Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Filter sediment from a pond?

Hello! I'm looking for an answer to an argument that my brother and I have been having for quite a long time.

We have a pond on our property that is about 3/4 of an acre big. It has a LOT of suspended clay in it. I think that by building a filter system we should be able to filter out the clay, but he isn't convinced.

The filter would be composed of 2 barrels. Water is fed into one of the barrels at the bottom and the water would go through crushed lava rock (filled about 3/4 of the way up the barrel. It would then flow out of the side of that barrel near the top, through a hose, into the bottom of the second barrel witch has fine crushed limestone in it...filled about 3/4 of the way up. The water would then come out of the second barrel near the top to flow back into the pond.

I can provide my hand-drawn image if needed.

Well, what do you all think?


[img:center]https://www.dropbox.com/s/klt78s1m1gsqocb/File%20Apr%2012%2C%202%2025%2043%20PM.jpeg?dl=0[/img]

No idea about the filter but alum would settle the clay.

Welcome to PBF Grond!

First I would get a jar of the water and put it in a closet for a few days to see if it settles out on its own.

Do you know why the pond is so turbid? Newly dug, etc.

To be honest, I don't think the filter will work. IF the filter media you've selected is capable of filtering out the fine clay, it will plug very quickly. I saw no way to back flush the filter in your sketch and, even if you figured that out, I think you would require a lot of clean water for each back flush cycle. Then you would need a place to back flush the collected clay to, well away from the pond. As the filter will plug quickly, you would also need to plan on being there to back flush every hour or two.

I wouldn't want to guess how long it would take to filter that much water with that size filter. I would think it would be similar to trying to filter the local swimming pool by pouring it a cup at a time into a coffee filter.

Another vote from me for a Alum/hydrated lime application. Not that expensive and very effective.

Good Luck!

Bill D.

The cost of Alum and Hydrated lime would be a fraction of the electric cost and materials to "filter out" microscopic sized particles.

Plus the results would be visible in a day or less.