Originally Posted by Dave Davidson1
Jpsdad, remove the accumulated muck? That stuff is generally the consistency of pudding. Without draining, how do you do that? Or, are you recommending draining as a first step?

Dave, the pond owner understands what a renovation is and they have performed it once before by draining and mechanical removal. I didn't see a need to go into the details of how he should do that. I know of at least on forum member who is dredging by siphon stirring sediments (into a slurry that will siphon) with a pump and jet to take a long term approach at renovation performing these treatments himself. Not recommending that per se, but it is effective for him where he has made progress. That happens to be one way to remove muck without draining the pond.

Another way is with pond organisms. I guess it really depends on costs. If all the muck is removed mechanically what will it cost and how far would that have gone to make new water. Were it me and I had the means to do it I would lean towards building the new pond. I would drain the original and kill the fish. During draining, I would siphon and try to stir up sediments as much as possible in attempt to carry away as much muck as I could but this wouldn't be primary reason and it wouldn't qualify as a renovation as would mechanical removal. The primary purpose would be to concentrate the fish in a smaller volume of water to kill them.

I like GSH, FHM, and Gams because they tolerate low DO. The first two are often the survivors in winter kill lakes. But I would probably delay stocking the FHM and GSH until after construction of the lower pond. Until its construction I would grow TP and Crays and remove as much of them as I could by the end of their grow outs I would stock fingerling TP and if lived where I could use Blues or Niles I would use them. Rather than purchasing fingerlings I would purchase two or three pounds of adult females and a couple of males and keep them in a breeding tank (or very small pond) and allow each female to breed once. Every three or four days I would net the fish and examine females for eggs in their mouth. If they had eggs, I would carry them in water to a cage in the pond to complete her parental care. In about 10 to 14 days fry over ~1/2" length would exit the cage. One cycle of 3 lbs of females could contribute as much as 8000 fry to the pond. This is just about right. The TP fry will not reproduce for a minimum of 5 months which is just about the end of the growing season before winterkill. So this approach prevents overpopulation and the need for predators. To be sure, I would not buy 6000 2" fingerlings at a $1 a head for this purpose ... I would implement the knowledge I have learned through study to leverage results and lower costs.

So obviously I favor long term sustainable management over mechanical removal of the muck ... but mostly because I would want implement management that controls and limits eutrophication.