Help - Muddy water!

[Maggiespond]

Have I done the wrong thing?
I have just finished rebuilding my garden pond and added a bag of aquatic soil to the water in order to create a layer of silt on the bottom - the pond now looks like a large muddy puddle! I added the soil as the guy who mortared on the stone edge allowed some of the sand/cement mix to fall into the water which created the strangest pale colour at the bottom of the pond. This looked totally unnatural plus I was worried about the effect this debris would have on any wildlife.
I guess that the soil particles are really minute and are suspended in the water, was adding the soil an unwise idea?

[NYBraby]

hmmm, never heard of putting soil directly in like that, I replaced my pond liner in November and just put some of the silt back into the deep part from my old liner, it just sank to the bottom and that was that.

I have been doing some planting over the last few weeks and the pond already has a thin layer of leaf litter on the bottom.

I'm pretty sure it will clear over time, will just take time to settle down, how long has it been ?

[nightshade]

Well its in, now you wait

[tom00_uk]

Originally Posted by Maggiespond

Have I done the wrong thing?
I have just finished rebuilding my garden pond and added a bag of aquatic soil to the water in order to create a layer of silt on the bottom - the pond now looks like a large muddy puddle! I added the soil as the guy who mortared on the stone edge allowed some of the sand/cement mix to fall into the water which created the strangest pale colour at the bottom of the pond. This looked totally unnatural plus I was worried about the effect this debris would have on any wildlife.
I guess that the soil particles are really minute and are suspended in the water, was adding the soil an unwise idea?

i would not worry about the soil, your concern should be with the mortar entering the pond

its a high pH base and will push up the waters pH

[Cowgirl]

It'll settle don't worry, tho' it might take several weeks. Put in an extra filter & pump to speed things up if you like, temporarily, with lots of the white filter material (Don't buy specially tailored stuff, buy big pads & cut it to size yourself, much cheaper!)

That's what I did & it cleared fairly quickly.

Good luck!

[Dogghound]

This will settle down in time. First you have filled the water collumn with debris which will take time to settle. Second you have filled the pond with nitrates which will cause a secondary bloom of phytoplankton this will turn your pond green "DO NOT DISTURB THIS". Lots of people start panicking at this point and cause more damage, leave the pond and it will reach an equilibrium caused by zooplankton eating the phtytoplankton . Eventually your pond will become clear. It does take time for ponds to settle be patient.

However if it still does not clear then your nutrient input is exceeding the ponds ability to process it, this can be caused by fish, chemicals, decaying leave/vegetation etc (millions of reasons ). Cross that bridge when you come to it though as 9 times out of 10 you will be fine.

The cement wont help either, lime will cause green water.

[Kayleigh]

I threw a couple of bags of aquatic compost in mine too that was about 4-5 years ago it settled then got frogs, toads and newts in it.

[Maggiespond]

Hi all

Thanks for all the advice - the pond is gradually clearing, still very murky but you can see down to the first shelf - and wildlife have moved in - two backswimmers and a host of frogs and toads which must have been lurking in the garden waiting for the pond to be reinstated!
When I started the redevelopment of the pond I carefully fished out as much wildlife as I could, a little silt from the bottom and pondweed and placed it all in a large paddling pool which I filled with water pumped from the original pond. I am going to add this back to the pond over the weekend. I am sure that the weed is non-native (almost certainly canadian pond weed) but I have not been able to get more than a few bunches of Hornwort and although I have ordered native oxygentors online they will not be here till early April (plus the weed is full of bugs etc). Once the other oxygentors start to grow I will start to remove the alien!
Yesterday I emptied the contents of one of my water butts into the pond and will do that again over the weekend as it is now raining hard and the butt should refill. If I do this regularly hopefully the water quality will improve over time although I know that as soon as the weather warms the pond will look like pea soup!
Thanks for all the knowledge and advice - I had a sleepless night on Wednesday worrying about what I had done - feel a lot better now though!
Maggie

[dampflippers]

It will clear soon. Don't panic!
If you want it to be a wildife pond, don't put a pump or afilter in, or they will suck all the pondlife out- this is the bottom of the foodchain and vital to a balanced pond.
Pumps are also responsible for many a tadpole massacre!

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by dampflippers

It will clear soon. Don't panic!
If you want it to be a wildife pond, don't put a pump or afilter in, or they will suck all the pondlife out- this is the bottom of the foodchain and vital to a balanced pond.
Pumps are also responsible for many a tadpole massacre!

Not to mention the newts they kill..

Oxygenators and other pond plants will help keep the water clean.