New pond, dirty water

[brian reck]

New to the forum. I just built my pond, combo of Delaware river stone and several other types of rock. Although I washed every rock before installing, water is heavily silted. Should I just drain and refill? Or is there a speedier way. I'm having a party next weekend, we are very proud of what we built, but I can't present it with the water looking the way it does. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

 

[MitchM]

Welcome!
The pond will clear up on it's own, but I think it could take more than a week.
You just need some mechanical filtration, a basic canister filter with some fine filtering material or a pump with a hose running up to something like an empty milk crate with some filter floss. The finer the filter material you can use, the better.

 

[MoonShadows]

A few people here also recommend quilt batting. Not sure if it works better than the filter floss Mitch mentioned.

 

[sissy]

Quilt batting in a crate with another pump or try to tie the crate under your waterfall .You will catch all the fine stuff .Nice pond by the way

 

[tbendl]

What sissy said is a good quick fix. But you have to rinse the batting out often and by quick I mean a few days to a week.

 

[sissy]

I even use it for fine algae after I rebuilt my pond .It takes time but a hose off of the batting in a bucket and your garden plants will love you for the rich water from the batting .Takes time but well worth the effort

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome!

Something that bears mentioning - it appears your pond edges are lower than the surrounding terrain. Without a berm around the edge you will have constant runoff into the pond resulting in the same problem over and over.

 

[brian reck]

Welcome!

Something that bears mentioning - it appears your pond edges are lower than the surrounding terrain. Without a berm around the edge you will have constant runoff into the pond resulting in the same problem over and over.

 

[brian reck]

Thanks for all your responses, really appreciate the advice. I'm going to get some quilt batting and try some of the tricks you all suggested. I'll post a pic when the water is clearer and edging is complete.

 

[addy1]

Stick a bucket, laundry basket, crate stuffed with quilt batting below the water fall, not in the water. I did that when I first built, didn't do it long, got tired of rinsing the stuff.

It looks like you could tie or balance a container there.