I haven't been on in a while and it is time for an update and some help.

The update - I bought this property with a ~5000 sq ft pond (.15 acres) last fall. It had not been maintained in a long time (30ish year) and was very overgrown. I have been cleaning up the banks, cutting back the over growth and have been managing the FA by mechanical removal which is working well for this pond.

I have learned that the pond is pretty shallow, 1-2 feet around the edges with a deep section of 7-8 feet in the center toward one end.

Apparently at one time the original owner maintained the pond very carefully and it had a sand bottom.

It is spring feed and has constant out flow and there is not surrounding farms or fertilizer sources to speak of.

I would now like to clean out the muck so that I can enjoy that sand bottom.

There is 3-6 inches of dark gooey muck for several feet out from the bank all the way around which I think is due to years of accumulation of leaf decay.

In earlier posts as I was first learning about ponds and getting suggestions, several suggested that the best and only way to clean up problems like this was to bring in heavy equipment and dredge this pond. I don't think this will work for several reasons including difficulty in getting equipment in, the damage to the bank and habitate and the disruption of what I thing is a good sandy bottom.

Using manual mechanical means - i.e. lowering the water level and shoveling it by hand is a potential but will be a huge amount of work. I plan to try this in a small section, maybe this weekend to verify what I think is under the muck.

What about bacteria - I have read posts that introduction of some bacteria stuff can eat out the muck. What is the experience with this approach in a pond like this?

What other ideas can the experience here give me of how to approach this step of pond improvement?

Thanks for you comments and ideas.