Here is what I observed when digging out a wetland area to make a pond. The pond became stagnant because there was no oxygen getting down to the bottom and muck was quickly building up on top of muck that was already there. No surprise there at all, but as we all know a pond is an ongoing adventure. I was looking at the material that had been removed when making the pond a year later when the light came on. There was clay, which looked like it did the day it came out. There was peat moss which was slowly breaking down. Then there were areas where depressions had formed in the pile and only gravel remained. As I pondered the fact that I did not remember seeing much gravel and that what was there originally was muck that was a lot like jelly. I realized it had broken down completely when it got exposed to the air.

I then added aeration to the pond thinking that maybe the same thing would happen. I saw a quick change in the water quality as you may have guessed. As any good pond boss would do I smiled and said "I'm adding some more aeration".

So two years later I was out on the pond checking things out. I put a ten foot pole in the water and looked for the bottom. I was shocked to feel a hard gravel bottom where there was feet of muck before. The pond was not feet deeper but maybe a little deeper. I then pushed the pole down as hard as I could and was able to push through that layer into feet of soft muck below it. I repeated this several times. So what had happened? Where the oxygen reached the muck it had indeed allowed the bacteria to break down the muck but below that was still an anaerobic condition.

My thinking now is that if I disturb the bottom it would become deeper because more muck is exposed to the oxygen and breaks down. I have good sized area that is all the same depth with the same gravel surface area over the muck. I'm going to try disturbing the pond bottom in part of it several times a month during the summer and see if it gets deeper. I will take detailed measurements to be sure of my results.

I'm convinced oxygen is the key, and that these bacteria are already in my pond. Every pond is different and so what works for one may be completely wrong for another.