Canadian Pond Weed?

Welshkoi · 19-05-2006, 12:36 PM

Hi

I have recently placed some reeds in my pond and the fish have been encouraged to spawn on them ;D

I like the idea of making my pond a bit more natural, I was thinking about adding some aerating pond weed

I have read the canadian pond weed is quite prolific, my pond is 4000 gallons and about 12 foot wide

Would it be so prolific that it will block my drains and take over the pond without pruning? - I want to achieve better aeration in my pond, and provide a place for fish to hide and spawn in spring\summer

Regards

Jamie

Taggy · 19-05-2006, 05:34 PM

hi there
if you mean elodea canadensis which i think it might be then it is extremely invasive and not really reccomended for large ornamental ponds . if you want oxygenators youll be better of with hornwort (ceratophyllum) or willow moss (fontinalis) which are both very effective and spawning fish love them , there also easy to split and propagate in spring or summer. hope this is of some help paul

Welshkoi · 21-05-2006, 05:44 PM

Cheers

I have seen some hornwort for sale at the local garden centre, will buy a couple of bunches to see how it goes

Regards

Jamie

Taggy · 21-05-2006, 08:06 PM

hornwort is probarly the better of the two, if you weight it with quite a heavy weight youll never have any trouble with it blocking your drains or pump. cheers paul

Welshkoi · 05-06-2006, 01:05 PM

Hi there

Does anyone use a container (water drum) with oxygenating pond weed as a natural filter?

I was thinking about using a 55 gallon drum full of it for my 300 gallon tank (along with a seperate bio filter)

Is there any pitfalls for example would it cause problems at night?

Regards

Jamie

Taggy · 05-06-2006, 03:09 PM

hi there
most plants especially oxygenators act as quite a good mechanical filter, hornwort being the better one it is just like a nylon brush and quite easy to clean with a bucket of water but im not to sure on how much oxygen it would strip from the water of a night time but i am quite sure that it feeds off what it produces and not from striping the water , so i dont think you will have many problems using it . chara stonewort ( chara aspera ) is a good plant if you can get hold of it ,it is native to britian but it is very invasive (thats why it is hard too buy) so it would suit the type of thing you want it for and if you live in a area with hard water it is very good at removing lime from your water and produces quite a large quantity of oxygen, if i was to use oxygenators for the type of application that you are thinking about i would use a mix of these two, elodea canadensia is always readily available but not as good as the other two mentioned, hope this helps paul.