Artificial or natural ponds always need timely cleaning, for the most part aimed at ridding the reservoir of excess, overgrown vegetation. The first candidate for removal is most often duckweed, densely covering the surface of the water with a green terry carpet. Getting rid of it is not always easy, so it’s important for the owners of any pond to learn more not only about the characteristics of this plant, but also about effective methods of dealing with it.

What is duckweed in a pond

The well-known dense carpeting of the pond called "duckweed" is nothing more than small floating plants formed from leaf stems connected to each other. The only threadlike root departs from them. At the base of the leaf is a side pocket with a tiny inflorescence developing in it.

In the wild, duckweed bloom in open water is extremely rare, mainly in summer. Vegetation propagates vegetatively (with the help of young leaves separating from the mother plant). Before the start of the winter season, the kidneys sink to the bottom along with the dead part of duckweed, and with the advent of the new season they again start active growth.

• Among the main reasons that provoke the growth of duckweed, the following reasons always come to the fore:
• violation of the ecology of the pond (relevant for industrial regions where it is possible to drain residual products of various industries into water);
• excessive illumination of the reservoir for most of the day (these are almost ideal conditions for the development of duckweed);
• consistently hot weather throughout the summer season;
• excessive heating of water in shallow areas of the pond;
• frequent visits to the reservoir by ducks (migratory birds often carry spores of various plants on their paws);
• stagnation of water, although the possibility of duckweed formation in rivers with a high flow rate is not ruled out.

• The specified plant often violates the decorativeness of the reservoir, prevents swimming in it and catching fish, but at the same time, it also performs several positive functions:
• supplies ponds with oxygen and purifies them of carbon dioxide;
• protects fish from direct sunlight;
• often becomes good food for underwater inhabitants, and after catching leaves - and for waterfowl ducks or geese.

The growth of duckweed occurs at lightning speed, but taking it out of the pond is not as easy as it might seem at first glance, so be careful what you plant in the pond and if parts of duckweed are stuck to the useful culture.

Methods for clearing duckweed

As a result of the rapid growth of duckweed in a reservoir, many owners of decorative ponds have to deal with the need for a qualitative elimination of this water grass. In this matter, there are several basic schemes of action, but first of all, it is worth choosing the most suitable way for yourself to remove vegetation.

The main possible ones include mechanical, chemical and biological effects on unnecessary vegetation, for which special tools and materials are used.

Mechanical

The mechanical way to solve the problem with duckweed on the pond is available to anyone, because in the simplest version provides for manual catch of grass using a net. If it seems to someone a very tedious task, you can look for special devices, such as water vacuum cleaners and skimmers. Sometimes such methods of removing duckweed are combined, which improves the efficiency of the procedure.

Did you know? The described plant helps to get rid of unpleasant consequences after a bite of mosquitoes and snakes, and it also has an antipyretic and antibacterial effect.

Manual cleaning

This cleaning option is usually used in small bodies of water covered by large plants. They are removed from the water by netting with a fine mesh. Having immersed it half in the pond, you should slowly run the device along the water surface, filling the net of the caught duckweed as much as possible.

All caught plants are transferred to a prepared bucket in advance, in order to either be thrown away or used as feed for poultry. In addition, as compost, duckweed will also be useful for fertilizing the adjoining territory: for example, the lawn grows well on such top dressing.

Water vacuum cleaner

This kind of vacuum cleaner is usually used to clean the bottom of artificial ponds from silt, but it can also help get rid of small particles of duckweed and other plant debris, which is very difficult to catch with a net. Such devices are not much different from household models, except that after suction of water with debris particles, the latter remain in a special bag, and the liquid is poured back into the reservoir.

Important! The greater the depth of the pond, the more powerful the unit is worth choosing. So, with a depth of more than 2.5 m, only semi-automatic or automatic models will have the necessary set of functions, but manual ones can already be ignored.

The choice of water vacuum cleaners on the modern market is quite large, so everyone can choose the most convenient option for themselves, based on the functionality and dimensions of the design they like.

