Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Neglected Pond Recovery

I am taking care of a pond that hasn't been taken care of in 10 years. We want to use the pond for hobbies and swimming eventually. Its just under 6000sqft on the surface.

I've determined that the main issue that is causing the extreme unbalance in the Ecosystem is the excess muck. I have estimated that there is about 555yds of muck on the bottom.

What Ive done so far:
Bacteria - sometimes works to clear up the algae but there is no noticeable difference in the depth of the muck. I think I would be dead before bacteria got rid of that much muck.
Pumping - We rented an electric 2" submersible pump. That had better results. I was able to get out an area roughly 10sqft in a day. But it was SOO slow and kept clogging with rocks and the string algae clogs it up immediately.
We are going to rent a 4" full trash pump and see if that makes a difference. I am optimistic about this one. It handles solids up to 2", which I haven't hardly seen anything bigger come out of the muck.

If the pumping doesn't work, we have started calling around for excavator companies to come out and dig it out.

Does anyone have any other ideas, before I start shelling out a lot of money to companies to get this pond muck under control so we can stay ahead of the health of the pond?

What are the negative aspects of the "extreme unbalance in the Ecosystem" that are most preventing your enjoyment of the pond?

Yes, cleaning out all of the muck will almost certainly be expensive. Can you clean out part of the muck and then specifically treat the symptoms to give you a usable pond for less time and money? Perhaps clean out the swimming area and the dock area, and then treat the unwanted plants in a targeted program?

Please be careful when you move up to the 4" trash pump. At that point, if your hand gets sucked into the mouth of the suction hose, you will probably NOT be strong enough to free yourself.

I also recommend a good working handle on the end of your suction hose. You might google what the people running suction hoses on gold dredges use. A functional handle should greatly increase your ease of muck removal.

Are you pumping down the pond during your muck removal operations, or are you creating a settling system and having clean water return to the pond? Getting that system correct will also greatly increase your efficiency.

I believe we have had very few people on the forum that have effectively dredged out their muck. You can use the search function to find those threads. As I recall, there was some pretty good advice on making the dredging operations more efficient.

However, most people end up using heavy equipment to clear the muck from a pond your size. One option is to breach the dam and dig a sump trench as deeply as possible to get the pond muck to dry. You then come back a year(?) later with a bulldozer and push the muck out of the dam breach. It is difficult to get muck to dry to a great depth, so the dozer may be working on slippery footing. Pushing downhill through the breach may still be viable under those conditions since that gives the dozer the best advantage.

The other option is a long-reach excavator. Can you pile the muck up around your pond and let it dry a year and then move it to a final location? Your wife may be mad at you for a year, but the family should then have a very nice pond a few years down the road.

I hope that gives you a few ideas than you can improve on for your specific conditions. Also, if you post a little more information maybe some of the actual experts can drop in and give you some better advice.

Good luck on your pond renovation project!