Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? 3" diaphragm pump to suck muck

I have my 70X25' pond drained. I am going to put a liner in it but I would like to get rid of some of the extremely soft/mucky mud. I have a 3" mud pump that handles anything I've thrown at it so far. I can remove this muck by moving the end of the suction hose around but the strainer is about 12"L X 9"Diameter so it takes a lot of moving it around. I am wondering is anyone has made or heard of another size strainer that would be good for this job. I can fill the pond to make it easier to get the top most muck out and I can fabricate the strainer to any design as the one I have on it now is one I made.
Any ideas for something perhaps longer/thinner???
Thanks
Howard

Pictures?

I always thought a pressure washer tip to break up the muck a bit and just a simple 'x' across the intake so nothing over 1 inch got in.
I did some muck pumping with a 2" trash pump. 12 feet of water and I was working on ice. I used 17feet of 2 inch PVC with a 90 ontop to my suction hose. I also clamped 12 feet of 2inch PVC capped with air parallel with the suction PVC. The whole thing floated while sucking muck and you would simply have to push it down to suck up muck. It took very little effort but a pressure washer on the end would speed things up I think.

Did you attach the pressure washer to the suction hose. I I am having trouble picturing the setup you described. I have a large pressure washer and this may be a great idea.
I will try taking pictures but it is raining and looks like it will be for a couple of days?
Thanks

No I never did end up doing it but it's what I will do next time I get around to it. It will work kind of like a hydro vac.
The pressure washer would be fastened to the side of your suction hose and blast the muck right at the end of your suction line

Check out this link and in the beggining of that post there is a few companies that are mentioned. They have videos about their product, and if I recall properly, they mention about different hose ends/attachments. You might contact them for more info to help you along. Be sure keep us informed on your progress, and how you do it.

Thanks for the input & ideas. I will check out the link.
Right now things are going slow. I had dug out the bottom when I rented a mini excavator two weekends ago. I needed dirt because I reshaped the pond and I needed to put the dirt against a "wall" I made from PT wood & filter/dock cloth. Digging the pond out gave me the dirt I needed to put against both sides of this new wall but at one end of the pond I could not find any way to get the machine in without getting trapped so I piled what dirt I figured I would need as close as I could to this end and I am now having to hand shovel a lot of dirt. It also has been raining a bit so it is slow going. Once I get the sides of the pond configured I will put some effort into removing some of the muck that I couldn't get with the machine. I managed to get a fair amount of it with the pump and the strainer that is on it but I had to manually position it as it dug through this muck. It is hard to describe this "soil". When it has been above the water line for several days it seems nearly dry but I I stand on it and move around the water comes up from inside of it and I slowly sink. As it gets wetter & wetter it gets very soft and VERY hard to get out of. I suppose it has a lot of clay material incorporated in it but I've never seen soil behave this way. It is like it transforms its state from a solid to a goo with a little agitation. It is also very heavy which is a real pleasure with all the shovel work I am having to do. The fact that it tends to stick like gum to the shovel as I try to toss it is an added bonus. I really hope this project at least slows my leaking down.
Thanks
Howard