I like to help my friends, but I find I have less and less enthusiasm. I need a booster shot of ideas to get back on track.
A friend of mine put in a cement pond sixteen years ago that is about 7 feet in diameter and 3 feet deep and has a run that is about fifteen feet from top to bottom. It wasn't built correctly in the first place and it has been nothing but problems. I've made numerous suggestions, to no avail.
I was there the other day and removed the cattails that had volunteered themselves, because their roots had grown into the pump. Without the plants, the water is going to heat up and there will be even more algae then there already is.
He turns the pump off when he leaves town, so half the summer, it isn't running. He makes no effort to clean out the algae, but I'm suppose to magically make it go away. He lives about 45 minutes away, so it isn't like I feel like driving over there every week to help him.
Over the years, I've put barley straw in the top pool. I've used barley clear in the bottom pool. All of the oxygenators and floating plants I've put in the lower pond grew excessively long roots and clogged the pump, which sits atop of the growing silty mush at the bottom, instead of in its own separate housing. He won't allow me to put fish in the pond because the fish would eat the tadpoles.
I've used water hyacinth, water lettuce, mosaic plant, and the now illegal parrot feather, to name a few. I'd like to put in a water lily, but I'm not sure it would handle the persistent algae. In addition, there are no planting shelves, and no flat bottom to place the pots on. They tend to tip over.
Have I missed something? Is there something I haven't tried?
