Red water

[Nepen]

My pond's been up and running for 2 months now and I have a problem with run off from the yard that is higher than the pond which when we get heavy rain (like every week!) it rain just rush down to my pond and carry the dirt with it. I'm trying to plant grass but it's not helping much right now. I really dont mind water going in to the pond, but it's very muddy water right now.

The dirt that got into my pond make my pond water very muddy and has red tint.

I've put 10 lbs of activated carbon (is that enough for about 2300 gallon?) in the skimmer to help with the color. It's been almost two weeks and it's not helping.

What else should I do? what do you think can cause red tint like this other than dirt?

See how red my water is.

thanks

 

[addy1]

I would build up the edge so it didn't happen. I had to add a two inch berm to my up slope to stop rain runoff going into the pond.
Go out during a storm see where it flows in at, to see if you can stop it.

 

[MitchM]

......

What else should I do? what do you think can cause red tint like this other than dirt?
...

It looks like it's humic substances from your soil. That can serve as food for algae, so keep on top of cleaning your filter.
The activated carbon probably won't have much of an effect because of how much topsoil entered your pond.
Humic substances: http://www.humicsubstances.org/whatarehs.html

 

[sissy]

You may be able to resolve water run in with retaining wall block .If you don;t get the dirt out and keep it out now and plan ahead for really hevy rains it will happen again and again .That is why i built my pond like it is the yard behind it slopes to the pond so it has an inner wall of 2 layers and a half layer on top of concrete block and then an outside wall of retaining wall block Only way I could resolve the problem of the red clay runoff .I had to think ahead to the heaviest rain we got and triple it

 

[bettasngoldfish]

@addy1 So what is the best or easiest way to build up the edge of a pond?

What exactly do you mean by adding a berm?

 

[Dave 54]

@bettasngoldfish A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier separating two areas. It can serve as a border ... It also meant that debris dislodged from fortifications would not fall into [and fill] a ditch or moat. In the trench warfare

Dave

 

[bettasngoldfish]

thanks Dave

 

[sissy]

We have what are called sways here they are put in your yard to divert water to different spots of your yard .Just shallow ditch's put in the yard so run off goes down them instead of straight down a hill .I have 2 sways in my one side yard

 

[Mmathis]

We have what are called sways here they are put in your yard to divert water to different spots of your yard .Just shallow ditch's put in the yard so run off goes down them instead of straight down a hill .I have 2 sways in my one side yard

Swale?

 

[addy1]

@addy1 So what is the best or easiest way to build up the edge of a pond?

What exactly do you mean by adding a berm?

I did two things, I dug a shallow ditch added gravel, higher at the center of the pond, slooping down around the top edge of the pond.
To direct water around the pond.
My berm I just added dirt, shovelfuls, to the upper edge. Stomped it down to pack it. It ended up being around two inches tall. That was enough to redirect the rain water, Even during real heavy ones.
Also while digging up our slope for the steam, I sloped the slope to send water away and around the pond.
I added the berm after all was done. During a heavy rain check I found run off, a little, getting into the pond. During the build I went out with every bad storm to watch the water flow.

Now during heavy rains, our pea gravel path gets washed down, Better than having all that ground runoff get in the pond.

The slope above the pond is around a 40 degree slope water loves to run down it.

 

[Nepen]

Thank you all!!

I do not think a berm is going to be enough if I dont adress the cause of it first. I think rain is good but the problem is the gutter is about 10 feet away from the pond, up slope, and that's been putting lots of rushing water down the slope to my pond. I've been meaning to get a tube to run the water from the gutter to my pond directly but have not done that.

BUT I'll have to raise the berm anyway just to contain my stream water. since building the pond, the side of my stream is starting to be lower (from the dirt packing and the heavy rocks on top).

It looks like it's humic substances from your soil. That can serve as food for algae, so keep on top of cleaning your filter.
The activated carbon probably won't have much of an effect because of how much topsoil entered your pond.
Humic substances: http://www.humicsubstances.org/whatarehs.html

Thanks Mitch. That might be it. I have a bog but it's new. I'm trying to plants lots of thing but it's been slow growing them. I wonder if it's normal for them to start slow like this.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

thanks addy

 

[sissy]

guy here that did my yard calls them sways and i thought he was wrong but that is what they call them in VA .Neighbor had hers done also because builder did not do it and lawn ended up with big ruts from the rain .They look like little waves in the yard .I don't have any in my front yard just the side yards because the hills are higher .They usually do 3 or 4 of them

 

[Lisak1]

Yup we call them swales here too. Probably one of those local things - some of my neighbors from "up north" refer to a chimney as a "chimbley".

 

[Nepen]

Last night we probably got some pretty decent rain but no run off!! well, the water's not cloudy anyway but I think I got about 2 inches in the pond. That's a change!

the water is a big clearer and not as red today too. so I think the activated carbon is working.. but slowly?