I know this is old hat to all of you. I am sorely in need of your widsom. I am (I fear) facing hours and hours of scrubbing and I am not even sure it will do the job. The pondless stream wasn't netted and so it was filled with leaves all winter. I emptied all the water...cleaned out the leaves...twigs, etc. and will ALWAYS use a net from now on. I think it was the decaying leaves that caused my probem but I am not 100 percent certain. The river rock at the bottom of the stream - once so pretty through the water --are now almost not visible because they have been blackened by some kind of coating. (Decaying leaves??) Anyway, they feel slimy and the bottom of the stream (less than a foot of water in most places) may as well be covered with black landscape fabric and no rock - it is so darkened. I can haul out the rocks -- scrub them-- and put back - but what a job! Is there anything - chemical wise - that I can use to get this crud off the river rock? Some of the larger rocks along the sidewalls dried up well once we took the water out of the stream. These rocks also were affected and so I tried to clean them with a scrub brush. Before scrubbing, the black stuff flaked a bit and is checkered appearing - but it is really hard to scrub off. The slick/slimy feel to the rock went away - but the rock is still blackened in spots. I am next considering a metal scrub brush - like a grill cleaner. Yesterday my husband surprised me by filling up the stream again --1100 gallons of water - and so whatever I do must now be done IN the water. All suggestions greatly appreciated. Edited to make sense!
This message was edited Jun 7, 2008 11:16 AM
Help with disappearing rocks!
What you have is aglae scum, pure and simple. Skip the scrubbing. It will only come back unless treated. Look for an algae control product that lifts scum or "scrubs rocks" as they sometimes advertise. In your situation a good one would be GreenClean. Use it ( or any similar product) on a regular basis and you will maintain clean rocks and a clean stream.
http://www.biconet.com/disease/greenClean.html
This web link is for information only. Please shop around for the best price.
thank you so much snapple
I will get it ASAP - and will shop around - thank you.
Happy to help! Post pictures of your spanking clean sparkling stream when you get things managed. Love to see it.
This was the bog that the stream fed when we built it... all along the stream the rocks looked like this. ....colorful and clean. Since the reservoir had to be deeper to hold more water -- that gravel bog turned into a pond with water about a foot deep. It was ok..not what we wanted... but ok...when it all was clean and clear. Now, it looks like a swamp and when I started to clean it out I picked up a snakeskin! (That is one reason I posted the question.. right after I researched wading pants!!) I will post a photo when it is 'pristine' again. I have to learn about water plants because from what I read on DG - the plants will help to keep the water clean. Because no intention to have a pond - no filter or UVs or anything was installed. The person that enlarged the bog hole told me he put in ledges for me to grow plants on - so I will get busy figuring out how all this is done. I am assuming that the algae rock scum buster scrubber will be ok for plants --but I will do the homework on that too. Thanks Again.
GreenClean is safe for plants. Can you estimate how large the area is where the water actually ponds? And how deep are the ledges? The depth of the ledges will determine what bog or water plants will be successful. It sounds like when you get things going with plants spilling over the ledges it will be as beautiful as it ever was and maybe better. I'm hoping some of the other ponders chime in here. Some of them have spectacular stream side plantings and can give some really great advice. I'll rummage through some old thread and see what I can find.
I will check all the dimensions out.
Before enlarging the reservoir (bog) the pump would shut down every few weeks because of evaporation - back then the rock in the bog looked like it does in the photo.. about an inch of water and the river rock sat in it....not completely covered. Now it is more like a pond. There is some variance in the depth from one side to the other with the center being the deepest. I still have to figure out what these 'ledges' are. I know it is rock jutting out but it doesn't look very obvious to me. I don't see 'shelves' of rock, but I can use a few of the larger rock to step on when climbing in and out --they are not flat...but I guess can be considered ledges. I will take a photo so that if anybody wants to comment /suggest - it will be clearer. The majority depth of the hole on one side is comprised of sidewalls of rock (2 feet vertical) that remain dry.. as the rock slopes down to the water, the water is about a foot deep....and going to the center of the pond....20 inches or so......other side of the hole is level with the ground --when it overflows we know to stop filling --but it isn't a gradual slope the water fills to the top but no real slope -- but the water there is more dynamic because the last waterfall from the stream feeds into that side. By the time we go across to the deepest part...the water gets still. I'll take a photo. Would be very appreciative of help. I realize that folks who are not new to this don't feel inclined to repeat over and over what they have told other newbies 1000 times already --so I will try to research here and other places too. I am just so happy to know there may be a chemical I can use on those rocks. Thanks so much. Dorothy