teehjaeh57 is very experienced in the pond management circles. Heed his advice.
I like his advice about a swimming beach. Earlier I was going to mention size of the beach and neglected that topic. I now add to TJ's very good advice.
As the kids get older than 4 to 6 they will not use the wading beach. The want as TJ says playing, jumping, and swim activities in deeper water and this is often because the beach sediments are black and smelly. Sand beaches with neglect of frequent activity very quickly (3-4 yrs) develop black sediments under the surface. If you have spent time around ponds,, you have sees this very common feature. Every pond with a shallow beach beach area develops blackish smelly sediments because of lack of physical activities in the beach due to no oxygenated freshwater getting mixed down into the sediment or the sand/gravel below. This results in black anoxic / anaerobic sediments due to anaerobic bacteria living there products. Sand gravel beaches as they age with no mixing activity need to be regularly raked to prevent or eliminate the anaerobic bacteria community that creates black sediments. Thus when the kids are bigger than toddler size you will need to rake the beach area to keep it in good clean condition. The larger the beach the longer the time you will spend regularly raking it.
Black sediments do not develop in beaches of larger lakes because whitecap wave action regularly mixes and thrashes the beach sediments.
IMO Install the beach as small as necessary because some day soon when the kids quit rough housing and playing in the beach, you will have to be raking the
entire beach area to keep the sediment material fresh and clean so minimal black material and muck are present. For swim ponds I suggest the beach is no bigger than the front of a car or pickup; easily and quickly raked. I built a cement beach in my pond, however it too needs work of sweeping off the collected settled materials and accumulated plant detritus.
Do keep us updated about your pond progress in the future.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/27/26 01:30 PM.
