Fish Health - Blanket Weed Treatments
These products are sold in
tubs and when added to a pond, cause the water to go a whitish colour as though
you had added flour to your water.
The substance sticks to all
surfaces.
Aha! - so you have used one of these! Have you lost any fish?
Or perhaps the fish behaved very funny, hanging around waterfalls and filter
outlets, giving the impression there is no oxygen. Your sturgeon roll over on
their backs and gasp for air.
The reason for this message this summer
is that I have had far too many phone calls and emails concerning ponds that
have been fine until one of these products has been used, and then the system
goes into free fall.
Most clients say "yes blanket weed is going and my
water looks terrible and I am losing fish as though they are starved of
oxygen".
The problem is I think, these products do not suit all
systems. They seem to be more of a problem in new or mature systems and they
seem to work better in systems under a year old and newer than 3 months,
planted or not - which is a very small window.
They seem to work by
choking the blanket weed, as some of these can be seen stuck to the pond sides
3-4 weeks after use.
I have not run any trials on these products,
because I have not found a pond void of fish but full of blanket weed
The problem with blanket weed is most species ( of which I know of six)
grow better in well stocked systems as it receives more nutrients.
The
water quality problems, ammonia and nitrite, seem to suffer worst when K1 is
the main media (it sticks together).
One of my clients who was unable
to contact me (I was on holiday) removed his fish into a support pond and then
treated his system. Once all the blanket weed had gone - about 28 days - and
the water quality had returned he then returned his fish and suffered no
losses. He tried two types of these products. The first did not work at all.
This procedure he used is my best advice, because some of these products do
work well with fish well. So it's up to you.
I have been told that in
some ponds they all work well. All I can suggest is to add the recommended
amount to five gallon of your pond water in a separate tub with an air stone,
and see how it reacts with your water parameters.
Remember your biggest
enemy with blanket weed is using tap water without out any water treatment, and
I don't mean declor.