Is there anything I can put into a pond to make suspended sediment condense and settle out?

I met with one of my clients one time out at the Cornell Research facility. He was raising trout. He made a filter out of a wooden frame, plastic wrap and crushed stone. A simple pump moved the water up to the top. The water was crystal clear and the trout looked amazing.

This made me think immediately of how bentonite clay is used to clarify wine and beer. It is an ionic reaction. When sluried, the clay is negatively charged. What you need is a catonic flocculant, (a positively charged polymer). It is used to treat cannery waste water. I don’t know what it would do to fish. The flocculant grabs the clay particles and precipitates them, but I don’t know how healthy the sediment would be if you left it just sit. The cannery waste waters are flushed and filtered. I think the best idea is some make-shift screens, like what Addy is suggesting.

Wait! My cousin has a man-made pond on her property and she’s a vet. She uses hay and I think I found a good source as to how and why! http://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/resources/2010/05/4886_2839.pdf

It is funny, because the first thing I tried to look up is if using leaf waste would help, but it might be as simple as a few bails of hay. Happy fish and happy frogs and birds and bugs and bacteria, well, damn a whole happy little eco system.

But you said the clay settled out after a few days after sitting in a jar, so your muddiness is being caused by some mechanical activity in the pond. So you think your air bubbler is the cause?

A “catonic flocculant”! That can’t be real. :) I will see what I can find.
My bubbler is resting about 3 ft down near one side. I will suspend it in the center. The hay bale is easy to try too..
I am thinking of making a simple filter out of a 5 gallon bucket and batting. I can get a small pump and try that. The water does not need to be perfect. Maybe this three-pronged approach will work. Thanks!

@cazzie. I looked for cationic flocculants and found a company that makes them. Here is their list of benefits of flocculants.

Tramfloc Inc makes food grade flocculants . I will contact them today to see if they can recommend anything
Thanks for the lead!

If you need Bentonite I have plenty. I’ll send you some.

You know what might be the easiest cationic flocculant to use? They might just suggest Alum or Gypsum. Ask about those or they might try to sell you something expensive.

@LuckyGuy thanks for the offer, but I try to keep inorganic suspend-able particles out of my products. They are finally out-lawing those damn micro-beads that I’ve been yelling about for years. There is finally enough built up in water ways and mucking up water treatment plant filters and found in dead birds’ intestines. Instead of using bentonite clay in my shaving soap like most makers, I use colloidal oatmeal. It is better for your skin, the environment and your blades.

Great information. I placed the order . A gallon treats 64000 gallons. I will also make a mechanical filter out of a 5 gallon bucket. That will catch the floccularized flocculants flocculating. :-)

I had a vague memory of having read an article about the growth of natural backyard swimming ponds rather than pools, which use plant remediation rather than chlorine and mechanical filters. A websearch confirmed it. It’s called a “bog filter” and it can be used to purify and clarify ponds. A pea gravel base forces the plants to consume nutrients and sediment from the water rather than the soil, and it has the benefits of being attractive to look at while providing biodiversity to your pond.

Good luck, @LuckyGuy. I think most of your problem is mechanical, but the flocc-u may expedite the process. If there was a way to turn off your bubbling system for a few days so it didn’t create a current, that would be a good first experiment before adding the flocculant. Clay doesn’t hold organics well due to its lack of oxygen. If you are looking to put plants down so you can eventually lose the bubbling system, you may have to work on that. It’s sort of why leaf and straw is good as well. I couldn’t tell what was in the stuff you bought, there didn’t seem to be an ingredients list, so I’ve got my fingers crossed for you.

here is a great video. It reminds us that plants first, then fish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiHNBja4G8g

flocking floculants A neighbor uses a fountain for oxygenation for her smallish pond.

@majorrich is that fountain lined with a plastic liner?

I don’t know it just kind of fountains up in the middle. It broke up the algae and stuff. The pond was basically a bulldozed out deep spot that used to be marshy in her yard. She had a big built up levee on one end and just let it fill up. The overflow goes out a pipe into a nearby stream. When we were younger, her son and I used to go fishing and put our catch into the pond. Bluegills and bass mostly with some minnows she bought.

UnFLOCCING believable!!!

I put the cationic flocculant Ultraclear in the pond about 4 hours ago. 3 oz in 1200 gallons. That’s it! Well, sure enough the water is getting clear!!! I can see my pump suspended about 1 ft below the surface.
I did a lab experiment with 300 ml of water and 0.005 ml of flocculant and the water is almost clear after 4 hours. Incredible!

Thank you!!!

Great! All with only 3oz?! That’s amazing. You can probably watch it precipitate!

It is amazing. And supposedly it is safe for fish. How do they do that? I experimented with a little bit. on my fingers. At first it was slippery then after about 4 seconds it started to get sticky, then gummy, and in about 15 seconds it got dry. How do they do that?!

Will it help further seal the bottom of the pond?

@majorrich Sealing would definitely help. However, the pond is full, has fish in it and is 7–8 ft deep. It is too difficult to put a liner in it now.

I mean the stuff settling out.

I sure hope it does. It certainly can’t make it worse.

I’m so glad it worked for you! I’ll send you a bill! lol.

Isn’t chemistry fun?? I should see about maybe getting a degree and a proper job when I grow up. People look at me funny when I list chemistry as a hobby.

You should be a rep for the company that makes the flocculent. I went out there this morning and I can see even deeper into the pond. the label says it works in 1 – 3 hours . I figured it would stop working in 4 – 6 hours. Nope it just keeps getting better.
How the heck can so little do so much?

They say I can reapply in 3 days. I’ll let you know if I do it. I might not need it.

Chemistry, and other fields of science, is just a hobby of mine. I never went to college for it. Don’t think I’d ever get a job as a rep for an area I have no official education in. Especially not here in Norway.

I wonder if the stuff is safe for my turtle aquarium?

So after this treatment you have to introduce probiotics (or something like that probably with another absurd name) to balance out the good bacteria? even if you are using an aerator? (I still take probiotics after all the medical stuff my innards have been through)

@majorrich This problem has nothing to do with aerobic or organic chemistry….. It was completely inorganic. (and that is how I knew what the problem was and how to fix it because I remembered my inorganic chemistry.)

It was just the last paragraph on the UltraClear page. It kind of brought the helpful/harmful bacteria thing in there. Probably a trivial thing that having fish in there probably takes care of. I know nothing of chemistry other than Vodka +Orange juice kind.

The process looks completely “mechanical” to me. The silty clay making the water cloudy just clumps and sinks. I don’t believe it is affecting bacteria. I didn’t look at it under a microscope. Maybe tomorrow.