectiveness

Without any competition algae will become rampant on a pond of fertile water.

Adding aquatic plants that mop up the fertility can improve water quality, plants which are fairly easy to maintain, not so rampant that they choke a pond. Setting Azolla loose can extract fertility and blot light out, its fairly easy to net that out when it becomes dominant. Hornwort is an attractive foliage plant that suppresses algae. A steady flow of water would be pretty with Water Crowfoot or Cabomba. Water hawthorn for perty flowers. Marsh marigold for a spring blast

Attractive foliage for critters to pose among... fairly easy to flip out when it fills out

You could let the blanketweed build up in open water areas, when it has a serious mass, it is fairly easy to yank the whole lot out in one go with a hooky tool on a pole (saves on bending and stooping) and use it as mulch around droughted plants. Twirl and hurl...


Regards, andy
http://www.pinterest.com/adavisus/pondering/