murky dam

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Peter Warne, Oct 15, 2005.

  1. Peter Warne

    Peter Warne Junior Member

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    We have had the dam in front of our house enlarged by about 3 times - it looks spectacular and has an island in the middle as a wild life refuge. It was done about three weeks ago and the springs have almost filled it already, with almost no rain in the time.

    What is not quite so good is that the water is full of suspended clay, so it's a thick yellow colour. Eventually we'd like to swim in it, and if it stays the way it is a swim will mean a clay bath, maybe good for the skin but not what you want every time you take a dip in summer. The surrrounding area is almost pure clay - great for water retention, hard to work with. The clay in the water comes partly from the fact that the spring filters out through clay and washes clay off the bank on the way down to the water. I don't think I can do much about this because it seeps through in several places and is more like a boggy area on one side than a spring arriving neatly out of a hole in the ground. The other thing is that our two dogs like frequent dips in any weather and their constant paddling in and out stirs up the clay.

    I am wondering if there is any filtering system which would clear the water and keep it clean. I've read about the descending gravel bed system, with the water cycled round with a small pump, but I have the impression that that system is used to clear out algae and bacteria, and I am far from sure that it will do anything about clay in the water.

    Can anyone help?

    Peter
     
  2. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    Peter, how exciting for you. What a beautiful part of the world too.
    I bet that in time the clay settles and you have clear water.
    I am of course no expert, and have not much experience in this field but I would bet that is the case. If the spring creates so much turbulence that the clay continues to get flung about, I don't what you could do, other than establish groundcovers and water plants in the areas that are getting eroded so that they slow down the movement of water and clay. Some native waterlily's perhaps? Maybe bullrushes around the edges? (that's cattails to the Americans here).
    Let us know how it goes of course.
     
  3. mossbackfarm

    mossbackfarm Junior Member

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    I'm with Richard on this....'new' dams can slough off a fair bit of their clay for the first year or more, until everything settles in.

    Not having a picture, I'm kindof guessing, but you may be able to set up a pre-filter of strawbale dams between the spring and the pond...something to capture some of the sediment before it hits the water. A reedbed of some kind could result from that, depending on the site.

    Of course, the dogs probably dont help the situation, but I know how that goes.

    Good luck

    Rich
     
  4. Peter Warne

    Peter Warne Junior Member

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    Thanks for your replies Richard and Rich. That's reassuring, especially the fact that it may take a year or so - which gives me patience. The main spring source is only about a metre above the water's edge on one bank. It doesn't leave much room for a series of clay traps, but I may be able to drive a few stakes in in a horizontal row and put a thick wad of straw to give it one filtering at least. I'll study it further.
    Peter
     
  5. bazman

    bazman Junior Member

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    Hi

    We have a dam here which is always cloudy and has been for years, it does not worry us as that cloudy water contains minerals which get pumped into my gardens.

    You can use flocculent which is spead across the water and that sinks binding to particles in the water and sinking to the bottom.

    Talk to your hardware store or rural store about it, sorry I don't know what chemicals it uses, I have been told it's ok but I have no reason to use it and I don't like using chemicals I am 100% sure about.


    flocculent
    A chemical that causes a dispersed colloidal system (such as clay) to coagulate and form flocs (coagulated masses of particles in a liquid).

    Something I found on google "Aluminium Sulfate, Flocculent"
    https://www.gtamart.com/mart/products/chemical/asf.htm
     
  6. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    If you have the option, use barley straw, rather than oat or wheat. There is something beneficial in it, but I don't remember what. It is supposed to be good for keeping pond water clear.

    Sue
     
  7. sab

    sab Junior Member

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    i heard or read somewhere to chuck a bale of alfalfa in. haven't tried it myself.
     
  8. earthbound

    earthbound Junior Member

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    I think Bazman is on the right track there, you need a flocculant, if you do a google for 'natural flocculant' there are quite a few different materials and methods.

    Generally barley straw is good for getting out algae, but I don't know if it would work on glay particles.

    Joel
     
  9. frosty

    frosty Junior Member

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    mmmmmm we have tried barley straw for algae and it didnt work

    in fact large amounts of algae grew ON the barley straw :lol:


    frosty
     
  10. baldcat

    baldcat Junior Member

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    Not saying this is what you need, but maybe you could adapt some of the aspects of a natural pool..

    https://forums.permaculture.org.au/viewtopic.php?t=886

    With your spring.. is it out of the question to maybe dig it down a way and well it ? maybe put a wall around it then fill with rocks and reeds and stuff. by the time the watre reaches the top of the way.. it may have filtered a bit.
     
  11. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    We tried the bale of barley straw in a pond that was really stinky one time, and it cleared it up very quickly. The visual aspect of that pond was never a problem though, just the smell. Oh god, the smell was bad. And it was a our shower water, and all!
     
  12. grease

    grease Junior Member

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    murky dam

    How clear was the dam before you enlarged it? How much have you altered the dynamics of the dam ie area of dam wall and entry point/s of the water that feeds it, how deep is it....? Is there is a constant flow through it from the springs ie does it have a functioning overflow or is it static?? A flocculant will work best on still waters not on a 'flowing dam'. Does it really matter that your dam is cloudy? I grew up swimming in 'red' dams. Bloody cold at the best of times down here on the Bulga plateau. We cleaned ourselves up in the bath that night ( that was shared , so it was like tomatoe soup by the the time us youngen's got in) . The platypus don't seem to mind the 'red' in the dam, they have been a recent addition, introduced themselves about 15 years ago ( the dam is in a gully and is about 60 years old, at its head it's about 100 metres across and meaders about a k up the gully). So sit back and enjoy the evolution of your dam ,plant the rushes etc, the water in it may become clear depending on the dynamics.... , do what you can to clean it up within the limitations that it presents and enjoy what you have done.
     
  13. grease

    grease Junior Member

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    murky dam

    Where I said the dam is 100 metres across at the dam wall that should read 50 metres.
     
  14. wwoofertobe

    wwoofertobe Junior Member

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    hey peter, something like this came up in tafe the other week and i'm not sure exactly what a flocculent is but if it acts in a similar way to gypsum(i have a feeling its actually the opposite?) its a bad idea because it might create leaks at the bottom of the dam. apparently salt works too but salt water in the dam...?
     
  15. Rob6014

    Rob6014 Junior Member

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    Egg whites are an excellent flocculant... non-toxic - all you need is about 2 million, give them a bit of a whip, then chuck them in.

    If you can't get the eggs, try gardening lime. Experiment first with a jar of water and a pinch to see if it will do the trick. It is best to do this early in the life of the dam, so the PH can balance itself out before waterlife comes to live in the water.

    Flocculant is used in the mining industry to separate minerals from powdered ore, so be careful about what you are offered. The mining flocculants are not designed to settle - they are agitated to bubble over the edge of a tank taking the minerals with them. Egg whites are great for settling the lees in wine.
     

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