Hi- I am new to owning a pond (few months in). There is a development being built behind our house and we’ve been in discussions about maintaining the water quality of our pond. Yesterday the inevitable happened and a massive dump of murky muddy water was dumped into our pond. We have 12 koi, 1 sturgeon, moor hens, newts, frogs, dragonflies and various insect and plant life. I’m worried about the fish in particular getting suffocated by the amount of soils that were released. Any advise on how I can rectify this? I will try and figure out how to attach photos. Many thanks, Libby
Suspended soil dump in pond
- Thread starter Libby360
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Welcome to the forum.
Sorry to hear about your trouble, very nice spot you have there. Adding some some super fine filtration would help-a bucket or filter chamber with some fiber floss/quilt batting. A flocculant would also help clump the fine particles to help remove them. For example: https://www.cotswoldkoi.co.uk/product/microbe-lift-flocculant-plus/
Some experiences from a previous discussion: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/your-thoughts-on-the-use-of-flocculents.30521/
Sorry to hear about your trouble, very nice spot you have there. Adding some some super fine filtration would help-a bucket or filter chamber with some fiber floss/quilt batting. A flocculant would also help clump the fine particles to help remove them. For example: https://www.cotswoldkoi.co.uk/product/microbe-lift-flocculant-plus/
Some experiences from a previous discussion: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/your-thoughts-on-the-use-of-flocculents.30521/
Thanks for your response and the warm welcome. Do you know if the flocculant is chemically inert? Would it be harmful to the fish or Moor hens if they eat it? The pond is self filtering as it has always had its own flow and pond vegetation to clear just normal soils but obviously this is not a natural flow (because the developers released loads at once with god only knows what contamination). Will definitely try filtering as suggested. Thanks again! Any advice welcome.
j.w
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Wow that is huge! 66,000 gals appx.! I think your pond is too big to use the quilt batting as it would take forever and ever to take it out, and clean the batting every time it got full of crud. I think the only thing for you might be the flocculant. I guess you could do both and if the cleaning of the batting is too much for you just don't use it. I sure hope all this dirt and chemicals from that construction doesn't kill everything.
Aye we’ve come to that conclusion as well. We’ve been in touch with a company that said provided the water dump was just clay and soils and not contaminated then the plants in the pond should filter it and the koi supposedly should be ok with the silts. There’s enough plant life to oxygenate it provided there’s no chemical changes in the water. It’s more the change of their surroundings that would stress them. We’ve got our fingers crossed it settles soon and fish are ok. On a positive notes the moorhens don’t seem bothered. Thanks for the advice we will see how they go over the next few days a re-assess.