Water Gardening: How to keep pond clean?, 1 by weed_woman

weed_woman wrote:
Thanks Sylvain for your input. I haven't fertilised anything in the pond at all, but mentioned earlier that there was possibly fert in the purchased potting mix, although all plants have been in the pond for at least 3 months so should have used all fert, or it would have leached.
The boat has an overflow at the stern and with our regular rain is flushed frequently.
I did try a hessian bag of hay, which was supposed to draw Nitrogen from the water as it broke down, but it didn't appear to have much effect, (until I removed it). Whats 55 farenheit in Celcius? It gets about 27 celcius now, but may go as high as 32 in mid summer (I'm guessing) as the liner is black. Hopefully the plant cover will cool it down.
I do think the problem is beginning to lessen, as me and DH have been frog spotting the last few days and have been taking notice of the algae. I scooped alot of Salvinia out of a big tub of Cyperus papyrus and spread it around the surface, so it's now at least 1/2 covered.
We used the boat as a pond because it was too leaky to fix up and use down the creek. I got my hands on some recycled aluminium strips used on flooring joins and pop rivetted it over the liner above the water line. I had to glue the liner as it didn't come in the right dimensions and was going to be expensive and wasteful if I bought it as one piece. So far it has held well, and the join is on the top of a seat with a huge overlap going down each side of the seat. I put carpet in the bottom of the boat first. The seats are great and make a good spot to place water plants like Acorus and Iris (bog plants i guess) I just wish i could hide the pots!
The pic is of the pond garden beginnings. You can see the liner and how it is attached and the overflow at the stern (where the motor would normally be) There is heaps more plants than that now!