What size weights to use for anchoring a pond fountain

What size weights to use for anchoring a floating pond fountain or lake aerator:

It is so important to follow these guide lines for anchoring a pond fountain or decorative aerator when using weights. If not done properly, the force of the motor can cause the unit to spin and pull the float down under the water, impeding the spray of the nozzle. Here is a chart of the minimum weight for each anchor according to the size of the floating fountain.

Secure a 3/8" or thicker nylon anchoring line to each of the two attached eyebolts on the shaft of the unit, or thru the holes on each side of the float. Make sure lines are long enough to extend outwards, 10 - 15 feet apart for pond fountains, for lake aerator 20 - 25 feet apart at a 45° angle to the pond or lake bottom.

Size of display aerator or decorative pond fountain:

1/3 HP - 20 lbs each

1/2 HP - 25 lbs each

3/4 HP - 25 lbs each

   1 HP - 35 lbs each

1.5 HP - 45 lbs each

   2 HP - 45 lbs each

   3 HP - 55 lbs each

   5 HP - 75 lbs each

At this point, your display aerator or pond fountain can be floated into position in your pond or lake. Once you have decided on a suitable location for the fountain to be placed, simply attach a boat anchor, concrete block, or similar weighted item to each of the two nylon lines. Once attached, place those anchors at the bottom of the pond spaced appropriately for the size unit. 

How to control Planktonic Algae

Planktonic Algae?

Physical Distinctions:

Planktonic algae is a microscopic weed that when it covers the surface of the pond it can have a blue green color to it, and sometimes a green and orange color.

The good and bad of Planktonic Algae

Planktonic algae blooms are considered important in the beginning of the pond food cycle. However, if the growth gets out of control, too much planktonic algae will deplete the oxygen and threaten fish kills.

How to control it:

Floating, planktonic algae cannot be removed, except by replacing the pond water that does not have planktonic algae. This is not possible or practical so the best way to control it to keep it at a minimum is to install a floating pond fountain or lake aerator. This will help to keep the pond oxygenated and help retard the algae blooms.

Pond dyes will also help to keep the algae growth to a minimum as well as beneficial bacteria. All options are environmentally safe and will enhance the beauty of your pond or lake.

How to get rid of Watermeal

What is Watermeal and how to get rid of it?

Watermeal is a very tiny rootless floating plant. It is hard to see until it groups together, in a large mass on the surface of the pond. Watermeal is often mistaken for Duckweed.

Watermeal is a native weed, and is invasive. Duckweed and mosquito fern often grow together with watermeal. Just like any other floating weed, if it is allowed to spread and cover the surface of the pond or lake, it will deplete the oxygen and possibly cause fish kills.

The good and the bad:

Watermeal is not a necessary food source for ducks, but they will often eat it. However the ducks can also carry it to other ponds or lakes in the area.

So what are safe control options?

The best way to get watermeal out of the body of water is to use a large net with a long pole that has a float on it to scoop it out. It is hard to rake it out because watermeal is so tiny, which makes it difficult to remove. The Lake Rake is the best option because it has the float on it. That makes it easier to skim across the surface. To make it work better, wrap the Lake Rake with a dense netting, so that it works like a scoop.

The next best option is to install a floating pond fountain or decorative aerator in your pond. Both will aerate to put oxygen back in the pond but also, push the watermeal towards the shore for easier scooping.

How to control Chara in a pond or lake

What is Chara?

Description:

Chara has a strong almost garlic like smell. Grayish green micro branches that has a stiff or crumbly texture, and can resemble a flowering water plant. It does not flower and won’t extend above the ponds surface.

Pros and Cons of Chara:

Chara is eaten be a variety of ducks. Portions of Chara that are submersed provide habitats for many species of invertebrates. As the food chain goes, these invertebrates are then consumed by fish and other wildlife. As the water plants die, the bacteria and fungi from the decomposition provides nourishment for a variety of these invertebrates.

Natural Management Options

Physical Management Options:

Chara can be managed by using the Aquatic Weed Eradicator and Lake Rake, but is difficult to control because it re-establishes from spores and fragments.

Many types of mechanical weedremoval devices are available that cut or chop up aquatic weeds. Remember that many submerged aquatic weeds can regrow from fragments, therefore removal of cut fragments is also necessary to keep from spreading the unwanted plant.

Use products that are safe for pond environments like Muck Digester to naturally reduce the nutrient supply that feeds the Chara and many unwanted aquatic weeds.