Skimmer

The principle of operation of this device is somewhat reminiscent of the functionality of the previous unit, but only outwardly they are not at all similar. A skimmer is a small, triangular or rectangular filter that passes the top layer of water (this is where the largest number of bacteria, dust and small debris are concentrated, forming a greasy film on the surface).

Once inside the device, the liquid is cleaned of all contaminants and discharged back already purified. As in the case of vacuum cleaners, there are a variety of skimmer models on the market, and their cost will be more attractive to the buyer.

Biological

Biological measures to combat duckweed in a pond are much closer to a natural solution to the problem, since they are based on the launch of bacteria in the reservoir that contribute to the dissolution of vegetation. Based on their type, a specific drug is also selected.

Bacterial preparations

Choosing the optimal complex of bacteria to solve the problem of excess vegetation, first decide for your specific goals: do you need a tool only to dissolve duckweed and mud, or do you want to purify the water as much as possible, eliminating turbidity.

For the active life of bacteria, they need the same elements as the plants in the pond.therefore, with the simultaneous presence in water, a certain deficit of these nutrients important for vegetation is created. Lack of nutrition causes the death of duckweed and the cessation of its further growth on the surface of the pond.

Did you know? Duckweed was used to feed poultry back in the days of Ancient Russia. However, people did not always take all the grass from the reservoirs, seducing the mermaids and leaving them a little clothes (often ritual dances were arranged in the reservoirs).

To get the maximum effect from the use of bacterial drugs, it is worth combining their various types. For example, at the initial stages of filtration, “Starter-Bacterien” or “JBL FilterStartPond” preparations, presented in the form of a powder saturated with dry microorganisms, will be optimal for use.

After installation, they contribute to the most efficient operation of pump filters, and all that is needed is to sprinkle the substance on the filter substrate (required after disconnecting the device from the mains) Once in the liquid, microorganisms immediately begin to convert ammonia and nitrates into nitrogen compounds and carbon dioxide, which eventually leads to decomposition of sludge, clearing the bottom and rid the pond of mud (not only duckweed).

Another group of drugs (Algenkiller, AquaBalance) is presented in the form of mixtures of bacteria that contribute to the suppression of photosynthesis in the cells of aquatic plants. Due to metabolic disturbances, algae nutrition ceases and soon they die. The term of such beneficial effects is 6 weeks.

Complexes of microorganisms that block the growth of rot and promote the growth of beneficial plants in water bodies can also be classified as a separate group. Such formulations have a longer duration, but during the first months they are added to the water once every two weeks.

When using any drugs to eliminate pollution of organic origin (not only vegetation, but also dirt), it is important to observe several basic rules:

• clearly follow the instructions, not exceeding the dosage of the introduced substance;
• regularly artificially aerate water, thereby compensating for the amount of oxygen spent by bacteria.

Bioplate

A bioplato (pond) is a small part of a reservoir with a depth of not more than 50–70 cm. It is considered a natural cleansing mechanism for reservoirs in a summer cottage, and for the organization they select a separate part of the shallow, fill its bottom with gravel (the size of individual particles should not exceed 20–25 mm), a layer of 110–130 mm.

The pond is completely planted with aquatic plants (marsh calamus, hornwort, cattail, reeds or marsh irises), then with the help of the pump provide the best passage of water from the main pond to the bioplate and back (in a circle). Water intake is best performed at the very bottom of the pond. The strength of the flow must be regulated so that it is as weak as possible: the water passing through the gravel and roots of the plants must have time to be purified.

Sludge will form very soon at the bottom of the bioplate, and the saprophyte bacteria contained in it will regularly release water from organic products that appear during the natural decomposition of the excrement of aquatic inhabitants.

The bioplate not only removes duckweed from the pond, but also removes other unwanted vegetation from the pond, and also enriches the water with oxygen, while purifying it. An additional advantage of the organization of the bioplato will be its high decorativeness, which allows the jail to fit perfectly into almost any design of a personal garden.

Chemical

Cleansing a pond using disinfecting compounds can be considered an act of standard disinfection. This will limit the deposition of sludge and will prevent the appearance of fungus and the growth of mold. In special shops for the care of the local area, you can find a variety of drugs in this area, effectively saving the pond from duckweed and other types of algae. Once in the water, the reagents present in their composition normalize the optimal acidity, thereby helping to limit the growth of grass.

