Silted Up Pond

[Brian Watson]

I have a two-level triangular pond (approx 20' each side overall) which has
become very silted up with dust and muck blown in through the winter.

I have been quite diligent in removing leaves: it's the fine particle stuff
that is my problem.

The water is clear (I have a sturdy pump/filter which runs 8 hours a day)
but a lot of the muck that is building up on the bottom is not within the
pump's collection range.

Currently, as well as a good stocking of plants, I have frogs, tadpoles and
at least two species of newt co-existing quite happily with visiting
dragonflies etc etc.

All very "in balance" but the muck level is rising and I do need to get
quite a bit of it out with minimal impact on my wildlife.

Can you recommend a suction device with an effective front-end filter that
would shlurp up the muck but leave the tadpoles and other wildlife
unaffected?
--
Brian
"Fight like the Devil, die like a gentleman."

[Stephen Wolstenholme]

On Sun, 3 Jun 2012 11:32:00 EDT, "Brian Watson" <Br...@imagebus.co.uk>
wrote:

>All very "in balance" but the muck level is rising and I do need to get
>quite a bit of it out with minimal impact on my wildlife.
>
>Can you recommend a suction device with an effective front-end filter that
>would shlurp up the muck but leave the tadpoles and other wildlife
>unaffected?

I set up the outflow of the filter to gently stir up the muck. After a
lot of adjustments I found a balanced state that slowly removed the
muck without causing too much murky water or killing the wildlife.
That was about 30 years ago but, SFAIK, it is still working.

Steve

--
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[Brian Watson]

"Stephen Wolstenholme" <st...@npsl1.com> wrote in message
news:7q1ns75q5lgftkvtk...@4ax.com...

> On Sun, 3 Jun 2012 11:32:00 EDT, "Brian Watson" <Br...@imagebus.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
>>All very "in balance" but the muck level is rising and I do need to get
>>quite a bit of it out with minimal impact on my wildlife.
>>
>>Can you recommend a suction device with an effective front-end filter that
>>would shlurp up the muck but leave the tadpoles and other wildlife
>>unaffected?
>
> I set up the outflow of the filter to gently stir up the muck. After a
> lot of adjustments I found a balanced state that slowly removed the
> muck without causing too much murky water or killing the wildlife.
> That was about 30 years ago but, SFAIK, it is still working.

Thank you.

[Phyllis and Jim]

Our pump pulls from near the the bottom of our pond. The intake is in a 5
gal bucket with as many 1/2" holes as I could get into it. The silt goes w
ith the water to our veggie filters, where we can drain it annually. The k
oi stir up the in the main pond, so we have not had to clean it in more tha
n a decade of operation.

When we drain the 4 x 8 berm ponds, we put a strainer over the 2" drain and
let the water drain slowly. When the water is low, we have no trouble net
ting the tadpoles and other critters. They get tossed into the other berm
pond or into a bucket. Then they go back in when we have cleaned the pond.
Cleaning is done in the early spring before the plants have begun to grow
.

What does your present pump do with circulating silt? Do you run a filter
or have an overflow? A veggie filter would gather it for you.

Wild ponds have a special solution to silt: They fill and go away. Our po
nds need some sort of silt removal or they go the way of natural ponds.

[Brian Watson]

"Phyllis and Jim" <jimandp...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d6d724cb-8ebe-44b6...@googlegroups.com...
: Our pump pulls from near the the bottom of our pond. The intake is in a 5

gal bucket with as many 1/2" holes as I could get into it. The silt goes w
ith the water to our veggie filters, where we can drain it annually. The k
oi stir up the in the main pond, so we have not had to clean it in more tha
n a decade of operation.

: When we drain the 4 x 8 berm ponds, we put a strainer over the 2" drain
and
let the water drain slowly. When the water is low, we have no trouble net
ting the tadpoles and other critters. They get tossed into the other berm
pond or into a bucket. Then they go back in when we have cleaned the pond.
Cleaning is done in the early spring before the plants have begun to grow

: What does your present pump do with circulating silt? Do you run a filter

or have an overflow? A veggie filter would gather it for you.

: Wild ponds have a special solution to silt: They fill and go away. Our

: ponds need some sort of silt removal or they go the way of natural ponds.

After trying the vacuuming solution suggested earlier and finding my cleaner
wasn't very suitable because of its small collection tank, I added an extra
(large) container in the chain into which which most of the silt settles
before it passes through the filter.

To augment this and remove the worst of the problem as a "crash solution", I
have been taking out a bucketload of water, silt, and small critters, and
filtering it through a net into that tank when the pumps not running. Taking
the water level down by a couple of gallons is an easy preliminary once it
has settled for a while.

Small critters are safely returned to the pond and the surplus water just
gets recirculated when the pump comes back on.

[Phyllis and Jim]

Nice move. How big is your new large container? In relation to the pond?

You might take a look at the vortex filter process (water circles, sediment settles in the bottom.

Are you able to have plants with roots in your new filter? The roots would help grab nutrients and probably break up the flow-through of the water.

[Peter Pan]

Phyllis and Jim:
I was just about to post the same question then I remembered the veggie filter.. What I don't remember from last year What plants should I put in the filter for the fine particles?

Thanks

[Phyllis and Jim]

Anything with long roots works in a veggie filter. We use water celery, water hyacinth, water lettuce and parrots feather. Fast leaf growth grabs nutrients and roots both filter and provide bacterial surface. Massive growth just now!

Want some? I could put a mix in a box and send them to you for postage.

[dr-...@wi.rr.com]

Our pump has a finned thingy on the end and is free in the water. Have it in a
bucket in spring to help the clear up the water, but once they are going I pull the
bucket since the koi have so much fun dropped stones into the bucket (stones on the
bottom of the pond from 6 years ago when I had a big lily in that pond and they took
the stones out of the container and dropped them on the bottom.) The veggie filter
gets silted. In fall when I pull the plants out and move them to "inside the pond
filter" we clean the veggie filter completely. Once a year, no bending over
required.

Ingrid

On Sat, 9 Jun 2012 19:53:10 EDT, Phyllis and Jim <jimandp...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Our pump pulls from near the the bottom of our pond. The intake is in a 5
>gal bucket with as many 1/2" holes as I could get into it. The silt goes w
>ith the water to our veggie filters, where we can drain it annually. The k
>oi stir up the in the main pond, so we have not had to clean it in more tha
>n a decade of operation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan
on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago