Cleaning out the pond...HELP! D:

11th July 2010 at 18:06

Hello,

So I have a rather large pond at my house and over the past few years, its gotten this sort of blankey of greenery on it. It used to be just a little bit, but now it's thick blanket that covers the entire pond!

Here are some pictures of it from far away and up close:
http://i29.tinypic.com/2v97tdi.jpg

We have ducks that don't even want to be in the water much anymore. We want to have more fish in there, but it seems the fish just die after a while (we used to have many tiny minows and frogs and aquatic life in there, but now it's pretty much empty).
The stuff smells and we have boxers that like to play in the water, so they just smell like the pond all the time and are covered in this stuff.

We've tried chemicals to try and get rid of it, though nothing has worked.

We've even tried to scoop it out, though it seems like the hole just fills back in with every scoop ya take out.

Does anyone know the name of this algae(if that's what it is...green algae leaves??), or ways to get rid of it (even just to reduce the number of it in the pond)?

In the area we live in, there are many snakes (water moccasins and cottonmouths included) and living in Florida, gators are also a concern on ours, so everyone just feels a little uneasy about the pond because we can't see what's under all the green.

Thank you so much for your time!

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3 replies since 11th July 2010 • Last reply 11th July 2010

Reply #1: 11th July 2010 at 19:07

It's duckweed, my parents get it in their pond. It's one of those things that you have to get every little scrap out or it just comes back. I think the best thing is to get rid of as much as you can and then just try and keep on top of it.

I found this:

Common Duckweed

Scientific Name: Lemna minor
Other names:
Family: Araceae (formerly categorised as Lemnaceae)
Regular removal of the weed is quite laborious and it soon returns, the best method is to use a floating board to drag it to a corner, then a net to lift it onto the side where it should stay for a while to allow any trapped wildlife to return to the water, before putting it on the compost heap. A more drastic measure is to drain the pond and remove the sediment which is releasing the nutrients and may contain dormant duckweed.
There are some weedkillers which are listed for use, but only in isolated ponds and where you don't mind losing some other plants, eg. Glyphosate and Diquat, following the instructions on the label.

Hope that helps=)

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Erica

Reply #2: 11th July 2010 at 20:08

Yes, it does!
Thank you!!

My dad thought up using the board a while back, and we've been trying to use that, but the pond is just so big, ya know?

But thank you for telling me the name of it! :3