Important! When using chemicals to eliminate duckweed, it is best to comply with the dosage recommended by the manufacturer, otherwise there is a risk of death of the aquatic inhabitants of the pond and intoxication of the human body during work with the substance.

Especially popular today are compounds based on polymeric ammonium compounds (for example, Markopool Chemicals), which can have a prolonged effect, destroying plankton spores and blocking intercellular metabolism in duckweed, due to which the vegetation dies. Reagents with the presence of chlorine in them (preparations “Hth Algicide”, “Alginol”) contain quaternary ammonium chloride.

Although they do not change the pH level, they nevertheless well eliminate excess vegetation.

Bottom liming

If you are going to clean the pond from algae, you can get rid of fast-growing duckweed and adhering to tips for liming the bottom. With prolonged use of the reservoir, in the water and soil at the bottom, a deficiency of lime is possible, which leads to the appearance of excessive turbidity and the multiplication of parasites.

It is very expensive to pump out dirty water (an ejector is usually used) and change it to a clean liquid, so the best solution to this problem is to make up for the missing lime with a new portion from the outside. This will contribute to the effective cleaning of the pond from germs and accumulated turbidity, not to mention the disappearance of undesirable vegetation due to changes in the chemical composition of water.

Quicklime is best for liming a pond in the country. On average, for a water fence, 1 m deep, for every 10 m² of area no less than 100 g of substance will be required. It is advisable to clean the pond in this way every half month (from mid-May to mid-June). In this case, it will not overgrow duckweed throughout the summer season.

It is possible to deal with thickets in this folk way both using a conventional scoop and using a special device that has slots at the edges (contribute to a more uniform distribution of the substance).

Sorption Cleaning

To destroy duckweed are often taken using a sorption method, which is a type of chemical solution to the problem of algae. In this case, zeolite, which is able to effectively bind heavy metals, helps to remove them from the reservoir, due to which it is considered a very powerful tool.

This is really a great way to clean a decorative pond, however, only if it has a device for circulating water. It is in its filter that a mineral is added, gradually cleaning the liquid passing through the device. In purified water, duckweed is very inconvenient to grow, which means that it will be much less necessary to remove the pond.

To remove overgrown algae in vast water areas, zeolite is poured into water at the rate of 20-30 kg of substance per 10 acres, with the procedure repeated every 2 years (sorption cleaning has a long effect).

Ultraviolet radiation

It is possible to remove algae from water bodies using special ultraviolet light sterilizing lamps immersed in water, irradiation of which adversely affects duckweed and other vegetation in the water body. You can make them yourself, but to guarantee success, you should still buy a finished product.

Among all the above disinfection methods, this one is not only highly effective, but also completely safe for aquatic inhabitants.. A positive result of the use of ultraviolet lamps can be noticed after the first use, since the water immediately becomes more transparent. When choosing a specific model of such a device, focus on its power, because the larger the area and volume of the reservoir, the more serious the device is required.

Water change

It is most difficult to rid a pond of duckweed in this way, especially when it comes to large water areas. They resort to it only in rare cases: with very severe pollution of the pond, when the cleaning filters can no longer cope with the functions assigned to them.

The scheme for draining the water and further self-cleaning the reservoir from the sludge in this case provides for the following actions:

1. To get started, flush the water and move all the fish to a temporary aquarium or other body of water for the duration of the cleaning activities.
2. Then remove the water plants, remove all debris from the bottom and clean the walls of the reservoir from the accumulated sludge.
3. Fill the pond with fresh clean water, return the desired vegetation and water inhabitants back.

Try not to use fertilizers rich in organic substances, if you do not want, so that the sludge accumulates again in the future.

Having found out why your pond is overgrown with duckweed, and having done everything possible to limit its further growth, over time it will stop appearing in the reservoir. This will not only increase its decorativeness, but also make the life of its inhabitants more comfortable, because the thickness of clear water will be well lit by sunlight.