pH, Calcuim and blanket weed problems

[Peter Rose <peter_rose_1966 at yahoo_com>]

Hi,

I've just been surfing and found your site...hope you can help or maybe point me in the right direction!

I'm in the UK, Devon, and  had a 5000 gals garden pond constructed about Sept last year.  It has a plastic liner and has gravel and stone substrate & is to be a natural rather than ornamental feature.  It's fed by bore-hole water (not on mains supply) which is fairly hard.  The native oxygenators I've put in  and water lilies aren't doing too well.  They're not really growing and look fairly washed out.  I have a great collection of blanket weed though which I clear out every other weekend (several bucket loads at a time).  I do have sticklebacks which are breading like mad an a small shoal of minow which look v healthy but no young yet.

The calicum is high in the water, appears on the leaves of the pond weed & the pH is also high.  I've logged it every 15 mins & follows normal diurnal cycle but start in the 7's and rises to high 8's in the afternoon.  Tried to lower pH by adding peat (about 100 litres so far) but effect is very temporary...possibly water is too well buffered.

Is anyone aware of a way to remove / precipitate out the calcium from the water? Also how do I effectivly reduce the pH without having to add bale upon bale of peat?  Also, anyone aware of a natual predator of B.weed that won't eat my other plants...or a way of getting rid of it? (tried barley straw, bacteria to consume nutrients etc...pH probably too high?!).

Any comments & views would be most gratefully received.

 

Thank you

Peter Rose




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