Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Excess sediment from leaves and pine needles...

Hi guys. New here and enjoying all the input and different topics. I just listed one for wanting to dig out the upper side area and had another question.
I have approx. 1-4 inches of sediment over what is otherwise a nice naturally sandy bottom to my lake. My understanding is this sediment is caused primarily from the many decidious and pine trees dropping leaves and pine needles into it each fall. The lake is primarily spring-fed and has a wetland area that also feeds into it.
Any suggestions on how to reduce or get rid of the sediment without a $50,000+ dredging project?
Are there any fish that will eat that or a chemical that will help it break down quicker?
Note: I have a spillway at the down-current side of it that is at the top of the water so it cannot naturally funnel out of the lake through the creek.
Thank you in advance!

Welcome aboard.We're glad you found us.Im not an expert I know there are some options for helping with your problem.The experts will be along shortly.They will want to know the size and depth of your pond,and maybe what kind of fish you have.Pics are helpful too.We like pics.

The simplest answer is proper aeration, which has several other benefits to the fish population in your BOW as well.

IMHO it is also the best answer. Microbe-based solutions have received a mixed review, and there do not seem to be any large-sized dettrivores available (just small & microscopic invertabrates/single celled organisms).

P.S. Welcome to the Forum!

Thanks for the quick replies. The lake starts at approx. 2-5 feet on the upside (which explains why I want to dig some of it out) and the middle is approx. 9 feet deep with the area by the dam reaching 11-13 feet deep. I have a vertec aerator that has 3 diffusers: one in the deep end, one in the middle and one in the shallower end. I just found out from the company that I don't need to run the deep end diffuser in the winter and that allows the fish to have a warm area (if you saw my other post, you'd see I had a serious problem when the aerator was improperly installed). The lake is stocked with jumbo yellow perch (approx. 150 and all 6-8 inches), blue gill (just restocked 1000 3-5 inch this fall), 220 black crappie (10-16 inches) and 450 large-mouth bass 4-7 inches along with 35 that were 12-16 inches. These were all stocked in the spring when I realized the fish previously in there were no longer (except the blue gill which I put in during the fall time).
I have also put in several hundred pounds of minnows to supplement the fish since, when I lost my original fish, I lost my minnows too.
My intention is to put in 1000 4-6 inch blue gill this spring, 500 black crappies 4-6 inches (the size so they will all spawn) and two hundred pounds of minnows to supplement the lake until all the spawning takes place.
Any feedback on that would be appreciated as well (though I know I should probably do this as a separate topic!)
Thanks again and look forward to feedback!

Not to try and influence you in the least (rolleyes), but you may want to read the archive thread on Crappie in Ponds.

brianalisa,

Perhaps I missed this info in the posts, but how large is your pond? This will help me give you some ideas on how to manage your pond...

Thanks for the input, including the referral to "Crappie in ponds". Interesting reading!
My "pond" is approx. 5-7 acres, shallow (2-4 feet in the West corner to 8-9 feet in the middle and 11-13 feet in the deep end). It also has a few 10-15 feet deep pockets in the shallower areas.

The only idea I have is to periodically dig the lake out with the largest backhoe I can get hold of. Of course, this will help with deep pockets within the lake but it will not help much with removing the sediment that is on the surface.
I have an aerator going and I understand from one post that it is supposed to make a difference as far as speeding up the process of decaying. Anybody confirm this or any additional ideas?

Aeration will definately slow or even halt eutrophication. There also bacterial products that can consume up to an inch of organic sludge per week. Of course this depends on the temperature of the water, dissolved oxygen levels and other limiting factors. There is also a fair amount of labor in the preperation of the bacteria and seeding the pond bottom but it is a great alternative to dredging. The best part for pondmeisters is that the bacteria eventually become food for larger organisms which in turn become food for even higher life forms. I'm talkin' fish food here!

What is "eutrophication"? How about if the primary sledge is leaves and pine needles... do the bacteria treatments work for that as well?
Thank you!

From Wikipedia:

Taken to the extreme, eutrophication means scummy water chokingly filled with algae. When the algae dies, its decay uses up all the available oxygen in the water cause a large loss of fish and other aquatic life. So you can see why one would want to avoid that level of nutrient buildup.

Kinda like the Chesapeake Bay right now... One giant Eutrophic mess!