My silt catch pond flows into my main pond through a large culvert pipe. I'm concerned that after a heavy rain the silt will be washed into the larger pond. Does anyone try to filter the overflow to reduce the amount of silt that washes through?

ditto that question

The only way I know to "filter" silt is to let gravity do it for you. By that I mean the water needs slowed down by making it change directions across alternating sediment nutrient dikes or spending time in a larger silt pond for enough time to let gravity pull the larger particles out of suspension. In most cases the finest particles are the last to settle, so in a big rain event you are almost certain to get some clay, if indeed that is the composition of your watershed. I'm not optimistic about your possibility of filtering. Things seem to happen a little too fast when water gets going.

Do you have the ability to create a back and forth terracing effect? This is how our local game commission attempts to collect large volumes of row crop runoff.

On both of my small ponds I built "silt ponds" upstream from the main water body. Between the silt ponds and the main ponds I laid up loose fitting stone walls. There are two reasons for the walls: (1) help reduce the speed of water flow in hopes that this would allow particles to settle out and (2) to have a fish barrier between the silt pond, which I would like use as a fathead breeding ground, and the main pond (this years experiment)

I honestly cannot say whether the silt ponds work as planned however, during normal flows, you can see the water circulating around the perimeter (like a whirlpool kids make in a swimming pool). They do accumulate a large amount of leaves every year. Like Bruce stated, in a heavy rain storm, I doubt they are very effective.

I just thought of one other advantage of the stone walls. With the top of the wall just below the water surface, you can walk out on them and give people the impression you are walking on water.

You can also hasten the precipitation of the clay by dumping gypsum (I like the decorator rock whic h is about 1.5" in diameter) in the inflow channel of the silt catch basin. As you probably know, the calcium in the gypsum binds with the negatively charged clay particles, neutralizing them so they don't repel each other and will settle to the bottom.This works best on the smallest particles, which are also the slowest to settle out.

Thanks for the advice. I'll try these ideas. I've been wondering what to do with some huge stones I retrieved from the demolition of an old courthouse. I can use them to create some underwater walls. I especially like the "walking on water" idea. Finally I can back up the claims I make to my wife!

Schroeder, I have found that unsightly brush piles do a great job of catching silt, dead leaves, etc.

Dave shares some technique:
I look forward to the DD1 article in a near future PB: "Your Pond Nirvana: updating and beautifying surrounding landscaping".

He's the Martha Stewart, no, make that Tony Stewart, of pond beautification!

Like my Grandaddy used to say: Whatever gets the coon.

Grandma used to say; It's mine and it suits me.

My wife's Granny used to say to my wife's Grandpa "I know what and you know where!"

my design is as follows i cut a few dead elms down and put them into the feeder creek 500-100ft up stream then i cut smaller trees down and put them within the elms to create a snag like thing this stops any leaves from coming down stream and larger branches during floods i built 7 of them in one day. next i took a shovel out and built 10 little pools with a small rock wall at the end of each to slow the water down before it reaches my major silt ponds. the first dams the water up about two feet but has pipes near the base to acomodate normal flow. the top is concrete with embede rocks to make a natrual walking bridge. i am now in the planning stages for my large silt pond which during floods will create a 1/10th acre pond after the floods the water will be able to flow at the only the maximum amount that my pond out let pipe can handle i do this by using 4 4" pvc pipes 1' up the dam this allows for slit to settle but water to continue to flow. my last project is similar to the 1st except it is at the entrance to the "run" into my pond. it slows the water down before it enters the very rocky "white water" entrance basiclly i took a bunch of stones and piled them up the water will be at least a foot deep there so it doesnt look like white waters but it will add so rocky habitat