Muddy pond after using bentonite.
 

Hey there, about 2 years ago I had a landscape company come in and make a pond for me, they used a fairly good liner, everything with the pond was fine up until a year ago, and I've since lost their number. My pond was leaking quite a substantial amount of water, and we couldn't find the leak anywhere.

I decided to go online and look at bentonite as a possible remedy for patching the leak. I was assure that it would, which is not my main issue now.

I think some of the problem might have been with how I applied it, and I'd just like to know what on earth I can do to clear up my pond. I purchased the "powder" bentonite,drained the pond, and sprinkled bentonite in between all the rocks, and pretty much every visible surface of my pond. I think I may have messed up the application by lightly wetting the bentonite, and letting it "set" for an hour or so, then I filled the pond. Now it's all murky.

The bentonite has turned into a wet sludge type clay. We've tried draining the pond to let it dry, to no avail.

Any suggestions on how to make the wet bentonite set/ How to fix this issue would be greatly appreciated. We've wondered about putting sand on top of it, would that help?

Muddy pond after using bentonite.
 

On 3/22/2012 5:31 PM, MikeWeston wrote:
Hey there, about 2 years ago I had a landscape company come in and make
a pond for me, they used a fairly good liner, everything with the pond
was fine up until a year ago, and I've since lost their number. My pond
was leaking quite a substantial amount of water, and we couldn't find
the leak anywhere.

I decided to go online and look at bentonite as a possible remedy for
patching the leak. I was assure that it would, which is not my main
issue now.

I think some of the problem might have been with how I applied it, and
I'd just like to know what on earth I can do to clear up my pond. I
purchased the "powder" bentonite,drained the pond, and sprinkled
bentonite in between all the rocks, and pretty much every visible
surface of my pond. I think I may have messed up the application by
lightly wetting the bentonite, and letting it "set" for an hour or so,
then I filled the pond. Now it's all murky.

The bentonite has turned into a wet sludge type clay. We've tried
draining the pond to let it dry, to no avail.

Any suggestions on how to make the wet bentonite set/ How to fix this
issue would be greatly appreciated. We've wondered about putting sand on
top of it, would that help?

I've never heard of the bentonite solution for fixing pond leaks before
but I did use bentonite as a filtering agent to "polish" my aquarium
water from time to time. My guess is that baring total removal, you're
going to need to encapsulate it somehow given how fine it is. And,
baring this, I would think that any movement in the water would stir it
up and cloud the water again. I'm not aware of any pond filters that
remove this fine of a particle.

So, to your question, I guess you could cover it with the sand.

Muddy pond after using bentonite.
 

On Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:31:04 EDT, MikeWeston
wrote:


Hey there, about 2 years ago I had a landscape company come in and make
a pond for me, they used a fairly good liner, everything with the pond
was fine up until a year ago, and I've since lost their number. My pond
was leaking quite a substantial amount of water, and we couldn't find
the leak anywhere.

I decided to go online and look at bentonite as a possible remedy for
patching the leak. I was assure that it would, which is not my main
issue now.

I think some of the problem might have been with how I applied it, and
I'd just like to know what on earth I can do to clear up my pond. I
purchased the "powder" bentonite,drained the pond, and sprinkled
bentonite in between all the rocks, and pretty much every visible
surface of my pond. I think I may have messed up the application by
lightly wetting the bentonite, and letting it "set" for an hour or so,
then I filled the pond. Now it's all murky.

The bentonite has turned into a wet sludge type clay. We've tried
draining the pond to let it dry, to no avail.

Any suggestions on how to make the wet bentonite set/ How to fix this
issue would be greatly appreciated. We've wondered about putting sand on
top of it, would that help?


There are different forms of bentonite. Some of them do not form clay
but stay in a sludge form. You got the wrong type. It will eventually
settle but every time the water moves some will cloud the water. The
only way to get rid is to pump it out with the water. You will
probably need to then refill the pond and then pump the water and
bentonite out again. It's going to take a while even then as you won't
get it all first or second time.

Steve

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Muddy pond after using bentonite.
 

Go team! I learned things I did not know about Bentonite. Nice to have resourceful folks in the group.

Muddy pond after using bentonite.
 

Hey, Mike,

Any progress on your Bentonite?