It looks labor intensive, you need 2 people, you need electric nearby, and the area needing clean-out needs to be shallow, but the cost of the setup is reasonable compared to other setups I've seen.
I'm also looking to add aeration to my section of a 1.5 acre pond. I posted those questions in the Aeration sub-forum.
Thanks!
Share a 1.7 acre, kidney shaped pond with 2 neighbors; Stocked with bass and bluegill
Yep I don't think that method would be very practical if your pond is very big at all... This is probably for if you have no machinery at all. Seems like it would be much faster to hook onto a tractor or even a truck and pull your dredge bucket out... I'd like one of these about 8' wide and deeper, so it would get the job done in my lifetime... I might have to figure something like this out since we got a couple inches of rain and my pond is starting to refill... I was hoping to just take an excavator into the dry pond and scoop it out quick... Might not happen now the water level is coming back... Later J
That would take FOREVER! That is some determination. Simple improvement would be to have a mesh bottom to let water out to cut weight. However, if you are looking to get into shape and lose a few pounds, this would be better than running meaninglessly on a treadmill.
I am in need of dredging my shoreline as well, and I have looked into every DIY possibility out there. I was thinking about this same approach above, but I would have to agree that it would take FOREVER.
Another interesting possibility (IMO) would be turning a pressure washer into a sludge sucker. I am wondering if anyone else has had any luck using something like this to dredge out shallow ponds? I was told the pressure washer should be at least 4GPM 3000 PSI for the sludge sucker attachment to work effectively...
Some people have used trash pumps with a stick filter on the inlet with success. They pump the water into a large series of screens to separate the gunk from water, and let the water re-enter the pond minus the solids. It probably results in some pretty muddy water for a while.
Be careful using pumps as a muck remover. The impeller on most pumps is cast iron, but the pump housings may be a softer aluminum and they need 80-90% water. If not, the housings get ground down, and the suction is greatly reduced. My 3" Honda is on it's third pump housing and impeller because of silt and muck.
I agree with FireIsHot, I do not see any economical way to pump out muck as a DIY project. I am not aware of any commercial operation that does it that way - which usually means it is difficult and expensive to use that method.
The rental on a large 8" trash pump would almost certainly be more expensive than renting a mini-excavator.
If you can't dump the spoils pile in a flat place or in a dump truck, then you might be able to build a crib on site and line it with weed barrier or similar material. The water should slowly drain through your material, but you might have to move the remaining slop a year later after it dried.
I think a Gradall would be the most built-for-purpose machine. You can exactly set the slope of your pond bank by telescoping out of the excavation. (They can be rented in some locations.)
A Cat 336 excavator has a 3-yard bucket. I would love to get paid $150/scoop.
Thanks for reminding me esshup, that "commercial" means whatever you can get some sucker to pay!
Yep!
With water in the pond there is no way you can keep a bucket full of muck with an excavator.
This particular pond was landscaped all the way around the pond, and had huge Oaks from the front of the house all through the back yard, about 40-50 feet apart, Oaks that were 24"-30"+ diameter. 3 acre pond, had approximately 6 to 8 feet of muck in it. Right next door was a commercial greenhouse and a place that sold flowers/plants. The de-watering bags could have been put there and they would have used the muck for soil the following years but at that price the homeowner said forget about it. They elected to wait and have their kids worry about it if the kids kept the place - they were in their 80's.
The driveway was blacktop, front yard landscaped and the driveway went through 2 big brick/stone monument things that held the gate. The gate was about 20' off the road and it might have been 10 feet wide. Pulling in there with a full sized pickup truck was interesting, I have no idea how any delivery trucks got through the gated area.
What do you think about trying to have nature do the work? If you see a big rain event coming on the radar that is going to muddy the pond anyway, would it work to deliberately stir up the muck and then let the water flow push some of the crap out of the pond? (Or is the muck generally too dense and will settle out only a foot away from where you stirred it up?)
I was thinking of putting your boat prop just above the muck line, or pulling a small drag harrow through the muck from the shoreline.
Hopefully, the storm water flow through would push some of the sinking muck through the bottom drain. If you liberated some floating muck, then you could add a siphon pulling from just below the surface.
If your fish excluder on either drain was immediately clogging, then could you remove it and build a settling pond with fish trap on the discharge end of your drain pipe?
[Obviously, this muck removal plan is only for a situation where it is permissible to pass "crap" downstream through your discharge pipe.]
I guess this might even work without the storm. Instead of trash pumping to the shore, you could put the pump discharge directly in your pond drain pipe. Open your drain valve and let 'er rip. Then all of your water erosive force would be going to an area designed to handle it, instead of onto a beautifully manicured shoreline.
You bring up a good point Fishinrod,, almost nowhere in these states would you be allowed to intentionally or accidentally let muck float on down any stream, somewhere down stream they would find an endangered species with a little sediment on him and guess who would pick up that tab? it wouldnt be a cheap one. As others mentioned too, dipping into a pond full of water, even with a 336 hoe, getting a 3 yd bucket full of slop is not going to happen, you can get a lot of it out but never get it cleaned up, after the bucket gets full and you bring it on out to the edge or up to the surface the water will wash a huge portion of it out. Any way you slice it, cleaning sludge out of a pond is an expensive endeavor, usually more so then building the pond from scratch, Ive done both for quite a few yrs. that being said, $50 a yard seems way up there in price, for that money you can drain the pond, have it cleaned out properly, let it fill back up and stock it with fish and still have a lot of money left over.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
I don't think you will be able to keep the muck in suspension long enough for it to wash out of the pond. Then as was said, washing all that much downstream might cause problems downstream. You'd need a whole bunch of water flowing thru the pond to do that.
Plus if you have any underwater plants that would cause issues getting it all stirred up.
If it's stirred up enough it most likely would clog the fishes gills.
In my situation with that particular pond, bringing in any type of heavy equipment would have compacted soil near the trees (killing them over the next 2-5 years) and would have tore up too much landscaping for it to work. Pumping out to a dewatering bag was the only way.
Don't forget, there isn't just muck on the bottom of the pond. You will find branches, wood, etc. there too that you never thought would be in the pond.
