Pond Clarity

[Catberg]

Hi everyone,

I have a backyard pond. 26'L x 12'W x 3'D guessing about 3800 gallons. The pond is probably about 7 or 8 years old. I run two pumps that are submerged in a skimmer box. I have a small waterfall bucket with lava rock and a large waterfall bucket (60 gal) with filter pads and lava rock.
The pond has hyacinth, lilies, bog hibiscus and a variety of marginal plants. There is probably about 30 fish in sizes varying from 4" to 18".
I have my artesian well hooked up to top off the pond when my sprinkler system runs, usually three times a week. I try to do water changes every other month replacing about 1/3 of the pond water. I have also put a basket under the large waterfall with pillow stuffing. It does seem to help with the water clarity.
The problem I am experiencing is a fine silt that is on the bottom and floats around from the fish movement. It keeps the pond from looking crystal clear. Something I would like to achieve.
I am hoping installing a 150 gallon skippy filter will help with the clarity issues.
We have tried chemicals, vacuuming and water changes. Short of emptying the pond to clean out I don't know what else to do.
Thanks for welcoming me and I look forward to your input.

Catberg

 

[ididntdoit99]

The only things I can think of are the vacuuming, or a bottom drain to completely take care of the stuff that has settled to the bottom.

 

[sissy]

Welcome and I just use quilt batting and a pool net to clean my pond .Quilt batting in the filter in a basket and a pool net to clean the the bottom of the pond

 

[Craig58]

After 7-8 years, unless you have a bottom drain, you will build up a silt layer on the bottom. Almost impossble not to. Your pond does act as a settling chamber. Vacumming it out is about the only solution without draining it and cleaning it. Chemicals don't really work. they usually just act to cause finer particles to clump together and fall out which in your case, would add to the build up on the bottom. You could possibly attempt to stir the silt up with a pool brush and while doing this put a finer filter pad on your filter. I don't like stirring stuff up though.

A simple way if your geography allows it is to use a garden hose to start a siphon out of your pond. Wire tie the hose to a stiff pole, (wooden broom handle or paint roller extension), and then you can use the pole to move and hold the end of the hose on the bottom of the pond and as the water siphons out it will suck up the silt. It is a slow process and you'll probably only be able to do a few sq ft at a time. Refill, let settle, repeat.

But hopefully you'll only have to do this once every 4-5 years.

An onging option you can try is to get a really strong bubbling ring. Put it on the bottom and move it too a different spot every few days. It will have the effect of stirring up the silt around. But often times it just resettles elsewhere. But constanly moving the ring might help get move into the water and into your filter.

Craig

 

[Catberg]

I have a Oasis pond vacuum but I have so much trouble with it picking up rocks and having to stop and start. The hose siphon sounds like it may work better since it won't be strong enough to pick up the rocks.
What about the skippy filter. Do you feel I should install one to give the pond more filtration. Will it make any difference where the silt is concerned?
I will try to post pictures this weekend so you can see the pond.

 

[sissy]

If you have rocks on the bottom of your pond that could be the problem.I don't use chemicals and I don't have a vaccuum and my pond stays fairly clear and I have koi and 2 filters going and 2 pumps .All Iuse is lava rock in my filters and plants and each filter has a bag of crushed oyster shells and a bag of activated charcoal in them and plants are in my filters .

 

[Craig58]

I have a Oasis pond vacuum but I have so much trouble with it picking up rocks and having to stop and start. The hose siphon sounds like it may work better since it won't be strong enough to pick up the rocks.
What about the skippy filter. Do you feel I should install one to give the pond more filtration. Will it make any difference where the silt is concerned?
I will try to post pictures this weekend so you can see the pond.

IMHO - I don't think the skippy will make a huge difference unless you can figure a way to routinely pull material off the bottom. One of the things I did on my pond (which doesn't have a bottom drain), was to modify the intake pipe to the pump. Your pumps are in a skimmer box, so you can't do that.

If you put an in-pond pump or a pump that sucks the water out, (i.e. uses an intake pipe/hose), than you can move the pump around to different locations. If it uses an intake hose, put an extended piece of hose/pipe on it. Cap the end of it. Drill a series of 1/4" or 3/8" holes along the length of it. The water/silt will be pulled in through these holes. Each week relocate the hose to a different area of the pond until most of the silt has been sucked up into the filter. This is similar to using the garden hose siphon. Once cleaned up, just leave the hose in place and maybe move it around once a month after that.

Obviously you can speed the process up by cleaning the pond first and then using the above design to keep the silt from building up again.

Craig

 

[Craig58]

oh yeah.. as Sissy said, the rocks can add to the problem. I would ditch the rocks if you don't have any particular love for them.

Craig

 

[sissy]

Never emptied my pond and never would that is like starting over and my filters have been in use for over 5 years but all I did was make them bigger so they could hold more plants to help clean them .Only thing I use is peroxide to clean my waterfall rocks .I keep it simple and it works .

 

[Catberg]

I do have a submersible pump I use for water changes. I can try using that to get the silt off the bottom. I have a return pipe about a foot below the surface that helps cirulate the water to the skimmer end of the pond. If i put it closer to the bottom would that help move the silt. I don't want to stir up the bottom too much and cause gases to release that harm my fish. Maybe change it's location once I get the bottom clean??
I would love to put in a bottom drain but think I would do more harm emptying the pond to start all over???? I did think about sandbagging one side off and emptying the other to clean out the silt. What do you think of that idea. That way I wouldn't be doing a total water change or have to remove the fish.