Plants are not growing

On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 17:42:39 -0500, "Pam" wrote:

This is my pond's second year. It is somewhere around 800 gallons. It has
a skippy type filter with no plants which flows into a kiddie poll plant
filter which then goes back into the pond. It has a very low fish load and
two large bullfrogs. The fish and frogs are thriving. Everything turned
green about the middle of May The green algae seems to be mostly gone now
but the water is still brown and murky and visibility is only about six
inches.

Problem; the plants. Everything in pots is small and unhealthy. Initial
growth in the spring was slow and spindly. There is no new growth on the
iris or pickeral weed now, and new lily pads are very few and very small..
The underwater plants that flourished last year are barely holding their
own, and not putting out new growth. There is about a tablespoon of
duckweed, up from about a teaspoonfull in the kiddie pool. I composted
azolla by the gallon last year. This year I cannot get it started in the
pond or the pool. Needless to say the veggie filter is almost devoid of
veggies.

I gave everything a bath in the miracle grow tub last weekend but it does
not seem to have helped.
Could something about the water chemistry cause my plants not to grow?

Hubby used a test strip in the water this morning and got nitrate 20,
nitrite 1, hardness 75, alkalinity between 80 and 120, and pH 7.2. He
didn't check for ammonia. I know I need to invest in some good water
testing materials, and will do so soon.

Suggestions? I'm in hot, humid south MS where our climate is a mix ofzone 8
and zone 9.

Hmmmm, are you using any salt in the water to prevent brown blood disease
in your fish with a nitrite of 1?

Otherwise your numbers should support plant life. Any possibility that run
off od some sort of weed-be-gone or other herbicide got in the pond? Did
you use an algaecide on the algae? ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~