Grow Your Own Magazine

Hey all

You'll remember that recently my OH and I wanted to get some frogspawn in our pond and we were eventually successfull in finding a reliable source, went and got some in a bucket, cleaned it and added it to our pond.

All was good...until now!

Our small pond has been taken over by green slime- obviously something we brought in with the frogspawn even though I made an effort to clean it before adding it to the pond. I spent an hour this morning on my hands and knees scooping as much as I could out, but it's so difficult as it's like underwater mist and impossible to get your hands on it.

I now realise that we're are going to be plagued with it forever unless, we drain the pond and start from scratch as it must be embedded in everything.

How do I get rid of this stuff. Please help!

Our tadpoles are getting quite big now and I don't want to do anything drastic that would cause them any harm, but if we don't get rid of the slime or find an easy way to control it, they'll be suffocated by it as will all our plants too.

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I have read somewhere about putting some hay into a pair of tights and weighting it down at bottom of pond. Apparently there is some magical chemical reaction thingy which gets rid of the slime (which could be called algae or something???).

Seems a bit weird but the story goes that a farmer discovered this when he accidentally dropped a bale of hay into a pond that had been slimy for years...a while later and...voila!!!!...no slime...

Can't remember how long its supposed to take but its worth a try!!!!!!

Eskymo you can buy bottles of pond treatment for algae or blanket weed from aquatic shops. It sounds like hairy algae. The sunlight makes it worse. You can buy a U V Tube to put in the pond which helps. How big is the pond?

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Wow - that sounds like magic - I think I'll send my other half up the road to the farm and see if he can get some hay - not sureit's the right time of year though.

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The pond is tiny - one of those plastic moulded ones from B&Q. It definitely is some sort of slime - but blanket weed sounds familiar so I'm going to do a search online for that. Would the liquid treatment kills of my frogspawn?

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Algae is supposed to be beneficial but it is horrible. Normal algae is just green water but hairy algae is long threads of green slime which is what I think you have. Keep dragging out handfuls of the stuff until your frog spawn has grown then treat the water.

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will do - I've added it to the list of things I do in the garden before breakfast!

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We've got a tiny plastic pond too & it's always filling up with algae. The only thing you can do for now is really to keep fishing it out by hand as anything else will upset the frogspawn. I tried the barley straw in a net idea but it didn't have much effect. Lots of plants with leaves which cover the surface is supposed to help, have you got a miniature waterlily & lots of oxygenating plants in there? Try growing watercress in it as well as that is supposed to help- I do & it seems to lessen the algae a little.

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

I thought it was straw and not hay to use. Works for us!
Must make sure the pond is mostly in the shade if is small though as too much light encourages the pond plant growth...would have thought a UV light would have made matters worse, but am happy bo be corrected!

I have a small pond (which didn't seem that small when I was digging it)My tadpoles eat the muck in it, but last year something ate all of them, however this year they seem to be surviving. I also have quite a few plants which seems to help keep it cleanish. Ro

Nicos it is either a U.V. tube or a U.V. filter. Not sure which is in our pond.

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Even healthy ponds get algae and slime in them at some times of year. I think this year is bad as we had sudden sun before the pond plants had really grown. The ideal is to establish a healthy eco system, more difficult with a small pond. Your local aquatic centre should sell bags of barley straw which help. Oxygenating weed is good as well and I would definitely get some watercress going. Buy a bag and place some pieces in clean water and they'll shoot in days. I don't ever treat for blanket weed (that's what your's sounds like) and find that every year I don't treat the problem gets less. Ponds are like many garden things, give them time, plants and leave them alone, they'll sort themselves out

I've been doign a good job by fishing a load of the slime out every day and it's clearing up and we've just got a few oxygenating plants but I was worrying about putting them in as won't they get covered in slime? Or do they help clear the slime?

We've only had the pond a year and had to drain it because it seemed to have gone stagnant...all seemed well until last week when the slime appeared.

I'm one of those types that doesn't give up on a challenge - so I'm determined to beat it and would prefer not to treat the water - but the barley straw sounds like a good idea so might try that if perserverance fails.

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The oxygenating plants may seem to get covered in slime but they'll be fine and as they grow they'll help to clear it. Try not to drain the pond no matter how bad it seems as once you do you'll be trying to establish the balance from scratch again. One tip though, make sure you don't get fertilizer or plant food anywhere near the pond as that just feeds the blanket weed and makes it worse.

Just keep fishing it out Eskymo, I've just cleared a load out of mine over the weekend. If you put your oxygenators in they will help & you can just lift them out & rinse the any algae off if you are just dropping clumps of them in. I agree that you shouldn't really empty the pond out & start again especially as you have the frog spawn, the water just needs time to settle & the plants to establish. Because the pond is small you have to keep an eye on it as pondweed, blanketweed & algae soon take a hold .

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

I think the problem was arising from not using aquatic compost for all my plants - I just used normal compost! oops. So we bought some aquatic compost and I repotted everything over the weekend.

I looked in the pond this morning and it is crystal clear!

I guess that the balnket weed will come back as I don't think I cleared it all out, but I think I've got it under control. We looked in the garden center for some barley straw and could not believe that a tiny bundle was being sold for £4.99!!!! Outrageous!

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stick your blanket weed by the side of your pond for a day or so to let any bugs find there way back in to the water then compost it, it'll be full of Nitrogen etc so will compost well, do the same with Duckweed as well.

By removing the excess growth rather than letting it rot in the water you'll help keep things balanced.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

I've got the blanket weed in a dustbin lid next to the pond so I guess anything that needed to get back into the pond has done by now. I was wondering what to do with it, but will now chuck it in the compost bin - thanks for the tip!

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Think using ordinary compost was probably causing the biggest problem. Aquatic compost is expensive though & Charlie Dimmock reckons it's O.K. to use normal garden soil in the pots if you haven't got any as this is usually low in nutrients & forms 'mud' rather than floating off into the water & she should know. I tried this once when I split a flag iris & didn't have any problems.

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

Just went out to the garden to take some pictures of the pond, but it's the wrong time of day as I just got reflections and you couldn't see into it. It's very clear and full of happy tadpoles and I wanted to show it off. I will try again tomorrow.

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