Has anyone ever had any luck or comments on using a trash or diaphragm pump to pump muck from the bottom of a pond and catch the materials in a sediment Dewatering bag? I am considering this option to remove the muck from the bottom of my pond as draining and excavating are not an option as we have nowhere to drain to. I appreciate any feedback.

I've had my eye on these guys:
http://www.piranhapumps.com/mini_dredges.html

Been thinking about buying one of the bigger ones and training some young buck to run it for me as a little side business. The money isn't here now but maybe next year.

There are hundreds of ponds within 50 miles of me and I'm guessing most of them are silted in to some degree.

I have seen those out there look impressive have you happened to come across the cost of one of the units?

What do you do with the muck?

I may just call for a price on one of those Piranha dredges -- unless somebody here has an idea of what they cost.

I'm lucky. As is somewhat normal, a friend left a trackhoe and dump truck parked in my back driveway. I'd love to take the trackhoe down to the pond and clean out some muck, but I think it would cause more harm than good. (We did use it to dig a about a 1/10 acre grow-out pond last Friday. Saturday and Sunday's rain filled it up.) It sure can tear up shoreline, and I'm afraid of what it would do to the water.

But, those small dredges really look like a neat contraptions. I'd sure like to see some posts from anybody who has any experience with them.

Ken, you seem to be in a wet cycle. Drain some of the water out and start digging!

Wet cycle! I think I'm going to start building an ark. Emptying the rain guage is like a serious part time job.

I know folks in Texas and elsewhere that are in drought won't want to hear this, but we have more rain than we know what to do with. I heard yesterday that in September, DC had three days that were "mostly sunny." Almost all the others had at least some rain, and it was frequently heavy.

I bought a 3" diaphragm pump to suck up duckweed from my pond. I was experimenting with the muck on the bottom and it was sucking it up well. I don't think it would be that hard to come up with a good system to remove it.

How long did you work on the muck on the bottom id you notice any damage to the pump?

at my work we use trash pumps to move "sand". Yes sand.

It is an old gold mine being reclaimed as a science lab. In the mine days, after the "ore" was crushed and ran though the screening proccess, it was "pumped" or rather syphoned down the mine and refilled exivated areas to prevent caveins as well as a convient place to put it. Our trash pumps, dont push more than 10 vertical high and then they are ussually combined with a high volume syphine pipe. As well as deluching the water/muck as it goes into the pump. It is amazing how this stuff can be moved, and in the operating days there were professionals who could easily move 25 ton of material a day.

The secret is to have places to check the flowes through out the pipe. 60/40 solids to water was optimal, with flushing the system once and a while. But to run more water than material will keep you from clogging. Plastic pipe runs more smoth, if you can afford it or have access to a clamp system like gruv-lock or victrolic to conect your pipe rather than glueing it, do so!! or at least in certian stretches, long/short enough to get a cleaning tool through.

as for the dewatering bag, they seem to take a while to empty out, but we do use some at work. It still would be nice to have the water bag below the water level.

Hope you get it worked out, let us know if you have more questions.