Blanket weed

[galanthus]

Originally Posted by m1.carson

Hi again kayleigh,

I've just read that watercress can contain liver flukes , sort of put me off using it, thinking of egg & cress sandwiches as a bonus.

.

Liver flukes ??? Good grief, we've been scoffing watercress with rocket and spinach salad bags all summer !

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

I read that tap water destroys the mucus membrane and weakens fish and amphibians and makes them more prone to fungal infections.

Amoungst other things its the chlorine thats the main problem. Tapwater is roughly made up of 0.5 chlorine to 3.0 ppm water. This is a small amount to a human, but fish are highly sensitive to chlorine and concentrations of as little as 0.05ppm are lethal to fish resulting in death. The larger the fish the more it is at risk.
Chlorine not only affects the mucus of the fish but it also the gills and it kills the nitrifying bacteria in the biofilter in your pond. This results in spikes of ammonia and together with the nitrate this causes the fish to die shortly after, often a matter of days.

[Digifrog]

Originally Posted by m1.carson

Hi digifrog,

Yes please if you can get the brand, the only blanket weed killer we've tried, guaranteed not to etc., burnt the roots of all our lillies, they went black, but that was a lot of years ago.

We purchased two darling little bags of barley for a fiver , they didn't do anything at all, and saw they were using big bales at Wisley, they still had green water, again that was five-ish or more years ago, nothing was mentioned about airing them, perhaps thats the answer.

Earlier this year, we emptied the pond, re-filled it with plain old tap water [leaving a fair amount of gunge in it], thinned out a lot of the plants, lo and behold a crystal clear pond after it had settled, the only place we have blanket weed is on the waterfall.

Luck not judgement

Max.

Hi Max.

Sorry for the delay. Please bear with me and I'll tell you soon. I just haven't had the chance to visit my local garden centre as yet.

Scott