Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment Ponds Out Of Control

The Pond Frog

I am going to speak with my manager and see what I may do about diverting these drains. As far as a filter, I already know that this will not happen. I did some research on the plant Water Hyacinth and I like what I see. How will these plants handle me adding chems: muratic acid, cal-hypo, otter shield dye, etc. or will I need these chems anymore?

esshup

I am going on my 3rd month of employment with this company. The first month the ponds were budgeted for around $700 with a rollover from the previous month. April budget was for $350 and May budget will $500. As the summer approaches the budget will increase but I feel that will be due to the increase of chems needed. I will ask the sup on the cost of the removal. I believe that they may have used Capital monies or some other account $ to do this job...

GP, I like the out of the box thinking of pond frog, and he is certainly more knowledgeable than I. I would not have known to suggest what he did, however it seems to make sense. I'd give one pond a try like he suggested. It will be almost free due to the fact that you can probably find the plants and gambusa in the same local BOW. Use the money saved from that pond to do something totally different in the others. Whatever you decide to do...i'd recomend you keep extensive notes. Notate what day you did something, how much of what you used, what the effect was, etc. Sooner or later you are bound to figure out something that works. Your notes will help you retrace the steps and reproduce it. As well as be able to tell us what you did that screwed it up and made it worse!

These ponds were designed as mirrors for reflections of their building designs I gathered. Some fangled idea from an architect.

Obviously they collect the rain water, the runoffs and erosion,they are too shallow to be natural ponds, nature is claiming them. So I suggest they should add 6-8 inches of top soil, plant them permanently with wetland plants, hire a landscape architect that knows aquatic and wetland plants to draw a plan that emulates a natural wetland.

No more chemicals, no more spending of budget in a chemical soup trying to make nature's wet bowl look like a mirror.

Instead, water purified as it runs away from human's presence. A mini wildlife refuge (kids wont wade in the swamp much!) The sediments are going to keep feeding the beautiful indigenous plant species, newts and frogs will appear, then a reclaimed habitat, a chance to start new and fresh!

Long term investment instead of short term spending... my two cents!

Yes, that is about all they can be, reflection ponds. I still would go with one low budget water hyacinth. Unless the water is way, way out there like a toxic, or acidic soup they will work and probably thrive. Multiply like crazy and should be free. They are used industial for water treatment and sludge ponds for water purification. They are natures filters, and I use them here and there with success. Plus they are free and look pretty cool when they form dense mats and bloom.

Also I think converting another p nd into a bog or water aquatic plant area is a great idea. The water hyacinth pond is going to need a place to put whatever dead material is left on the bottom before the rainy season. Get soem shallow lilies, for the deeper parts, some nice marginals and a bunch of callas, canna and flowering lilies and irises for little islands you could make everywhere from the excessive runoff sediment. This is actually sounding like a fun project, but still, not enough funds. I think you have to go way out of the box here with low budget fixes and trial and error. You could end up with 5 real nice but unique ponds. The reflective pond concept is just not going to work the way it is set up.

They all are merely sediment traps and algae farms now as it stands.

There should be no need for chemicals, as they will eventually cover most if not all of the surface. That will prevent algae and at the same time the roots purify the water underneath and eat up the sludge on the bottom. When the rainy seasons are approaching you may want to remove them, or may not. They do die back ugly in cold weather. I would get them all out clean out the muck on the bottom to be used as compost. That would be an annual event. Let them collect rainwater and runoff and start again early next Spring. Could be an annual cycle. Just one pond though, see how it works. Should be a real cost saver and something nice for the rresidents to look at when they bloom.

Any new updates?

Pond Frog

I had a tuff time finding the water hyacinths but I did. An apartment complex in the area has them and gave me a few. I grabbed 4 of them and they are about the size of a cantaloupe. For the first 3 weeks or so they seemed to be okay. During the past week I have been concentrating on getting our pools (3) and spas (2) ready for the Health Inspector. Anyhow, they now look dead? They turned brown with no color left in them. Should I try a larger quantity of them. These ponds are approximately 16-18" deep. I have some wire baskets that are typically used for tomato plants that I want to trim down in order to isolate the water hyacinths together and far out of reach of humans (somewhere) in the middle of the pond. What do you think or recommend? And thanks again.

That is unreal. Too bad you are a ways from me I know places that are completely overrun with them, take all you want for free. And they are so congested the plants fight for sunlight and get almost 2 feet tall. I would not worry about caging them up, you should not have to.

I would be way more worried about what killed them off. You must have some nasties in that water to do that. To be honest, I have never seen water bad enough to kill them. Never. You either are going to have to get that water back to neutral or get the Washington Monument or the Taj Mahal behind the ponds.

Cold water temp will knock them back, but not kill them. What's your surface temp and what is in your pond water as far as treatment chemicals?

I did find a place but it took some time and they are willing to allow me to have as much as I want. The reason behind caging them up is to prevent the residents and their children from removing them from the pond. This particular pond has given me some trouble lately. I usually use cal-hypo (around 2lbs bi-weekly)to lighten it up when it becomes very dark green. I balance the sky rocking pH continuously with muratic acid and keep it between 7.2 - 7.6. Footage-wise this same pond is about 40' X 60' and around 16" - 18" in depth. What in the world makes the pH in these ponds go up anyhow? The reason that I say that I have been having trouble with this particular pond is because it is the only one that has not lighted up? After I pulled out the dead water hyacinths I pour 3lbs of cal-hypo into it and still no lighter shade, I'm boggled. I'll try and get the temp out of it tomorrow when I return to work. Thanks again.

That Cal Hypo or shock just about kills everything. That and muriatic acid I doubt any plant could survive. If you want hyacinths to survive I would think you are going to have to refrain from that stuff and hopefully let it dissipate away.
I see your point on the cages I would hope kids and people would just leave them alone. Probably wishful thinking on my part. I would think some kind of fertilizer runoff is knocking your PH out but could be many things, even organic. Do you have sediment on the bottom of this pond?

Help with coontail.

Coontail. What chemical to use, how to do it, is it too late if water temps are in the 80's, etc. Any ideas?

I replied to Coontail in that specific thread.