muck question

[SE18]

Hi,
I get a lot of earthworms in the water, leaves and other stuff. The water gets changed a lot and I don't have fish or plants to worry about at present, but the dogs and birds enjoy drinking from the water. Anyway, I used to manually remove all the debris but it just became too time consuming so I do it once a year in the spring putting on latex gloves and scooping out the thick and stinky sludge.

Is once a year enough to remove and completely clean out the sludge?

Dave V

 

[koiguy1969]

arent you running a pump and filter?

 

[SE18]

pump yes, filter, not. How would a filter stop worms and debris from accumulating on the bottom? The filter only prevents large particles from entering the pump (filter on pump is all I use)

 

[sissy]

Never heard of worm suicide in a pond geeze what next .A bird net from lowes or homedepot in the garden center for 8 dollars will solve the debris .But the worms well not sure are they crawling in or are the caterpillars falling from the trees .I know some areas of VA have those caterpillars real bad ,they kill trees

 

[SE18]

My canal runs all over the backyard (not a pond). Net would be ugly. No solution, I guess, but no fish to fuss over either.

 

[sissy]

oh ok that would not be easy ,but the bird nets are thin and black and hardly show up at all they use them over fruit trees and bushes to keep birds from eating fruit .That must be pretty to watch the flowing water

 

[koiguy1969]

well you can take a container such as lidded 5 gal bucket. cut openings around the sides along the bottom edge. and put a couple layers of a media such as the blue and green "Natural Aire cut to fit" furnace filters, cut to fit the container and elevated just above the holes. put your pump on top. this will draw in the water and debris in thru the bottom and trap them in the media... put the setup in the lowest point in the pond...give it a quick cleaning every week or 2. after a decent cleaning of the bottom of the pond this will eleviate alot of your problem.
i dont know the size of your pond but a DIY skimmer would be an asset to the pond as well...catching leaves as they land, before they waterlog and sink.

 

[vertigo72]

so the pond and the canal are connected ? If so, I would just create flow with a sufficiently powerful pump. The flow will carry much of the floating debris, then catch that somewhere in the canal with something like a a net or some bird fencing. Pick it up there a few times per week.

I would also add plants. Not only does it look better, it keeps the water much more healthy. If you have enough, there is no need for a filter, especially not if you dont have any fish. Get some floating plants or reed, or iris, or whatever looks good to you.

 

[koiguy1969]

oops...i must have been posting while you were SE18, i didnt know you had a canal....

 

[SE18]

I’ve never posted a photo here but I’ll give it a try. 2 photos show aqueduct and 1 photo (snow) shows the canal running beside railway

beagles haven't died from drinking water for a couple years now so I guess everything OK; obviously the worms don't climb the aqueduct but they do manage to slip into the canal

 

[sissy]

wow you didn't say it was because you had an outdoor train set up .I have seen them and they are great

 

[vertigo72]

Hmm.. I suppose thats pretty much the point, but I have no idea of the scale of the thing we are looking at here lol?

Either way, an aquaduct had running water. So make it run. And put a net somewhere for the dirt, leaves and stuff to accumulate.

 

[sissy]

you did this all yourself and would love to see more pics they had a show on hgtv of realistic outside train set ups and it was great

 

[sissy]

you must have those little pine worms not sure of the real name of them but I had them here I had to get rid of all the scrub pine as it was coming from them and would infect some of my maples and oak trees when they got finished with the pines (well the ones the foresters did not cut down accidentally or on purpose to me )It is a tiny little worm.The water you have in pic looks clean now

 

[Malak]

That's so cool. Will you adopt me? lol

Hey, maybe a type of submerged marsh plant that will put it's roots into the muck and consume it over time?