Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? add a bog filter to a natural pond?

So, technically, the pond was dug in 2004, no liner, filled with ground water all year, even in droughts. I want to do two things: clean up the water, and make it swimmable. I live in the low country near North Myrtle Beach, SC.
The pond is about 60 by 50 ft, with a max depth of about 6 feet.
I have plans to put a concrete skimmer lagoon (about 8 by 8) with a skimmer and pump that will feed into a concrete and brick bog filter that water falls back into the pond.
Over the past 6 months, I have kept the water artificially low by draining it slowly (1/4 hp pump with a garden hose that lets out some of the water from my make-shift waterfall) and digging out years of muck and the stumps that were left from the original dig. I use my Kubota where and when I can, but much of the work has been done by hand. Between the colder weather and the first really heavy rain in December, the pond is above flood level (despite the 4 inch drain pipe I added - have been told I need more). When I get back to work, I will be renting an excavator to remove the muck in the middle to about 8 to 10 feet. There are springs that constantly refill the pond. I want to keep that ability, but want to line the pond to prevent the silty muck from coming through. Originally, I intended to add stone and sand, but the banks with still have the layers of muck. I cannot find any article on using water permeable liners to let water IN, and keep silty muck OUT. Does such a thing exist?
Any suggestions?
Thanks for you input!

KathyZ

Don’t know the answer to your question but want to welcome you to Pond Boss.

Welcome to the forum. Silty muck comes from leaves and organic matter entering the pond, much of it is airborne.

Go to your counties local NRCS office, talk to them about what size pipe you need to have for an overflow according to how much watershed feeds your pond.

ANY stiff stemmed plants that don't grow very tall (so you still can access your pond through them) will stop many organics from entering your pond.

If you want to use a man-made liner to filter out the muck before it enters the pond, google "construction site silt fence".

Basically it's a permeable geotextile fabric that is installed vertically around something.

Welcome to Pond Boss, Kathy!

You have asked a whole bunch of inter-related questions.

As esshup has stated, the "muck" is typically from organic matter accumulating in the pond. It can either be washing in with surface water flows, or blowing into the pond with the wind. You need to determine how the majority of that type of debris is entering your pond to come up with the proper solution.

We have a portion of our farm in tall grass prairie. There are many species of grass of varying heights so any leaves that are "caught" essentially never move laterally again. If you think wind borne debris is the problem, then multi-species prairie grass might be a good solution if it matches the landscaping vision for your property.

If you think the debris is coming in from flowing surface waters, you have several options for that problem. In addition to organic muck filling a pond, you can also have inorganic particles (frequently termed "silt") filling in your pond basin. This is typically much worse if part of your watershed contains plowed agricultural fields, cattle feed yards, or anything else that may create bare, loose dirt.

If your debris is coming from the water flows, you could use your excavator and create a small diversion channel AROUND your pond, to approximately the point where your 4" outflow pipe drains. That may also help with your flooding problem by keeping the rainwater out of the pond. Likewise, you could scrape off some of the topsoil and pile your muck around the pond to create a berm that will keep out the surface water flows. After the muck partially dries, you can re-grade, cover back up with your topsoil, and replant your ground cover.

It also sounds as if your 20 year old pond is very fertile at this point. That generally means some type of photosynthesizing plants WILL GROW in your pond! That will either be floating or rooted complex plants, or simple algae. If your pond water did not clear up during the drought when it was only full on groundwater, then you probably had algae growing in the water and making it unappealing for swimming.

One of the best ways to stop algae growth is to have your rooted complex plants take up the nutrients from the water and deny that "food" to the growing algae! One option would be to create a designated swimming entry area for you pond. Clean it up as needed and create your preferred depth profile. Then put down landscape fabric and cover with sand for the beach and entry slope. Place your bog filter where you like. If you like the waterfall as a landscape feature, then use that idea. However, if your bog filter drains into an area with shallow rooted plants, then they will try to take up the remaining nutrients.

There are also lots of threads on the forum about landscaping the pond with plants. There are several attractive and non-invasive iris plants that can be added to the pond edge. People also do non-invasive types of water lilies (but they might still be tough to contain in SC). You might try some searches for more information. There are even threads about floating islands with plant roots dangling down into the pond water to keep it clean!

Finally, tilapia are an excellent means of controlling algae since they eat that stuff. You might want to check the SC rules and if allowable, perform some searches for algae control with tilapia.

Good luck on your pond transformation project!