Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry problem with watermeal on my pond - need help!

I need a big help on Watermeal problem!

I have a pond its size is about 1/2 acre and the avg depth is about 3ft (starts 1ft then deepest is 5ft). I am having a big problem with watermeal that covers almost entire my pond.

Initially, the pond had all kinds of algae and pondweeds. I put a KASCO surface aerator but it’s got clogged often by pondweeds. With treatment of Reward+Cutrine+Aquashade, about 2/3 of bottom algae and pondweeds were gone. There are still floating half-dead pondweeds and cotton candy like algae (filamentous), and my wife and I are spending at least 4-5hrs every weekend to scoop them out, with a rake. ( When we treated Reward+Cutrine, watermeal and ducweeds turned to brown and appeared died, but the watermeal reappeared within 72 hrs.)

I think the problem is that whenever rains, all neighborhoods fertilized gardens get washed and the fertilized rain-water comes to our pond. Unfortunately, our pond is at the lowest point of neighboring ground and I cannot control the nature. ( in the pond, there’s a L shape drainage so that if the water level reaches above 5 ft, then the water discharges out to other side). Another problem is that over the years, muck/debris built up and it became shallow.

To get rid of watermeal, I’ve heard that I should use "SONAR", but my problem is even if I treat it now, if it rains, the concentration would be washed away and I think the watermeal would grow back – that’s what’s happening with “Reward’ treatment now.

Someone suggest that I should try a skimmer instead. Since I need to invest a lot of dollar on SONAR over the years (I will need at least once or twice a year treatment), I would think that I’d install a skimmer and run the pump to skim out the floating watermeal. I think a Savio Skimmer filter (Model SSW1600), $375, plus 2hp pump on ebay, about $300, which would skim about ½ acre. Although I will be spending more $$ on Skimmer installation initially, I would think that it will be a cost saving for a long run.

Any thoughts on using a skimmer instead SONAR? Any advice will be appreciated.

JP - From Southern MD

Welcome to the PB forum. Watermeal and duckweed are tough to control. There is a lot here on the subject including some temporary success by netting or dragging it out. One problem is these plants can double in volume every 36-48 hours. Read the links below on a recent discussion.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=14;t=000231;p=1

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=14;t=000260;p=1

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/floating_plants/watermeal_mgmt.htm

ewest- Thanks for the info.

I'd like to know if anyone have tried a surface skimmer instead of chemical treatment?

If I recall several have used mechanical means to skim FA and DW using nets , weighted ropes etc as skimmers. I don't recall a motorized skimmer. Skimming will work to remove but it will keep coming back. From the last link above :

Watermeal can be removed by ranking or seining it from the pond's surface but it is so small it is very difficult to physically removed.

Watermeal tend to grow in dense colonies in quiet water, undisturbed by wave action. Often watermeal will be associated with colonies of duckweeds. Watermeal can be an aggressive invader of ponds and are often found mixed in with duckweeds or mosquito fern. If colonies cover the surface of the water, then oxygen depletions and fish kills can occur.



From http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/plants/duckweed.htm

In temperate climates, Duckweed survives the winter by producing buds (called turion) that sink to the bottom of the pond.

Duckweed have the highest growth rate of any higher plant. In ideal conditions (high levels of nitrates and phosphates), the surface area covered by duckweed can double in less than 2 days. The Indian species, Wolffia microscopica, can bud off a new daughter every 30-36 hours. Thus one tiny plant could, theoretically, in four months produce offspring equal to the volume of the earth!

AQUATIC PLANT MANAGEMENT http://aquanic.org/publicat/state/il-in/ces/lembi.pdf describes mechanical control and lists companies with products.

Yes - I’ve tried net, rope, etc and it doesn't work. I was looking for a motorized method(skimmer + pump)- as it is used in the pool. I've heard from folks who have pools and whenever surface algae or debris build up in their pool, they get sucked into the skimmer and you just have to empty the collection basket once in a while (inside the basket has a screen and it collets even the tiny watermeal). Since the pond is some what different than a pool and the amount of algae build up is more and it would require to empty the emptying the basket more often then the pool, but once they all get cleared, I would think then number will be reduced.

Bottom line, I'm looking for someone who has tried a skimmer + pump!

Thanks.

Hello,

I am new to the group; first some background. I have an old 1/4 acre pond avg. depth 4 feet surrounded by woods and a lot of leaves.

For the last two years the biggest problem is watermeal with a sprinkle of duck weed. Last year I tried Reward but that only works for a very short time. I did find on-line two commercial pond skimmers but they are very expensive.

http://www.proskim.com/how_it_works.html

So I designed and built my own using a 2” trash pump and a filter of porous cloth. The cloth is in a large wooden frame supported by hardware cloth. I skim the water with an inlet near the surface and pump the water into the filter. The water drops through and back into the pond. The WM collects in voluminous layers and I rake it into the bucket of my front end loader.

