Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Sand or Pea Gravel for beach?

JN. I deal with this question all the time because in NW Ohio and NE IN, you like many others want to swim in their fishing ponds. Especially for kids wading in the shallow beach.
I don't have a real good answer yet, but will provide some insight into both.
I agree with Mike, keep beach as small as possible. It is lots of work to maintain it as a clean swim area, almost impossible over 30 yr period. Weeds of all kinds love to grow in each type above water.

Pebble beach. Pebbles good for fish spawning, bass/bgill. Roundish pebbles do not hurt feet but not as soft as sand. Problem with pebbles is with foot traffic the sedimented dead organic materials (up to 1" per year) get buried under the surface when kids are playing in the beach. Dead orgaincs under the surface quickly lose the oxygen in this layer due to bacterial decomposition without water circulaton from the surface. Loss of oxygen causes black, inky, very smelly conditions to develop in the deeper gravel layers(3"-8" deep). Usually this occurs after one or three years or whenever high activity in the beach area subsides. When this happens no one wants to swim/wade any more in the black smelly beach. However the pebbles do have larger interstitial or open areas between the stones. Thus your quiry about raking. Raking the gravel 2"-4"deep, is about the only way to remove the black anoxic conditions. This does help in water movement among the stones reducing black condtiions.

SAND. Nice and easy on feet. Packs and settles into a dense substrate that tends to keep organic particles on the surface where they can decompose and not turn black unless the accumulation is deep (3"or more). But once it does get black under the surface, the dense packed nature of sand slows inhibits remediation or cleansing of the black materials.

Note about sand/gravel depth. If you are putting it on top of dirt or even dozer packed clay the layer should be minimum 8" thick better 10" to 14" thick. Thin layers will tromp down into the softening clay layer with extensive foot traffic. Softened clay will start working up into the gravel to make mud gravel mixture.
Some have used special fabric between clay & thin layer of beach sand to reduce clay intrusion.

Wave action on a small pond is usually less than 10"-12". This will create a ledge in the upper shoreline. The beach should be placed on the leeward (sheltered) side of the pond to minimize wind action and reduce organics acumulation.

I need someone to put in a beach that is split 50% gravel and 50% sand and test which stays clean longer and is easier to maintain.
Personally for a wading/swimming beach, I prefer a small flatish, cement, plateau area in about 3-4 ft of water. Use steps to get down the bank to the flat area. It will never turn black.