Dying Floating Pond Weed

[Tony Crabtree]

Hi, I have a small (100 gallon} pond with a few Koi. During the summer good
shade cover was obtained from water lilies and aggressive water hyacinths
which was allowed to cover 2/3rd's of the pond. Now that the weather has
turned cold the plants are dying and leaves are going black. Should I
remove these dying plants or leave them to cover the fish through the winter
months when it could ice over?? Will the decay jeopardize the water
quality? Can anyone tell me the consequences or make recommendations.
Thanks Tony

[[email protected]]

In my opinion, you should remove as much dead vegetation as possible. I
have a very large pond, and lost several fish this summer because of an
increase in nitrites that I believe was caused by some dying vegetation
that I left in the pond. At least, when I removed the vegetation, the
fish stopped dying.

[Benign Vanilla]

"Tony Crabtree" > wrote in message
news:Rhutd.180$Ya4.133@edtnps84...
> Hi, I have a small (100 gallon} pond with a few Koi. During the summer
good
> shade cover was obtained from water lilies and aggressive water hyacinths
> which was allowed to cover 2/3rd's of the pond. Now that the weather has
> turned cold the plants are dying and leaves are going black. Should I
> remove these dying plants or leave them to cover the fish through the
winter
> months when it could ice over?? Will the decay jeopardize the water
> quality? Can anyone tell me the consequences or make recommendations.
> Thanks Tony

I always dead and dieing plant matter during the growing season. I have
never had a fish problem from rotting plants, but letting them rot can be a
huge maintenance item, so it's best to clean them as they go.

In the fall, I tend to scoop out all of my floating plants and then just let
the other lie. They die, and sinkt to the bottom where the frogs, and other
critters use the gunk for protection. I scoop it out in the Spring.


--
BV
Webporgmaster of iheartmypond.com
Check out the IHMP forums, ihmp.net/phpbb
I'll be leaning on the bus stop post.

[me]

yes you need to clean it out if you don't want your fish to die, but your
pond is way to small to over winter anyways, I hope this is not to late.


"Benign Vanilla" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Tony Crabtree" > wrote in message
> news:Rhutd.180$Ya4.133@edtnps84...
>> Hi, I have a small (100 gallon} pond with a few Koi. During the summer
> good
>> shade cover was obtained from water lilies and aggressive water hyacinths
>> which was allowed to cover 2/3rd's of the pond. Now that the weather has
>> turned cold the plants are dying and leaves are going black. Should I
>> remove these dying plants or leave them to cover the fish through the
> winter
>> months when it could ice over?? Will the decay jeopardize the water
>> quality? Can anyone tell me the consequences or make recommendations.
>> Thanks Tony
>
> I always dead and dieing plant matter during the growing season. I have
> never had a fish problem from rotting plants, but letting them rot can be
> a
> huge maintenance item, so it's best to clean them as they go.
>
> In the fall, I tend to scoop out all of my floating plants and then just
> let
> the other lie. They die, and sinkt to the bottom where the frogs, and
> other
> critters use the gunk for protection. I scoop it out in the Spring.
>
>
> --
> BV
> Webporgmaster of iheartmypond.com
> Check out the IHMP forums, ihmp.net/phpbb
> I'll be leaning on the bus stop post.
>
>
>
>