Pond issues.

[bario1]

I put in a small pond at my plot in the Spring. It was doing really well up until a few weeks ago, lots of daphnia, beetles and snails (not sure where they came from!). Suddenly all the snails seemed to die, and now blanket weed is forming under the water, growing on the liner and strangling the potted plants and oxygenators I put in there. I can't see any life in there at all now, it's really disappointing! What can have happened?

[nickdub]

Bit too much in the way of nutrients in the water probably - small ponds are harder to balance than big ones - try fishing out the blanket weed, leave it on the side for a bit for any critters to climb out, then compost it - probably take several iterations.

[bario1]

Thanks Nick - would that kill off all the pondlife?

[fishpond]

No oxygen is possibly the problem, but in a small pond, in this type of weather, it is always going to struggle.
ANSWER* The perfect excuse for a bigger pond*, or fit an air pump, or a water pump with some splash.

[bikermike]

Haul out the weed as others have said. a good way to get out more of the weed is to use some old tights as a dragnet - if you already have a net, then just put it in that, or bodge something up with a coat-hanger. You will need to be extra careful with this, as you will catch a lot of wildlife that should go back in the pond.

Have you tried barley straw (or extract), this will help change the chemistry of the water in a beneficial way.

Also, have you been topping up the pond of late? water that has sat around in this heat will haver evaporated a fair bit, so will be more full of nutrients as it goes in.

I have a pumped filter with a UV bulb - the bulb is eye-wateringly expensive, so I only replace it when I get green blanket weed. Otherwise, just filtering.

I have lots of duckweed at the moment, so I'm hauling that out with tights on a frame and putting it on the compost heap.

I'm topping the pond up with an old non-wheeliebin dustbin of water a week. This isn't a scientific measure, but I've got one, so I'm using it - I leave the water in that for a week to let the chlorine evaporate off.

[SarrissUK]

We've had a LOT of sun the last couple of months, which helps the blanket weed and algae to grow. It's also been warm, which also increases growth. The third thing that promotes it is, as mentioned previously, too much fertilisation.

You can fix the sun issue with more floating plants such as water lettuce, water chestnuts, water soldiers, water lilies. You should aim for about 65% coverage and shade either from surface plants, or plants within the water.
The heat is more difficult to do anything about, so if you've got the right shading, just get more plants - they will soak up the fertilizer in the water

[dogsbody]

Or even the temporary addition of a patio umbrella positioned on the side to cast shade across the pond will help.

(Like the old Wheelie bin idea, may have to pinch that one!)

[Jungle Jane]

My dads first pond had loads of pondweed in it,but years later the plants he’d bought grew bigger & covered it,you couldn’t see the fish anymore but it did help shade it. I used to remove the pondweed with my hands it’s quite relaxing & I wonder if you collect a pile of it,it might make a good mulch?

[pwlynch]

I had a lot of work on this year to rejuvenate my pond as it got covered in duckweed which killed all the oxygenating plants.Also a lot of leaves had got in it.I fished out as much of the leaves as I could,take a lot of duckweed off every week and got a solar oxygenator.The pond is looking much better now,although I still need more floating plants.We got frogspawn from a puddle that was drying up when we were out hiking earlier in the year and now have froglets all over the garden.All the duckweed,leaves etc I've put in the compost bins.

[bario1]

Thanks for all the replies, some good tips there. I think I need to get more plants in there. I have a small solar pump, so that will hopefully help too.