# Blanket weed in the garden pond?? Advice needed



## Greenfinger2 (1 Jul 2014)

Hi All, My friend's Mum has a garden pond "Her husband has past away a couple of months ago " A sad loss. My friend & Mum have no idea about how to run it " That's where i come in " The pond has been running for 20-25 years the main pond is 4ft deep 8 ft x 8 ft  With carp tench goldfish quiet a few but happy Ho and some lily pads but no other plants Well what looks like short hair algae around the sides walls of the ponds   The top pond is about 4ft x 4ft  6" deep and no fish. There are 2 pumps 1 pump just takes water from the larger pond and pumps it into the top pond. Pump 2 takes water from the larger pond up into a shed through a UV filter then into a large plastic water tank 200 Lt or so with sponge filter pads then returns the water to the top pond water from both pumps then flow over a water fall about a 1ft drop back into the larger pond All sounds good  But they have lots of blanket weed which blocks the pumps in a few weeks I have taken out as much as i can from both ponds Looks clean and tidy and cleaned the filters pumps out and the UV light is in date only just been replaced  But the blanket weed keeps coming back in a few weeks ?? Help needed from you clever people how the hell do you get rid of this stuff 
Thanks in advance for any advice from my Friend & Mum And Me 
One rough sketch


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## Maurits (1 Jul 2014)

phosphate remover and a blanket weed killer on a regular basis will do the trick, not much more you can do as you can't control sun light and rain which are both the main courses for Blanket weed.


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## Greenfinger2 (1 Jul 2014)

Hi Maurits Thank you


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## Edvet (1 Jul 2014)

Clive had an article about EI method for a pond, worked like a charm, should be in the pond section


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## Greenfinger2 (1 Jul 2014)

Hi Edvet, Thank youI will give it a read


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## Greenfinger2 (1 Jul 2014)

Edvet said:


> Clive had an article about EI method for a pond, worked like a charm, should be in the pond section


 Hi Edvet, Found it And wow superb info I would have never thought of El Thank you Again


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## ceg4048 (1 Jul 2014)

Maurits said:


> phosphate remover and a blanket weed killer on a regular basis will do the trick, not much more you can do as you can't control sun light and rain which are both the main courses for Blanket weed.


This is not true at all. You're fooling yourself. You need to add more phosphate and definitely should avoid algecides.
The....Matrix....has....you....Neo.

The OP should continue to remove by hand the blanket weed and add copious amounts of non-ammonia containing fertilizer. Clean the filter regularly and if the bottom of the pond is filthy with fish waste then it ought to be cleaned up a bit. That might entail removal an replacement of some water but that's the best way to get the plants healthy. Add more plants, especially lilies, and the leaves will cover the surface, block the light and reduce the growth of algae. It will take a few weeks and some elbow grease, but the effort will pay off.

You can also use Sodium Percarbonate powder placed directly on the blanket weed to save some effort at hacking away. It's discussed in the site http://www.koiphen.com/forums/showt...s-in-fish-ponds&highlight=sodium percarbonate


Cheers,


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## Maurits (1 Jul 2014)

well as it seems you're the expert there's no need for me to give any advice anymore. enjoy your oxygen bleach and if it has gone wrong call the expert.


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## foxfish (1 Jul 2014)

If for some reason you wanted to farm blanket weed then a fish pond with clear water & in full sun is a great way to go 

Shade is the way to go if you want to reduce the weed, as Clive suggest lily's work well but some fish like tench & carp do love to rummage around freshly planted pots!
Sometimes a mature pond will have very bad years & sometimes very little weed will show, it would seem that this is not always clear why, but no doubt that full sun is a major contributor!
It might not be realistic in your case but, a pergola with a mesh shading top will be very effective at reducing the weed, the only other way seems to be the use of a large vegetable filter.
I have had great results with ponds that have at least 50% of the surface area used for heavy planting of suitable fast growing plants, water cress being a favourite. However for this to work you really need to design the pond with this in mind & offer large shallow, gravel filled margins.


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## dw1305 (1 Jul 2014)

H all,





foxfish said:


> It might not be realistic in your case but, a pergola with a mesh shading top will be very effective at reducing the weed, the only other way seems to be the use of a large vegetable filter.
> I have had great results with ponds that have at least 50% of the surface area used for heavy planting of suitable fast growing plants, water cress being a favourite. However for this to work you really need to design the pond with this in mind & offer large shallow, gravel filled margins


 "Foxfish" could you make use of the top pond as your vegetable filter? or is it unsuitable? If you could use it, it would get around the fish problem.

cheers Darrel


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## foxfish (1 Jul 2014)

Quite possibly yes, if the pond was filled with a suitable gravel & heavily planted it might just work!


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## Greenfinger2 (1 Jul 2014)

foxfish said:


> Quite possibly yes, if the pond was filled with a suitable gravel & heavily planted it might just work!


Hi, How about planting the top pond with reeds ?[DOUBLEPOST=1404251740][/DOUBLEPOST]Hi All, Thank you all for fantastic info  Amazing what you all know  Thank you for sharing


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## foxfish (2 Jul 2014)

All the vegetable  filters I have installed are desired like undergravel aquarium filters
A grid  of perforated pipe is placed under a layer of gravel and a pump is used to draw water down through the gravel into the pipe work.
The gravel level is just below the water surface and is planted with water cress (bought from any super Market) the cress is very fast growing and it will grow surprisingly large, maybe 300mm hiigh.
The cress is easy to remove making the bed easy to maintain.


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## Edvet (2 Jul 2014)

and the water cress goes on the sandwiches?


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