Pond full of sawdust - please help!

[DorsetMum]

We have a smallish garden pond with several large koi, four smaller ones and a handful of goldfish. Yesterday my neighbour decided to cut down a very large tree, filling my pond with sawdust. I was at work so only got home to discover a white pond. I have scooped out as much as I could (it was an inch thick across the surface) but obviously there is a lot left in the pond that I couldn't remove. There is also a film of wood oil over the pond now too. I have had the pump on all night but the fish are already looking very distressed and I just don't know what to do! To remove them all would mean putting them into untreated water that could kill them anyway and to get the pond clean will mean emptying it completely so they would have to go back into untreated water. I have threatened to sue for the damage but right now just want to save the fish and wonderful pond that we had created. Please help!!!

 

[addy1]

wow
Get newspaper, put on top of the water, swap it out, it pulls oils nicely.
Do you have vacuum?, shop type wet dry, vac the bottom of the pond
Do you have an aerator? Get some good air flow going.

If you can get a laundry basket, fill with quilt batting (walmart) run water through it will pull the real fine stuff out. Just noticed you are uk, pillow stuffing, chair stuffing, to get the fine stuff out of the water.

A swimming pool net has fine mesh it will net the bottom nicely.

Do a water change, start by removing 1/4 of the water, if city water make sure you remove the chlorine.

others will chime in as they wake up

 

[sissy]

even picking up the fine stuff on top with the quilt batting will help ,it is just like newspaper .Good gosh did the guy not think or did he not know about your pond .He could have covered it with a tarp or sheet to be a good neighbor

 

[Fishylove]

Well if he did know, What a butt head! Good luck dorsetmum, your in good hands if you listen to these two. One question tho, when you say "back into untreated water will kill them", you DO know there is a water treatment you can buy to neutralize the chemicals and heavy metals in the water?

 

[Waterbug]

Paper towel also works to pull oil off the surface. Dipping a bucket just below the surface acts like a skimmer pulling surface water into the bucket. Seems like it would take forever but goes pretty fast once you get the hang of it.

You already removed most of the wood which is good. I wouldn't worry about the wood any more than I would any other organic. Meaning if you keep a spotless pond then you already would have a way to remove the wood. So I assume you have a normal water garden that already has decaying stuff on the bottom, now you have a little more. If you weren't concerned about the other stuff I wouldn't be too concerned about the new stuff.

 

[capewind]

Great advice already given, but OMG would I be livid. Even on the off chance he didnt know about your pond, when running a saw, it throws nearly a rooster tail of chips and sawdust flying... so at the very least he knew he was throwing crap into your yard which is ignorant at best! My hat's off to you, as if it has been me, I would be waiting for someone to post bail about now....

 

[DrCase]

I have spit some Ollie sawdust in my pond trimming a tree above my pond
I dip out the saw dust and skim the water
I try not to get it in there but some years with the wind it gets in
Never bothered the fish that i could tell

 

[j.w]

DorsetMum
What a horrible thing to come home to and I would be mad, mad, mad! All good ideas above and after you net all the bigger stuff out I like the idea of running the water through the quilt batting and laying some paper on the top to collect the oil. The batting will really remove a lot of the fine particles. A slow water change would help and they could adjust better to it that way. Do you have well or city water? If city don't forget to put in chemical remover while doing the water change. Hope all your hard work helps save your fishies!

 

[Dave 54]

I would bill.your neighbour for all the trouble he's put you through , Here in the UK if we have a tree over hanging a neigbours garden then he must as your permission to do anything to the tree that effects your side of things, dont know what your law is.
Plus we have a council tree manager who gives the go ahead for threes to be felled or not
Im sorry cant give you anymore advice than the rest of the forum, dont know if you have one where you are

rgrds

Dave

 

[Waterbug]

Neighbors do dumb stuff...they're human. Dumb stuff is what human's do. I'd bet the neighbor was unaware of any problem or at least didn't think it was a big problem. Humans also love to rationalize pretty much everything. There's pretty much nothing dumb enough that a human can make at least sound logical.

Unless this was pay back for something you did which you may be unaware of. People aren't generally mean. Dumb as a post, yes. Dumb is the default setting from the factory.

You can be mad at your neighbor forever. Treat them poorly, which they in turn will wonder why you're being rude and treat you rude until both of your lives are a living hell. Or you can treat it as a one time dump move on your neighbor's part, laugh about it, see your neighbor for just being human, and move on and have a good relationship with your neighbor. No different than dealing with a spouse.

I cut neighbors lots and lots of slack...because it improves my life. And besides, what are the chances I did or will do something my neighbor doesn't like? About 100%. By definition, if I were to think I never did anything wrong I'd be a dick.

Here's a video I ran into the other day that I thought was some of the best advice (very rare) I've seen on the internet in dealing with problem neighbors.

 

[j.w]

I like Mr Bill and that video gave me a laugh too. He solved the problem peacefully, just too bad he has no money left to move out of that trailer park

 

[Waterbug]

Ugly

 

[Puddles]

Ok we had a similar incident but it was hubby that did it ... lol.. after the pond went in we decided to cut down 3 arborvitees right beside the pond .. hubby borrowed the neighbours chainsaw and cut them down .. not thinking that it was gonna throw off oil from it and there it was all over the top of the pond a really nice oil sheen .. hubby found out the best thnig to do was throw a hose in it and let the water run off .. we were lucky that the pond was a lil lower at one end so we removed a brick and let the water run into the grass and it got rid of the oil sheen .. but i sure was freaking out about the fish but they were fine .. i dont know what to do about the sawdust in th pond if it is on the bottom .. vacuum it out with a pond vac .. good luck with it all .. but let the water run off it is the best .. and easiest way ..

Marion

 

[sissy]

poor people who rented that guy the trailer .