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Blanket weed

I do not disbelieve any of the "chemists" but it would seem it goes back to what I said in the first place.

There is no chemical 100% cure for blanket weed that works for all ponds. (That is safe for fish / wild life)

There is one solution though, a stick.
 
Algaefix will work, the algaicide is Busan 77 actually. Not sure if it's allowed in the UK, generally not.

The best method I've found for pond clients : pack the pond full by the last week in march with Hyacinth, water lettuce etc at my climate region/Latitude.
About 2 weeks before you know the bloom is coming.
Order from the plant suppliers then.
Another good chemical is sodium percarbonate, then kills algae on surfaces.
As a carbonate salt, it will raise the KH/alkalinity.
This should be available in the UK.

These 3 methods are better than copper or Zinc.

Adding a lot of plant biomass(say 30-50% coverage) that 2 week period before the water and light heats up is key.
Then you do not need any chemicals.

You can also stock things like Flagfish etc that eats hair algae but not plants, or many carps will, but then you have no plants and pea soup.
 
It sounds like you know what your talking about Darrel,I wont lie to you mate I really dont no alot about chemistry so i will listen to what you have to say as it interests me...All i know is everyone i know who's tried it, has had no problem .
 
Algaefix will work, the algaicide is Busan 77 actually. Not sure if it's allowed in the UK, generally not.

The best method I've found for pond clients : pack the pond full by the last week in march with Hyacinth, water lettuce etc at my climate region/Latitude.
About 2 weeks before you know the bloom is coming.
Order from the plant suppliers then.
Another good chemical is sodium percarbonate, then kills algae on surfaces.
As a carbonate salt, it will raise the KH/alkalinity.
This should be available in the UK.

These 3 methods are better than copper or Zinc.

Adding a lot of plant biomass(say 30-50% coverage) that 2 week period before the water and light heats up is key.
Then you do not need any chemicals.

You can also stock things like Flagfish etc that eats hair algae but not plants, or many carps will, but then you have no plants and pea soup.

Hi have you any more info on sodium percarbonate, as in dose rates per litre,if im correct this is made from sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide..
 
Hi all,
It sounds like you know what your talking about Darrel,I wont lie to you mate I really dont no alot about chemistry
I'm not a chemist either, but we've done a lot of work in the lab. on the remediation of landfill leachate, mainly looking at biological filtration in microbial systems (like a canister filter) and in combined microbial/plant systems (like a planted trickle filter) . Landfill leachate is fairly nasty for all sorts of reasons, both biologically (huge BOD) and chemically (Cd from batteries etc, Cu, Pb, Zn), but you can reduce heavy metals toxicity if you can immobilize the metal ions (mainly by chelation and precipitation as insoluble compounds) and raise the pH.
Adding a lot of plant biomass(say 30-50% coverage) that 2 week period before the water and light heats up is key. Then you do not need any chemicals.
Tom is the "man who can" and it is definitely the approach I'd favour as well.

Have a look at this post <Dealing with the green | UK Aquatic Plant Society>

cheers Darrel
 
Algicides such as copper are being phased out as much as possible in the USA. Organic herbicides and algicides are better over time and with repeated use since they break down mostly into CO2, water and maybe Chloride, Nitrogen etc.
The only way to get rid of copper is a Nuke reactor and split the atom or dig up the soil and move it elsewhere, or use plants to sequester the soil copper etc.

Plants are the best method, you need to make sure the vendors can supply enough plant biomass that early in the season for you.
Or have an indoor covered greenhouse or something to do your own grow out.
 
I presently look after 7 substantial kio ponds under contract & believe me if there was an effective & safe product to rid the dreaded weed i would be first in the queue to buy it!
Personally I am a fish lover & I have no intensions of even potentially harming or stressing my customers valuable fish, the idea of adding salt or any chemicals is not something I would do lightly.
I know there are lots of Koi forums out there suggesting this that & the other but I only have a working life times experience to go on in my real world & I suggest shade in one form or another.
Some of the later builds that I built have huge back washable under gravel filter beds that are loaded with plants & interestingly so do the very fist few I built 25 odd years ago.
These pond have very little, if any nuisance weed but, many of the ponds I built in between with fancy filter systems & other devices like ozone generators & hundreds of watts of UV do have algae issues!
In fact I built a 10,000gal pond 27 years ago that still runs the same planted filter bed, has no shade & no blanket weed!
I joined a koi forum once & talked about the 23 years old filter bed & just got a load of experts telling me just how bad & dangerous the situation was & that i should upgrade the filter system for something more modern ... well 4 years on its still going in my real world LOL...
 
Has anyone used the anoxic filter system invented by kevin novak
 
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