Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Newbie needs advice

Sorry if this is long & repetitive, but I've been reading posts and only seeing bits and pieces of info related to my new pond. Maybe this is too much for a single post...

I purchased property that has a roughly 2 acre (long oval) pond & learned in was dug @ 1989. At that time, the deep (north) end was 16 feet. Near the dock (south end) I'd say depth is now @ 3 feet or less. The pond is fed mainly by runoff from 30-40 acres of pasture above to the south that runs through @ 100 yards of rocky wooded area prior to feeding into the south end. To the north is a large creek where most of the area's watershed runs to...including the runoff from the spillway at the north end of my pond. There also appears to be a 'wet spring' that adds some to the pond as well, but appears to be well filtered across a grassy, gradual slope. Just in the year I've owned it, I've seen @ 30 ft of sediment fill in the south end, to the point that a few willows that took root are 5-6 ft tall. The pond seems somewhat well stocked with channel & flathead cats, LMB, sunfish & unfortunately crappie. There also appears to be a good population of frogs & minnows present.

My dilemma, like most, is that I'm not sitting on a lot of extra money to feed into the pond, but am interested in at least slowing the pond from being ruined until I can throw money at it. When I have the cash, I plan to reinforce the north end spillway, build an additional dam at the south end with a sediment pond behind it - hoping to catch most of the runoff & at least just have to dredge that small basin every 5-7 years. And I hope to install a windmill/aeration setup. In the short-term, I'm watching the thing slowly fill in, and the shallow end is making for a lot of weed/algae production. I've shot off the muskrats, but am seeing even more damage from an unreal number of voles & their excavation destroying the banks. I dumped a truckload of 4x2 rock into the spillway to slow the erosion there until I can afford to repair that area.

Is there anything further I can do, of a lower-cost nature, to preserve or improve my pond until I can afford the above construction/purchases? Besides throwing an occasional Cutrine Plus spraying at the FA & culling the crappie! Would dye even help (as I have the shallow silted area) or the addition of other substances like alum?

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

Is there any way that you can get plants started in the area that channels the run-off into the pond? If you could get them started, they'd slow down the water velocity and probably let some of the sediment fall out of suspension before it hits the pond.

Dang it, where's my manners? Welcome to the forum!!

Thanks for the welcome, eeshup. I had been considering getting a stand of cattails dug into the main channel prior to the pond (approx 5' wide x 20-30' long) - but I was concerned that putting cats 'upstream' of the pond could be inviting trouble once they started to spread? Once I eventually get a dam established there, I'd think I'd have more of a barrier re them spreading...

Now that I've had time to enjoy the pond, I'm finding it is very well-stocked - have caught huge channels, LMB and healthy sunfish varieties. My (streamlined) question - is there a low-cost improvement I can use to help keep the shoreline weeds and FA down? Still haven't found a pile of money to rebuild the dam, which I know would be my best solution - deeper water/fewer weeds. With all the trees around, and being fed some by runoff, I know the muck layer is not helping, especially in the silty & shallow end. Could I throw a couple hundred bucks of bacteria/enzyme treatment at it to help, or am I just throwing money away and should just deal with cleaning weeds off the kids' hooks until I can go big and do the dam repairs?

Thanks!

Hey DW,

Bacteria helps but is not going to be a quick fix! It works better with air also. If you want a more now fix for fishing and such for the weeds if it's FA and Chara issues I would use some Cutrine Plus Granular on them. I used some the other day and it took about 3 weeks but things look better in the area I treated. You can get like a 30 pound bag for around 100 bucks. 30 pounds will treat a 1/2 acre. Course you need to be careful how much you put out cause you could go into a D.O. crash without having any air running in your pond once those weeds start to die off you don't want to end up with a lack of D.O.

Good Luck,

Bacteria would be of little help since it will 1) have no aeration to promote the aerobic varieties and 2) bacteria will not digest soil from erosion.

Finally pulled the trigger and hired some work done - repaired a dam leak and cleaned out 23 years worth of silt. Original plan was to build a sediment 'pre-pond', but the guys I hired were adamant they felt the dam wouldn't last long w water on both sides. Shortage of time & money left me with another solution; digging 6+ feet of silt out, then putting shot-rock across the face of what amounts to the opposite angled (from runoff source) bottom of the formerly silted end of the pond. So my silted water will enter the pond, have an 8' deep area, then hopefully hit the rocked area and deposit the silt there rather than across the entire pond. Has anyone done this before? Any success? Kinda late to ask now, but figured I'd ask anyway!

What you did certainly will be a benefit compared to before. I still think a pre-settlement pond is a good idea. Good news is that you still should be able to do it in the future without to much hassle. I don't see any problem with it like your dirt guy said. Just has to be thought out properly. Start looking into some vegetation filtering like Essup suggested.

Any plant suggestions for filtering? The runoff 'creek' that feeds it covers some pretty rocky terrain.

Somebody else will have to give suggestions as to plants for filters. I still have to research that myself. I think Catmando(?) has done alot with pre filter ponds. Somebody has posted some pics on it.

Maybe the rocky terrain is why they did not want to try a divider between the two. It would be tough to get dirt to hold. But could could you build up a rocky dam across the spring to help filter some water? It would create a bit of a pocket before entering the pond and then you could clean that out as needed. Do that in a couple places up creek can't hurt.