That leak around the pipe concerns me. Water moving through the dam by any means other than a pipe is troubling in my opinion. Are those rocks visible in the photo throughout the dam itself, core and all?
That does look like duckweed to me. If so, it most certainly can cover the entire pond surface, given time.
The pipe is a 12" sewer pipe. Fairly expensive. There are two seep collars on it, and the collars were properly put in place with sealant, then a radiator type clamp around the base of the collar. The water must be tracking around the collars. We packed clay very tightly around both collars with a sledge.
There is rock throughout the dam. I tried to follow the dozers an throw as much rock as I could to the back of the dam, but there was too much. It does show up more on the back though, because I threw so many back there.
I almost pulled the plug during construction due to all the rock. One of the three dozer operators said if it was his pond, he would stop construction due to the rock. I made the decision to push forward. The rock played havoc with the sheeps head roller. It continually clogged up the roller,and the rocks had to be pried out. They did try to have cleaner clay in the core. There is certainly no dirt or clay coming out in the seep.
Does water depth make any difference to duck weed? I've got fairly steep banks for most of the pond, not much shallow areas. I also haven't planted anything else that would be killed off by any spraying. All the fescue and weeds that had grown up on the banks as it filled, died off after being submerged. As a matter of fact there is a dead zone where the water level has dropped. The old fescue is pretty much non existent any more.
Here's the heaviest concentration of duck weed.. Still not much, I'd like to stop it before it takes off.
I'm not feeding any more, as the feeder isn't working, and hasn't for two weeks. I did toss some feed by hand early yesterday morning and the YP hit it pretty well, along with about a million FHM.
Let the algae run it's course?
Thanks
Jeff
