How to clean or filter dirty rainwater in my pond-under-construction?

[Garrik]

Ok, so I have this pond that I am building...

Most of the rock and gravel that I used to build it was dirty - ie I did not clean it before I used it for construction. The liner is in, so the pond is holding water.

Then it rained. A lot. Now I have 2' of water in my pond, which is great. I want the rain water to fill it up.

BUT, the rain washed dirt off the rocks and into the bottom of the pond. So I want to clean that water somehow.

I can think of two ways:

1) Pump the water out, run it through a filter (probably a stack of filter media pads of decreasing pore size), and then let it run back into the pond.

2) Build a settling pond that is large enough to hold all the water. Pump the water out of the pond and into the settling pond. Let it settle. Then pump it back.

Thoughts? How do people do this? Or do they not do this

 

[Batty]

Use a pond vac and just suck out the water

 

[j.w]

I've done the quilt batting in a big pot w/holes in it putting tubing attached from pump on bottom of pond over the top of the batting letting cleaned water back in pond. It works good but takes a lot of time as when it gets full of grime you need to rinse off the batting and do it all over and over again. And it may clear the water but the clean sand from the rocks will still lay on the bottom as it is heavy than the free floating dirt. No big deal tho, sand or tiny grit won't hurt anything when it's clean.

 

[Garrik]

Use a pond vac and just suck out the water

Sorry, should have been more clear

I know how to get the dirty rain water out of the pond - I have a couple of different gas powered pumps that will work. The question is how to clean the water before putting it back in...

 

[GBBUDD]

Best solution is to pump it out water the garden.
Using batting will work but half the silt will probably settle by the time you get half way clear.
A settling pondcwill work but it would have to be big enough to take it all. If not what's left in the pond too will settle.

Building such a bog pond its going to cost a few bucks here and there. Facts of ponding

 

[Garrik]

As it happens, I need to dig a wetland filter right next to the pond. It will be large enough, so maybe I will dig that hole, line it with a tarp, and use it as a settling pond...

 

[Batty]

Use a stocking to filter the water before pouring back in time consuming but will work

 

[j.w]

Use a stocking to filter the water before pouring back in time consuming but will work

If they have a huge pond they will be doing this till the day they die

 

[sissy]

I used quilt batting also in abasket ontop of a stock tank with a drain in the stock tank at the bottom . I also put in 2 bags of cleaned off lava roc in crates at the bottom of the stock tank along with activated charcoal . It cleaned it all in the rebuild of the pond and was easy to set up and after that I put in 2 smaller stock tanks as my filters on each end of the pond

 

[GBBUDD]

As it happens, I need to dig a wetland filter right next to the pond. It will be large enough, so maybe I will dig that hole, line it with a tarp, and use it as a settling pond...

It takes a week or more for it to settle quilt batting does it within minutes but you have to pump slowly or have a huge amount of batting area. Me id dump the water and get a water truck. It's 300 for 6000 k gallons here. But we do not have water shortages very often

 

[sissy]

hint some fire stations will deliver water if you donate to them and it is a tax write off . my nighbor had his pool filled that way . But my batting and lava rock and activated charcoal did the job on my rebuid of my 5000 gallon pond . Bonus is I still use the tank the same way every spring and then use it to catch water during heavy rains and use it to fill the pond when we are in drought . . for what I paid for it at rural king was worth every penny . I paid onsale during the winter 150 dollars for a 250 gallon stock tank . It is the solid rubber ones not the rubber made one . It is the best investment I made and I use it to over winter some of my plants also and use it to clean the roots of the plants also . I have it going now with a sun aerator that I bought new at the flea market . Well really I got 5 of them for 5 dollars still in the boxes