Small pond and blanket weed

[Spikenaylor]

Hi there
I have a small pond in a shady area
It get the sun morning to midday ish and then in shade. Slightly longer hours during summer

it has a pump waterfall feature and the oxygen instinct plants and an established frog community

the pond always suffers from what I think is blanket weed
It can take over large areas
I have tried a few solutions but they don’t seem to work all the time

any ideas or is it best to leave it and pull some out with the oxygenating plants before we get baby frogs or do we just leave it
Many thanks

 

[poconojoe]

I usually get that in the early Spring. Then as my plants mature and the nitrogen cycle kicks in at it's full glory, most of it goes away.

When there's a bio-film covering your liner, that's part of the natural filtration.

Remember, it's a plant form, so it's not a bad thing. It's nature compensating.

If your water looks clear and your fish look and are acting healthy, I wouldn't worry.

I prefer to let nature take it's course.

Please don't add any chemical treatments, algecides, etc. Too many tragic stories of fish dying due to so-called "fish safe" algaecides.

Patience is important with keeping a pond. Things don't happen overnight.

 

[j.w]

and welcome @Spikenaylor
If it really bothers you and there gets to be way too much of it take a clean toilet brush, brand new, only used for pond and wind it around the algae and pull out. I would not use any chemicals. I love your Hornwort!

 

[Janice]

Has anyone had much success with using barley straw to help minimise blanket weed? And if so, how did you use it? I can’t say I had huge success with it last year ( I collected my own from a local farmer) and I thought I’d followed the instructions, but I’m wondering if I added it too late in the season. I have more and I’m wondering if I should add it now. Many thanks for any advice.
Ps I actually really enjoy fishing out the blanket weed!

 

[poconojoe]

Has anyone had much success with using barley straw to help minimise blanket weed? And if so, how did you use it? I can’t say I had huge success with it last year ( I collected my own from a local farmer) and I thought I’d followed the instructions, but I’m wondering if I added it too late in the season. I have more and I’m wondering if I should add it now. Many thanks for any advice.
Ps I actually really enjoy fishing out the blanket weed!

I have used bails of barley straw and the concentrated barley extract. I don't really think they did much.

The utmost best thing I've ever done to improve my water quality was to add on a bog. I sold my two store bought pressure filters and UV light after adding the bog.

 

[Mmathis]

Has anyone had much success with using barley straw to help minimise blanket weed? And if so, how did you use it? I can’t say I had huge success with it last year ( I collected my own from a local farmer) and I thought I’d followed the instructions, but I’m wondering if I added it too late in the season. I have more and I’m wondering if I should add it now. Many thanks for any advice.
Ps I actually really enjoy fishing out the blanket weed!

@Janice I might be totally off-base here, but if you obtained your barley straw directly from a local farmer, I would be wary that you might also be getting chemicals and/or livestock poop inadvertently mixed in. I have no way to back this up, but would “assume” (that word, again) that commercially prepared barley has been culled for extraneous materials, where locally collected barley has not been. I hope that makes sense, but if there are things like livestock poop, even very small bits, you could actually be adding to the problem by “feeding” the algae.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

I don't get the blanket weed, mainly due to my bog filter. It sucks out excess nutrients does not leave enough for the blanket weed to live on.