Rainman, I just read your post advising the following and will doubtless have more questions for you on this very subject.
You wrote: "Also, a complete renovation would be the perfect time to install a permanent, well designed, bottom draw, automatic start/stop siphon that will nearly eliminate future silt issues forming in the future."
My pond has a bottom drain that the drain pipe plugs into. From what I understand, that pipe can simply be pulled straight up and the pond drains out. What do you mean by a a permanent, well designed, bottom draw, automatic start/stop siphon that will nearly eliminate future silt issues forming in the future?
Please explain. This coming March a neighbor heavy equipment operator is going to completely redo my pond. I am, of course, VERY curious of how to circumvent future buildup of silt, if possible. Thanks for any helpful info! I included a photo from Today after letting the pond refill from having it drained 2 feet lower.
Another photo of a closeup somewhat of the drain pipe configuration. The pipe extends about 4 feet below that screw-in drain plug in the vertical pipe. I capped the 45 degree section so it would fill up and drain in from the top. Please correct me if I was mistaken in doing that, but a top drain is all we had in our pond when I was a kid. That pond was 15' deep.
If it matters, the pond refilled back to the top of the pipe level in 96 hours easy. There are several feeder springs into flowing into this pond, and it NEVER freezes over. Coldest water temp all winter was 45F degrees.
Lastly, there is a third photo showing what the pond looked like after unscrewing the side drain plug in the vertical pipe.
Question here: Why would the water level only drain to half way down the opening? Is that how fast the inflow is compared to outflow? Shouldn't it drain all the way to the bottom of the screw-in drain plug shown?
From my best guess, there is at least 1.5' of pure organic muck covering the entire bottom of this pond, accumulated in about 15 years from the previous excavation clean-out. That is a primary reason I am having it dug out (again).
