How do you get rid of pea gravel silt in a new bog?

[koshki]

I got bit by the bigger pond with bog bug, bad. My DH finally gave me the go-ahead (I had to promise it would never get any bigger than this) to hire my friendly landscaper to help me.

Although he hadn't heard of using a bog, and has only done a few ponds, armed with all my knowledge from this forum, I braved forward with my trusty plan.

For the most part, everything has worked out well. We reached the point of putting in the pea gravel yesterday. I had bought 10 bags and tried to rinse them as best I could, but there was still stilt in the gravel, which got into the pond. Today, we topped off the pea gravel, and it is silt city. It's everywhere, including in the waterfall, the skimmer, coating the pump, and every fold and surface. And of course, the water.

Will this settle down on its own? Or do I need to remove it somehow?

I estimated this is about 275 gallons.

TIA.

 

[RobAmy]

It will settle but just take a bit, if then you want it out I would vacuum it off the base of the pond.

 

[koshki]

I was kind of dreading that. Do you think a shop/vac would work? I don't think I could "sell" buying an expensive pond cleaner just now.

 

[addy1]

We could not rinse the amount of gravel we used. We managed to rinse one wheel barrel full, then just used the tractor to carry it into the bog. 26feet by 5 feet. When we turned on the pond it flowed the dirt dust into the pond, the bog sucked it right back out. You could sweep it, i.e. stir up the dirt, or drain and refill the pond pulling the dirt off the bottom or just let it circulate through, it will go away.

A shop vac will work if it is not too deep, your pond. let the dirt settle and vac it out.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I'm glad this post came up. I'm in the same scenario. Its so dirty I feel like I did a huge mistake but I cleaned the pea gravel the best I could, yet the pond is so dirty I can't see down more than two inches and its already been 24 hours since I added the pea gravel.

 

[koshki]

Thanks, Addy! It's not too deep, only 23" at the deepest and about 7" at the shallow end. Our local ordinances limit ponds to 24" without a fence or permit.

We may have to drain it soon, because we have a leak. I sure hope it's not something drastic. We were pretty careful putting it together. I can't image we did anything that would have poked a hole in the liner.

 

[addy1]

Give it time jb, it will clear. Image ours without washing the gravel...............

see it now

koshki, If you need to drain it, lower an edge of the bog so the water flows out into the yard., keep your pump running until it is almost out of water, you don't want to burn up your pump. As the pond is pumped empty, use a shovel, feet hands, stick and stir up the pea gravel as the pond water flows through it, sending the dirt out into the yard. That will help for when you start it back up again, a good use for the water you are dumping out of the pond.

 

[Mmathis]

If there are no fish in the pond yet, this is what I did: get a dirty water sump pump (Harbor Freight has some inexpensive ones). As you run water through the bog and into the pond, use the sump pump to drain the dirty water into the yard or flower beds.

 

[brokensword]

Koshki;

like the others, I'd recommend letting it settle. When I built my bog, I had about 2 yards of pea gravel and listened to what the internet told me; wash it. Ah, took a very long time as I did wheel barrows full, one at a time, letting the silt/dust drain etc. Did I say it took a long, long time? Well, in the end, even though I did all this washing, once I filled the pond up and got the bog system working, I had more or less what your pond looks like, perhaps not quite as dense. Still, it took a couple of days to settle and all was fine.

Fast forward to today where I spent much of the afternoon hunting down a leak I suspect is coming from the bog/attached stream. I didn't get out even half the pea gravel/stones but what I did, I shoveled out and nearby for refilling later. Let me tell you how 'dirty' that gravel was. It didn't even compare to the amount of silt I washed off originally, 3 years ago. And you know what I did? I just shoveled it right back into the bog when I was done fixing up the edges/cleanout area, turned the pump back on and watched previously clear water turn into your pond. And I'm still not worried and will wait the couple of days, knowing all will settle eventually.

So, give yourself a break and don't worry; the silt will settle. I'd not even bother vacuuming the bottom, were it me (and I'm not with the silt/dirt I stirred up today). The plants will eventually use it. Not like it's decaying vegetation or anything.

Hope this helps.

Michael

 

[addy1]

I trash my pond every time I really work on my bog, usually within 5-6 hours the water is clear again. I make it so murky I can not see one inch down.
This spring I did a major purge job of the bog, (too many plants) I had a layer of silt dirt in the pond from messing with it, you could not see into the pond at all, during the days I was working on ii. I just started brushing the bottom every few days for a while. The silt is gone, back into the bog where it belongs

 

[koshki]

Well, the leak is serious enough that we had to shut the pump off. I estimated that we were losing about 10 1/2 gallons per hour. Which, in a pond that's less than 300 gallons, is a problem, lol.

I'm going to try to use the shop/vac to get rid of as much silt as I can while the water is low.

Then I'm going to fill it and let it stand for a few hours to see if the leak is somewhere in the pond area.

If no leak there, I'll turn on the waterfall, keeping the bog off, and see if it's in the waterfall. Then, if it's still not leaking, we know it's somewhere in the bog, which is where I think it is. Possibly an overflow under some of the edging rocks.

Dang, this is so complicated, trying to handle this from a wheelchair!

Thanks everyone for your advice!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

@addy1 how long would you expect before my water clarity improves? I would've expected to see some sort of improvement by now but its just as bad as when I put the pea gravel in.

 

[cr8tivguy]

I took a 5 gallon bucket and cut a hole toward the top of the container. Added a hose to drain back into the pond. I added another hose at the very bottom of the bucket and attached a smaller pump to the other end which was submerged in the pond. I packed the 5 gallon bucket with quilt batting and turned on the pump. The water circulated through the makeshift filter for about a day and the water cleared up nicely. I did have to take out the batting and wash it out a couple of times so it wouldn't clog.

Keep an eye on it if you take this route. The makeshift filter can clog and you could drain your pond- Not good if you have critters in there.

 

[Mmathis]

I took a 5 gallon bucket and cut a hole toward the top of the container. Added a hose to drain back into the pond. I added another hose at the very bottom of the bucket and attached a smaller pump to the other end which was submerged in the pond. I packed the 5 gallon bucket with quilt batting and turned on the pump. The water circulated through the makeshift filter for about a day and the water cleared up nicely. I did have to take out the batting and wash it out a couple of times so it wouldn't clog.

Keep an eye on it if you take this route. The makeshift filter can clog and you could drain your pond- Not good if you have critters in there.

Oh, yeah, this works, too!

 

[Fishylove]

You know this is another place the cotton batting worked well too. I had the same problem when i started up my bog and i bought washed pea gravel