What’s Your Favorite Pond Plant?

I have a lot of anacharis (aquatic grass) and my pond (a catfish pond) was so clear that it is growing in 6 foot deep water. Also have some yellow water lilies that are very pretty. A little swamp iris on one side. If I use pond shade, the algae isn’t too bad and the fish “fertilizer” feeds the plants.

Water hyacinth

I have found out the hard way that parrots feather and water lillies had a great effect on my pond. The water is very clear and I put enough of them to give my fish coverage from the predators that try to have some dinner!

water hyacinths and trailing plants which fall into the water and root like ivys

I have water celery, forget me nots, ribbon grass,cypress and pond lilies. I love them all. This is my first year with a pond and have had my share of troubles, but I am not discouraged. The water is clear, clear, clear, but I have had a little trouble with string algae. I’m learning a lot

I have found water hyacinths spread and clean the water very well

I have a lot of water lilies, (pink, white & yellow). I do monitor my salt content which seems to help with algae, I’m having a little string algae.

Taro, Giant Papyrus,Umbrella Palm, and Corkscrew Rush. Beautiful in Pond.

Water hyacinths are the best, look green and flower ocassionally. Our shubunkin seem to like the roots.

I’m sorry I can’t help anyone righjt now. I have not found any answers as to date about getting rid of Algea in a cement pond. I have tried most of the suggestions I recieved but nothing has help yet.
I have one more to try and if it works I will let you know. It is painting the cement pond with swimming pool paint. I will try to get it done next week, and if it works I will scream it out.
Thanks to All
Angel

I have had 2 problems with my pond….First I was getting a lot of algae forming due to a lot of sunshine over the pond. The second problem was critters who liked to fish in my pond for my koi/goldfish. I was using chemicals to try and control the algae and a fine net across the pond to keep the critters( blue herons/ raccoons) from robbing me of my fish. Inadvertantly, I had some lilies multiplying in the pond, so that now after several seasons, I have enough water lilies to pretty much cover the surface. So now, without the sun reaching the surface of the water I have virtually no algae problem, and I have been able to leave the net off, since the birds don’t see the fish as much nor do the land thieves bother them either…..no time invested and no effort nor expense…..try it…..bob g.

Hi Angel,
Concrete ponds and fountains sometimes pose problems if lime is leaching out of the concrete. This can raise the pH of the water to a pretty high level making it harder to control algae with bacteria or other natural products.

Make sure the pond has a good seal coat on it and I would advise using a pond sealer not a pool sealer if you plan on having fish. A good seal coat may help with things as would adding more plants to the pond in general.

Take care,
Mark

It seems that the cattails which are in abundance in my pond are helpful in keeping the algae in check.

I put “clear fast” in our pond 1 x a month, and when it is 30c, i usually add water, and let it run for 1/2 hour, every other mo i use “Laguna Bio sludge remover.” I have water lilies, pond grass, and have water letuce. our pond is 17 ft, long, 8/1/2 wide. 2 1/2 feet deep in the deep end, 4 1/2 feet deep in the deep end. We have 6 Koi, 4 fancy pond fish, .The Koi had babies this past spring, So we have 20 babies, some will go to a friend , visit me on Facebook to see pics of the pond, sue zaple, our pond is heavy duty rubber , we have not had issues with algea, I also rinse the filter material out with clear water 1 x a week

Hi – our pond was free of algae (without the help of grass carp this year) with some green, long stringy plant which lives submerged, mutiplys and exudes oxygen. The other important factor are water lilies, which in our pond are plentiful, shielding the water from the sun.
Also, don’t feed the fish!! We have only goldfish (different types), and although not great algae eaters, if they are not fed, they eat everything….
Have tried everything else – the best are grass carp, if you can get hold of them.

Michael

I have been battling algae all summer. I’ve been using the Aquasphere since July, instead of a mulitude of other produts, and just recently added Rush. I don’t use algecides anymore…they didn’t help anyway and mess with the good bacteria you want to keep. The Rush did help loosen alot of the algae, which I then pulled by hand. My water is generally clear unless I’m messing around stirring things up, but I have a light layer of algae on the bottom that makes the water appear greenish, and string algae on the sides, which has improved, but isn’t gone. I have several plants, but don’t know which ones are doing anything helpful. It’s good to hear I’m not the only one with algae! I don’t know what the answer is, but if anyone finds one, let us all know!

I have just gotten my pond, it’s 15×15 big enough for me. I find that the water lily really helped me out, for I have no trees or bushes around my new pond. the pads gave coverage from the sun, that kept the algae from multiplying so fast. I can still see the fish swimming around. I just keep the dead leaves cut off, and and the blooms are just gorgeous… the flower is easy to keep and give plenty coverage without a lot of work.

I really have not found much in plants that winterize here in the Maritimes, but I do have marsh grasses which I presumed were cat tails when I got them, but they never bloomed. Our ditches are full of different water grasses which grow tall and can be planted in 5 gallon buckets if you have a liner in your pond. They even winter well if you plant them deep enough in the buckets. I would like help with a way to get blooming plants what will survive the cold north winters if any one may have a suggestion.

I have suffered with a lot of algae this year and finally took the plunge and purchased a UV filter system to help my skimming system. Works great and recommend it highly. I know it is not an all natural way to clear your pond but if you want a quick sollution (7-10 days) it is wonderful and we can again enjoy our fish. They are our only pets and our enjoyment. I have wintered inside and out and my larger ones are 5 years old with several new babies each year. This year was over whelming. We had at least two batches and right now coming into fall we have 3 to 4 dozen little ones of two different sizes. Good thing I have a large pond but it is only shallow so I have developed a great wintering alternative for them and it has been great the last three years with no losses. Keep up the good work!!

Water lettuce, water hyacinth, water lillies, and parrots feather seem to do the trick. They thrive, spread well, are low maintenance (but some can be invasive and you need to remove them to keep them from taking over) and they take a lot of the nutrients out of the water that would otherwise cause Algae growth.

giant water lilies are the best for me,almost no algae and the fish are safe.

I have elephant ears, water lilies, and water wisteria. I get full sun almost all day, so have inreased the plant life to reduce the algae rather than resorting to chemicals. I also have a couple of large snails and two plecos, which also help. I have virtually no algae now and the water is clear enough to see individual grains of sand on the bottom.

I would love to have more blooming plants (my water lilies have only bloomed once), but I think it’s because they need to be fertilized and that’s what started my algae problem originally – and it was massive! I’m a little gun shy now about that.

I still do have a little bit of string algae, but it’s easy enough to pull out by hand.

I live in Houston and have not seen any water hyacinth around here. Is this a good place for it to grow?

Also, I just bought a couple of heaters for the pond to use this winter so my plecos will survive the cold snaps. I’ve never tried to winter them outside before, so I’ll let you know how the heaters work.

Critters have gotten some of my fish, also. I really don’t know what to do about that other than giving them enough plant life to hide under. Trying to put a net over it wouldn’t work because of the water bell and the plants.

My pond is about 250 gallons, but the fish only occupy the lower section below the waterfall, which ia probably only about 175-200 gallons. Is this large enough to expect the koi to reproduce? Do I need to do anything special for it to happen?

I have a 3000 gal koi pond. when the water temp increase, I will put in a few pleco fish a form of algae eater that gets really big. I also have a plant filter with water hyacinth and lettuce, Now it will take time for your plant filter to get going. but this combo really work well in the summer months to control the algae, just remember to take out the pleco before the water get to cold below 65 in the fall and this is the nightime temp. Oh and I’ve had my koi pond for 6yr and no baby.