Well I started removing most of the moss with my drill thing and was wondering if I should leave some in the pond? And finally got a sub to pond boss mag. cant wait for first issue to show up!
And I revamped the moss removal tool a little.
I took a 3"x1/2in bolt and cut the head off so it would fit in my cordless drill and then used a 10 foot piece of 1/2 inch pvc pipe. the threads of the bolt screw in the inside pvc. It is long enough for my small pond I can get most of the moss fairly quick. and its kinda fun.
If any one wants some pics or a video let me know and I can e-mail you some.
talk to ya later.

I don't think you're in any danger of wiping FA out. FA does provide some cover for small fish and habitat for some small invertebrates. The amount you might want to leave would depend (partially) on how much cover you want to have and how much is available from other sources.

Hey Gene: I would I would like to see your Fa tool in action.
tiltaplenty@verizon.net

Same here!

jjbaird@ligtel.com

Hey me too!, me too! Please


bigcedarfarm@earthlink.net

Hey Heres the link for the page with pics and video!

Moss Removal Page

Gene

Wow, that's neat. Thanks for sharing.

I would really love to see those videos, but the link's broken, or at least that's the message I get when I try to view them.

I've got a picture in my head of how it works...wonder if I could rig something a bit bigger up to run off the PTO of the old 560 Farmall.

I'm starting to see visions of small animals, tree roots and then me spinning madly about the pond reaching for the PTO lever... :rolleyes:

That's pretty neat. Why is the PVC green? Does the algae get started on it's own around the PVC or is there something attached to it that gets it started?

The green thing is the first thing I tried and it is a fiberglass flag pole off my atv. I now have a 1/2 inch bolt with the head cut off and screw into a 1/2 pvc 10 foot piece which works but a stainless steel whip antenna would be better. I posted a new pic on the website showing what it looks like.

Gene

Gene:

Can't see the vid's but is there anything attached to the PVC? or is it just straight pipe?

If so, I'd imagine it's fairly quick to clean off, but what makes the FA actuall "stick" to the pipe and start to wrap up? I'm really curious, here and wanna try it myself.

Got the 19.2 V drill sitting in the box right now, just going to waste...

Nothing makes fa stick to the pipe. It just wraps itself around it, once you get it started its more of a tension thing that holds it on and in place. And as you take it out of the pond the twisting actually wrings the water out.

One quick thing you can try, go get the radio antenna off your truck put it in your drill. And try it out...it might not came off as easily becuz of the ball at the end. But its worth a shot!

Just to get the idea! let me know how it works out..

Gene

Gene...if I had an antenna on my old truck, I'd try it just to let you know...my old truck doesn't even have a radio...or heat!

You got mail matt. sorry to hear about the truck haha

Thanks Gene, it sure looks much easier than pulling it out with a sand rake. I'll sure give it a whirl next spring before the tilapias are ready.

Hey Gene...ol truck don't owe me nothing...84 F150 that's been all over the midwest. Now, she don't get much farther that the county transfer station, but she still moves stuff around for me.

Too cool yesterday to try the pipe thing, as all the FA had sunk when I got home, and it only took me 2 hours to actually FIND the dang drill. Oh well, gonna give it a try tonight once the FA comes floating it's ugly self back up.

MIGHT get to try tonight, as wifey wants to go to, get this, the drive-in movie! Brand spankin new one opens today, about 9 miles from home. Outta be a blast! I've been wanting rain, all right, but they just this week laid about 3 acres of sod, so they better pray it rains this weekend like is predicted.

For more reach you could try connecting multiple sections of pvc with threaded couplings. That way you could break it into 10' sections for storage.

I guess you'd want a cap on the last piece so the pipe would float.

Matt I hope you get your rain 3ac of sod=$$$$
and sound like the drive in might be fun (never no you might get lucky)
GW you kinda want the pipe to be able to sink so it aint just wraping the stuff off the top of the water. The FA will pull down the pipe and grab the stuff off the bottem as well. I've been able to wrap up huge masses of coon tail all the way down to the roots. you would prolly have to glue the sections together cause once you get a good size mass of moss on the end when you go to pull it out of the pond the end piece would come off.

I was thinking that you could use pvc cement to glue the male/female threaded couplings to each pipe. If the rotation was in the right direction they should stay together until unscrewed, or broken. Might just be too much weight for this method though.



Cool idea in general.

The sod is AT the drive in theater..."lucky" probably depends on how big a crowd they have.

Brings back really fond memories...coolers of bear, lawn chairs in the back of p-up trucks, hangovers...ancient girlfriends! Man, them was good times!

Good idea, Gene! I wished it worked with primrose...I'm removing literally tons of it by hand and rake. Any suggestions?

Goats love water primrose...
They will not get in the water but wll grab the vines at the bank and pull the stuff out of the pond...