Fertilization to supply a plant or algae bloom prevents the formation of most bottom rooting aquatic plants and produces a powerful organic food chain for the fish.

Non-toxic pond dyes or blue colorants stop or retard the growth of aquatic plant by limiting sunlight penetration, similar to fertilization. However, dyes do not enhance the natural organic phenomenon of the food chain.

Biological Management Options:

Grass carp does not control aquatic plants the first year they are stocked in the lake.. Grass carp stocking rates to control Chara are usually in the range of 7 to 15 carp for each surface acre.

Adding aeration to the pond:
All aquatic weeds prefer a stagnant water environment including Chara. Adding a pond aerator puts oxygen back in the pond and help prevent it from coming back.

How to control Duckweed

What Type of Duckweed Do I have in my pond?

There are three common types of duckweed in North America. Common Duckweed, Giant Duckweed and Dotted Duckweed.

Where Can Duckweed Grow?

Duckweed can be found in ponds, lakes and streams.

What is Common Duckweed?

Where Does it Grow?

Duckweed grows in dense colonies in quiet water, undisturbed by wave action. Usually there is more than one species of duckweed inhabiting a body of water.

Is it invasive?

Duckweed normally is an aggressive intruder of ponds and are often found mixed in with other unwanted weeds. If masses of duckweed cover the surface of the water, then oxygen is depleted and fish kills will most likely occur. Therefore it is necessary to get control before they completely cover the surface of the pond.

Pros and Cons of Duckweed

Submerged parts of all aquatic plants offer habitats for several species of invertebrates. These invertebrates are then used as food by fish and other wildlife species (e.g. amphibians, reptiles, ducks, etc.). When the duckweed dies off, their decomposition by bacterium and fungi provides food (called “detritus”) for several aquatic invertebrates.

What is Dotted Duckweed?

Where Does it Grow?

Dotted duckweed is non-native and can be found in rivers, ponds and lakes.

Is it Invasive?

The Dotted duckweed is usually an aggressive invader of ponds and are often found growing with other duckweeds, mosquito fern, and/or watermeal. If these groups of duckweed cover the surface of the water, then oxygen depletion and fish kills can occur. These plants need to be controlled before they cover the whole surface of the pond.

What is Giant Duckweed?

Where Does it Grow?

The Giant Duckweed grows in ponds, lakes, bayous, and sluggish streams. Often more than one type of duckweed will grow together in these colonies.

Is it Invasive?

Although the giant duckweed is a native weed, it can be an aggressive invader of ponds and are often found mixed in with other duckweeds, mosquito fern, and/or watermeal. If this group of aquatic weeds cover the surface of the water, then the oxygen in the pond depletes and fish kills can occur. These plants need to be controlled before they move over the entire surface of the pond.

Pros and Cons of Giant Duckweed

Many types of ducks consume duckweed and frequently transport it to other bodies of water. Thick duckweed colonies offer habitats for many species of invertebrates, but if duckweed completely covers the surface of a pond for an extended period, it will cause oxygen depletion. These colonies will also eliminate submerged plants by hindering sunlight penetration.

How to CONTROL Duckweed

One method is by using a lake rake to rake it off the pond's surface.

Duckweed as well as other forms of aquatic weeds prefer stagnant water environment. Adding a pond aerator puts oxygen back in the pond and will get rid of Duckweed and prevent it from coming back.

Ducks will eat duckweed but they will not control it.

Beneficial Bacteria

BactiMAX+ will remove ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and organic debris (dead leaves, uneaten fish food, fish waste, etc.) the ingredients that aquatic weeds need to thrive.

• ·         Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Degrades starches and carbohydrates
• ·      Bacillus subtilis. Degrades starches, proteins, and fats
• ·      Bacillus licheniformis. Converts nitrate to nitrogen gas
• ·      Cellulomonas biazotea. Digests cellulose

Aquatic Plant Management - Cattails

Cattails

DESCRIPTION

Cattails are swamp land plants that have flat narrow or broad leaves, depending on the species and can grow to 3 or 10 feet in height. Flowers form at the end of the leaves that look like hotdogs on a stick!! Cattails might be partially submerged or in boggy areas around the eadge of the pond water. Cattails spread vigorously, because their seeds blow in the wind and are also invasive because they spread through their root system called rhizomes along the shallower edge of the pond.