I use a 1” floating rope to coral the weed to the skimmer. It works quite well but is labor intensive. The pond will be covered again in 2 weeks. It takes a full day to skim it. If I continue in this manner I would build a smaller unit using an electric pump and let it run more often.

This year I am trying another chemical Whitecap which is suppose to last for two seasons if the pond does not have any water exchange. This contains flouridone as does many products.

http://www.lakerestoration.com/p-21-whitecap.aspx

I have been reading about watermeal and find that flouridone (Whitecap) will only control WM not eradicate it. In some cases it will have little effect. (reason unknown)

I found another herbicide flumioxazin brand name Clipper that states it is excellent for WM but I have not found a source to buy it or its cost.

http://www.cygnetenterprises.com/Product.aspx?id=894&pid=0&mid=&cid=&sn=62&pn=37

Comments appreciated.
Ed S

JP,

Surface skimming does work pretty well. Don't expect if you install one to have it all clean overnight. I'd think you would need to run it quite often (or all the time) - and especially when the wind is favoring where you have it set up.

You'll still have a little watermeal hanging out, and it will probably get clogged with sticks, etc so you will have to watch it...but it will do a good job at getting the majority of it. As an added bonus, this harvest method is removing the nutrients from the water.

I like your skimmer idea, flashgordon - it pulls the watermeal out of the pond and that helps eliminate some of your nutrient issues from the decaying plant matter which can be a precursor to watermeal showing up. I had a very bad watermeal infestation for the first two years we owned our farm so I went the Whitecap route last year. I started too late to get any benefit during the majority of summer, but by late summer it was dead. This year I treated with Whitecap by late spring and have not seen a bit of watermeal so far. I am not sure about the info you've gotten that indicates Whitecap will not kill watermeal because I've certainly seen exactly that take place. My pond is fairly similar to yours - 1/2 acre, old, shallow, and lots of organic buildup over the years prior to our purchase. Plus, we have a lot of geese that I suspect have been using this pond for decades and their poop has had a major impact on the nutrient-heavy condition as we don't have much water exchange outside of the late winter and early spring months with all the surface runoff. In any event, our watermeal situation has been radically changed for the better thanks to the Whitecap. Check in with Greg Grimes here on the forum for a great deal on it - he's treated me very well the last two years. By the way, for the fluoridone to work effectively, you need to maintain the proper ppb concentration in your pond. Even if you don't have water exchange, it will lose its effectiveness over time and I would be very surprised to see it work for two years under virtually any circumstances outside of a controlled setting. Good luck and keep us posted.

Oh, and a hearty welcome to Pond Boss! Glad you found us and jumped in with a great issue right off the bat. Stick around and stay involved. And post some pictures - we love that around here!

I have been using clipper this year for watermeal control with great results! The only problem for small pond owners is it comes in a 5 lb container and you only need one lb per surface acre. We have used it on more than 20 ponds this spring and it safely wipes out watermeal, duckweed, algae, and many other types of vegetation.

n8ly:

Hey, can you send me a PM telling me where I can buy the switchgrass seed (and what species it is) that you planted at Otter Creek?

Clipper works on Algae too? FA, Chara or both?

Thanks

We too have used/sale clipper along with Sonar. I no longer sale whitecap (long story) but got prices on sonar close to that of whitecap. SePro is the original flouridone experts. Clipper has worked well to reduce WM abundance but not elimnated WM as is the case most of the time with proper flouridone application. The clipper does well on many things but have to balance the effecitveness with cost. It does cost more than copper for instance to contorl FA. However if you have tried some things and it does not work time to move to something better and clipper might just be the ticket.

Thanks for the replies... where are you buying Clipper?

Ed

Hi Todd,

From my reading I should have said Whitecap controls WM, but it will comeback. Also some variants of WM are not controlled by Whitecap. No reason can be found.

I will post some pics of my home made skimmer.

Ed

Flash, my understanding is that the nature of watermeal is such that you would need to hit it for a couple of successive years to actually eliminate it and that if you only do it once, it likely will return the next year. Nonetheless, if conditions are right, even if you eliminate it for a period, it could probably be reintroduced pretty easily, so getting it controlled and then working to change the condition of the pond is probably the way to go. Crazy stuff, this pond management fixation we've all got!

It sounds like controlling the watermeal and duckweed is just like trying to control weeds in food plots. Get them whacked back this year, next year seeds that didn't germinate the previous year do, resulting in another crop of weeds. I read that some seeds (lambsquarter for instance) can stay viable for 1700 years and many other weed seeds are viable for over 70 years.

I wonder how many years WM and DW seeds stay viable?

Whatever the number of years is, it's too many!