I guess you can call me goat, then. Water primrose has been my only friend for about a week. I haven't eaten much of it, though.

I would try it on any type of vegetation you want out of there. It seems to wrap up anything that it gets near. Ive wrapped up a few cattails with mine, give it a shot.
Good Luck
Gene

Actually, davatsa has just completed his first year in Law School and this is his therapy, kindly provided by his loving father! Also a reminder how important an education is. Bet-ya he's a law clerk or something next summer.
love,
dad

edit bought a couple "landscape rakes" at Lowes, 4' extension handles, and some hose clamps to add length.

ahvasta,

You can make your 4' aluminum landscape rake a top water weed/scum rake by attaching a kids swim noodle (cut to the width of the rake)with a couple plastic cable ties across the top above the rake tines. Split the remaining piece of noodle lengthwise and slip it over the handle and secure with a couple cable ties to keep the handle from sinking.

Attach a 25' rope to the end of the handle and launch out as far as you can throw it. Works great for pulling in cut off weeds that float up or clippings that fly into the pond when mowing.

Dan

Dan...I love the ideal! I have some noodles laying around. Only problem I see is they are lime green and pink and with the aluminum flash, I hope those "Overton" Hybrids don't think it's a topwater bait.

Al, I kinda hate to see Dave become a law clerk. Along with a fiance, it will sure cut down on his fishing time. Oh well, he's young and can handle the stress. You have reason to be proud of him.

Thanks Dave. Yes I am proud of him. The "fiance" becomes a wife in 45 days. I know you won't believe this but, their bachelor party is a coastal fishing trip. lol
The big pond (photobucket slideshow I posted) is really taking shape! As ewest posted to me 18 months ago it is becoming a "paradise". Sitting out on the pier and watching the birds, fish, and wildlife has been my therapy. Anxiously awaiting a Kubota delierery to finish out some cleanup on edges. Hope everyone has a safe weekend. Been real busy and miss reading and posting. davatsa keeps me abreast.
best
al
ps Guess I am as bad as Meadowlark...can't wait to get next one started!

I tend to fondly remember the younger girlfriends, but to each, his own.

Thanks a lot Theo...

BTW...I did use Gene's idea, and it works very well. Only concern I've got is that I'm not sure how long the old Porter Cable 19.2 V will last doing this. It doesn't seem to get overly warm, but I've got about 400 yards of shoreline to cover, although only about 1/3 of that has any real problem.

Anyway, it does work, and well, just keep a sharp knife handy as (most of the time) you can't just push the "anaconda" off the end...it needs to be cut off. Oh...and when it caught grass (which I've plenty of, as much of this bank hasn't been under water before), it pulls the pipe right to the bottom and yanks that grass out, as well.

Had a buddy helping with a rake, and I got way more out than he did, and much faster, although he was able to grab the little chunks that got by me...

Matt glad to hear it worked for ya!
Thats where the whip antenna would come in play being it is tapered just reverse the drill and it will pull right out. and also run your drill on the slow speed setting seems to not work the drill as hard.
Gene

this is very cool! Just saw it.

I'd love to see the video but it seems to be gone.

Thanks for posting this!

Agreed, Al. Not sure how I missed this thread before, but this sounds like an awesome approach to FA - and other stuff - removal. Any chance of just getting that video posted here on the forum?

Some browsers and systems are more sensitive to correct URLs. Try it with the ending "L". I got it that way.
http://www.homesweethome-daycare.com/mossremoval.html

Having used the "rake method" today - which actually worked pretty good but would be better as a 2 or 5 (50?) man/woman operation - can you guess why I'm up late combing the forum? What a great resource this is!

I can't get the video with either Opera or Internet Explorer. What browser are you using? Any suggestions to help me see this video?

Loretta, using the link in my last post, does the first page come up that says "Here you will find some videos of my method of moss removal. Some take a minute to load…Thanks!" and has the radio button to choose videos? If it does, select Video 1 (Video 3 and 5 did not load for me). Video 1,2, and 4 worked for me.

If you can't get that first page let me know, I could download them and upload them to my server.

~Linda

Thank you so much Linda! The video's didn't work at all with Opera but video's 1, 2, and 4 worked with Internet Explorer. The problem was I was trying to view the video that came up when the page loaded, video 5, I didn't try changing the video number.

This does look like it's worth trying if I had a 1/2" drill, lol. I wonder if it's easier to remove the moss if you put the drill in reverse?

Thanks again Linda for your help.

You're welcome!

We've had a touch of cooler weather and the algae in our larger pond has reduced to almost nothing. Our second pond which gets fed by the larger pond has yet to have any. I suspect, after reading up on it (especially about filtering the inflow with holding pools and plants), that the larger pond acts as a filter(?).