Couple of Quick Questions

[drjay9051]

I'm going to guess it's just a lack of nutrients. If I were you, I'd put them in the filters to get them going. I bet they'd do great there.

As a side note - I'd be very careful about putting plants from the wild into your pond. You never know what kind of parasites or bugs - or even fish eggs - might be hiding in them that you don't want to add to your pond. You can quarantine them or give them a quick dip in some lightly chlorinated water - but it's still a risk. Although to be honest, there's no guarantee with plants you buy from a garden center either, so...

Are water hyacinths banned for sale in Florida?

YES ! Water Hyacinth are considered invasive. There are a few local ponds where you can ind them. Mostly private property.

I don't think pond supply stores are allowed to ship to Florida.

 

[Lisak1]

@snoozer - take a little drive south. We can still buy them here in IL. I mean, you'd have to be an outlaw and drive them back over the state line, but really - this is a silly ban for WI. I understand banning them where they can be a problem in nature, but water hyacinth and water lettuce will never become invasive in our northern waterways.

 

[Gemma]

Thanks, Gemma:

Pads arrive tomorrow. i ordered the ones you referenced as well as a fine filter:

https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Pond-Filter-FINE-Ultra-Durable/dp/B0721ZCPNX/ref=sr_1_4?
ie=UTF8&qid=1525610402&sr=8-4&keywords=koi+filter+pad

I will place a double layer of the coarse at bottom and on top of that a double layer of the fine. My filter flows from bottom to outlet at top so filtration goes from coarse to fine.

I really have minimal debris in the pond. One a week I fish out a few leaves off the bottom with a long handle pool net. Better to let this decompose over time and not remove??

Thanks again.

I really hope it works out as good as it did for me!

 

[cas]

In the beginning I use to have real good luck with water hyacinths, then in later years they stayed small and didn't multiply. I couldn't understand why and then I read that water hyacinths like a pH of 7. The picture on the left is in 2005 when the pH was 7 - 7.5. The picture on the right is in 2015 when the pH was running about 8.

 

[sissy]

Never saw an algae killer yet that worked and did not kill fish .liquid barley is safer