Eliminating Cattails

·         Cattails can be leveled or mowed or the rhizomes (roots) can be pulled up. Timing is very important if you decide to mow or cut your cattails. Cutting them in May will activate growth, so wait until late summer if you are only going to cut once. If you raze the cattails below the water line two or three times a season, very few cattails will grow back the following year. Your cutting will deprive the roots of their important food source and reduced the amount for storage. Don't waste your time cutting in the winter, it will have very little effect on the food in the roots of the plant.

·         Use the Beachroller Weed Eliminator to cut weeds at the root. Then use the Weed Raker to rake up the weeds from the lake bottom.

·         Take a proactive approach to pond management. Use BactiMax,  CleanMax and Muck Digester for beneficial bacteria and Pond Dye to keep your pond looking great.

·         Improve oxygen levels by installing a pond and lake aerator. To obtain & keep a healthy vibrant pond, the key is aeration.

Aquatic Weed Identification and Control Solutions

Aquatic Weed Identification and Control Solutions

As ponds are starting to thaw, and weather is starting to warm, it is important to consider getting ahead of weed and algae control before it becomes unmanageable. Over the next couple of weeks Discount Pumps will be posting many blogs. Each blog will identify a plant and offer ideas for natural control.
With 4 different categories of aquatic green life and many different types in each category, it is important to identify what you have in order to deal with it appropriately.

Many ponds have more than one type of aquatic plant, and it is important to identify all the aquatic plants inhabiting the pond. Some pond plants may be beneficial to local or migratory wildlife, and therefore, may want to be encouraged or at least not eliminated. 

Algae are very primitive plants. Some algae are microscopic (planktonic algae). Others are thin and stringy or hair-like. While still others are large and resemble higher plants but without true roots. Types of algae - Blue Green Algae, Bryozoans, Chara, Euglena, Filamentous Algae, Golden Algae, Nitella, Planktonic Algae.

Floating plants are not attached to the bottom. Floating plants come in sizes from very small to over a foot in diameter. 

Floating Plants - American Featherfoil, Azolla, Bladderwort, Common Salvinia, Dotted Duckweed, Duckweed, Giant Duckweed, Giant Salvinia, Floating Crystal Wort, Florida Mudmiget, Rooted Water Hyacinth, Watermeal, Water Clover, Water Hyacinth, Water Lettuce.

Underwater plants are rooted plants with most of their vegetative mass below the water surface, although some portions may stick above the water. One characteristic of submerged plants is their soft stems, which is why they do not usually rise above the water’s surface. Underwater Weeds - American Pondweed, Asian Marshweed, Baby Pondweed, Brittle Naiad, Brittle Waternymth, Bushy Pondweed, Fanwart, Coontail, Curly-Leaf Pondweed, Cutleaf Watermilfoil, Hygro, Eelgrass, Egeria, Elodea, Eurasian Watermilfoil, Fineleaf Pondweed, Floating Pondweed, Gulf Swampweed, Horned Pondweed, Hydrilla, Illinois Pondweed, Indian Swampweed, Largeleaf Pondweed, Leafy Pondweed, Parrot's Feather, Ribbonleaf Pondweed, Richardson's Pondweed, Sago Pondweed, Spotted Pondweed, Starhorn, Variable-Leaf Pondweed, Variable-Leaf Watermilfoil, Water Stargrass, Waterthread Pondweed, Water Wisteria, Widgeon Grass, Willow-Leafed Hygrophilla.

Rooted plants are often along the shoreline that stand above the surface of the water like (cattails). The stems of emergent plants are somewhat stiff or firm and rooted. Rooted Weeds - Air Potato, Alligator Weed, American Bur-Weed, American Lotus, American Water Plantain, Arrowhead, Beaksedge, Blue Flag, Black Mangrove, Bogbutton, Brazilian Pepper Tree, Bulrush, Bur Marigold, Buttonbush, Cattail, Carolina Pony's Foot, Carolina Redroot, Cogongrass, Combleaf Mermaidweed, Common Reed, Common Rush, Cordgrass, Cow Lily, Creeping Burhead, Dodder, Dollar Bonnet, Egyptian Panicgrass, Floating Heart, Flowering Rush, Frog's Bit, Giant Cut Grass, Giant Reed, Horsetail, Mare's Tail, Mud Plantain, Pipewort, Privet, Shade Mudflower, Southern Watergrass, Spike Rush, Swamp Lily,  Sweet Flag, Virginia Buttonweed, Water Lily, Waterleaf, Water Primrose, Water Taro, Water-Willow,