Because of the toxic effects of nitrites in the pond, most pond keepers often focus on the eradication of nitrites present in the pond. They can’t be blamed since these nitrites also cause ammonia that build up easily in the pond which is infamous as a detrimental element in pond keeping. On the other hand, something is still being overlooked by many and that is the nitrate residue from the ammonia and nitrite purging process. You might assume that nitrates are of no harmful cause to the fish in the pond. However new studies show that nitrates can be connected to some fish diseases which did not exist before.

One of the reasons why nitrates are often seen as good compounds is that most pond plants feed on them. This is despite the fact that these also feed even the unwanted plant-like creatures in the pond known as blanket weed. This type of algae grows in a pond where there are excessive amounts of nitrate, sunlight and heat. The worse part of having too much blanket weed in the pond is that they do not actually react on UV filters, which is a bigger problem for most pond keepers. Therefore the best option to keep the pond free from blanket weed is to reduce the amount of nitrates in it.

There’s an effective blanket weed treatment. In order to have a pond free from ammonia, most pond keepers depend on the nitrification process. This process—the conversion of ammonia to nitrite and then to nitrate is believed to be the main cause of too much nitrate contamination in a certain pond. Due to this, a reverse process has been made, the denitrification process. This process is made possible with the help of a few bacteria types that can prevent nitrates from flourishing in the pond thus les food for blanket weed.

The denitrification process sounds simple since it is just the opposite of nitrification. However, this process involves two steps which are bringing back the finished product of nitrobacteria by converting nitrates back to nitrites. Then the nitrites will be converted into three different forms namely nitric oxide, nitrous oxide and nitrogen gas.

Contrary to what is believed to be easy, the denitrification process isn’t actually practical to be done due to the size required for the denitrifying filter. It is important to have a steady organic source material so that the filter would be able to stock up solid mud materials.

Instead of resorting to the denitrification process which is somewhat too good to be done, there are a few alternative ways in order to get rid of blanket weed. One of which is to regularly change the water in the pond. If the water isn’t replaced for at least once a year, it will be a great breeding place for blanket weed and other algae types.

If in case the pond is already flourished with blanket weed don’t lose hope. All you’ve got to do is to fork out the blanket weed in the water and then begin to perform good maintenance of the pond.