Dead Zones

[Zoe]

I was curious what to do about areas in my pond where there is no circultation and muck just gathers.  It is an upper pond that is about 10 by 10 by 18 in deep.  There is a water feature in the middle of it but it seems a great deal of sedement gathers in that area.  Any suggestions?


Cindy

[Julles]

I bet if you move the water feature to the far end of that upper pond, it will "whoosh" the muck down to the bottom pond.

Also, the shape of your bottom could ahve to do with it.  If you have it sloped gradually toward the falls, the gunk should move in that direction.

Oh, and you were right.  I was at Nelson's today to get tubing so I can move my waterfall...and ended up buying a miniature lily (sort of cream with soft apricot center).   And I have my eye on another one (the ruby red one).    

[Mike S.]

One way to deal with a dead spot is with an air lift. Now, I don't know what you know, so forgive me if I over-explain.

An air lift is nothing more than a pipe that is vertical in the pond, one end just above the bottom, the top anywhere from just below the surface, to just above the surface, with an air stone somewhere in the pipe, near the bottom. The rising bubbles from the air stone pushes water up the pipe, drawing it in from the bottom, and lifts it out the top.

If that pipe has an elbow on the top, the water will flow out of the pipe and can be directed in any direction. Doing this will create a flow where there was none before, and help "turn over" the water by bringing water (and some sediment usually,) from the bottom of the pond to the top.

Using the elbow will make a bit of a noise, so you can use a "Y" fitting instead. Cut the pipe back so one part of the "Y" sticks up above the water, and the horizontal part of the "Y" is about half-submerged. The bubbles will come straight up and out thru the top of the "Y" fairly quietly, while the water will flow out of then horizontal part of the "Y." And you can simply drop the air stone right down the top of the "Y.'

I ran a 25 watt UV in a small pond using an air lift much as described with only a small aquairum pump to power the water thru the light tube. Worked great, used less power than a pump would have, and it also added a bit of oxygen to the water. If this description is kind of hard to follow, I will try to find a picture of it and post it. But is really is quite simple to set up and run.

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL

[Mike S.]

Finding the picture was easier than I thought!

In the picture below, the horizontal part in the bottom of the pic is the UV filter. the upright part on the right is the water inlet, the air lift is on the left, being supported by the rubber mallet. You can see the "Y" fitting at the top, with an extention that went well above the surface of the water.

That is where I put the air stone in the device. I put the airstone way down inside, so it rested just outside the body of the UV. That was simply to get it as deep as I could. The deeper the air stone, the more water it lifts. A simple air lift would be just a straight pipe, without those bends you see in the pic. The air lift was of course, inside the pond, the pipes passed through bulkhead fittings, to the UV filter, outside the pond. The opening of the horizontal part of the "Y" was about half submerged in the pond. It move a surprising amount of water.

You would have to fashion some sort of weighted base to hold the lift pipe straight up in the pond, while keeping the bottom of the pipe just above the bottom of the pond. But this set-up will set up a current in your dead spot and help move any mulm or sediment towards the active part of the pond where a filter system will remove it from the water.

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL

[Zoe]

Thanks for the replies. After cleaning it out yesterday it is fuill of mulm again.  The lower pond is fine just this area.   Mike thank you for posting the picture.  I will show that to my husband. 

[miguynmkoi]

I don't know nothing from nothing but I want to thank Mike for posting the directions and photo for the "Y" pipe.  It so makes sense.  When I set up my bio-filter the people at the pond shop told me to set up the pipes like your "Y" except they didn't explain the reasoning.  I followed blindly.  Works great, I know that!

I will retrofit my turtle tank's homemade bio-filter with the "Y" hoping it will help cut down the sloshing noise.