Dredging Pump

Sparkstation is correct, the 'sludge' in the pond will contain a lot of rubbish therefore I would advise fitting a strainer with 5-6mm holes to the pump inlet hose and use a progressive cavity pump (For pumping water with heavy additives, you should use a sewage type pump, the one with a stainless steel worm running inside a rubber sleeve would work well). I don't know what country you are in, in Europe I would approach ROTO Pumps in Manchester UK, I have supplied there equipment for a few years and reliability, price and delivery times are excellent, Mono are good but expensive. If in the US, Moyno and Seepex spring to mind.

If you recycle the water through a straw bed this will clear the majority of silt etc. and allow you to recycle the water to flush the remaining sludge down to the pump inlet. Try to keep the thickness of the sludge/water mix thin, this type of pump can handle viscous liquids but there is a limit, this type of operation takes time

If you are in a hurry to clean this pond you could hire a vacuum sludge tanker, the type used to empty septic tanks. This is expensive and you would have to refill with 100% fresh water and this then has to age before you or nature restock the pond.

As already mentioned, the best pumps for such a job are "Air lift" pumps.

You can make one fairly easily and hire a road drill compressor (diesel powered) to run it.....

To work properly, you need to have the point where the silt is to be collected as close to the height of the pond as possible, within a yard, or you will lose a lot of the speed of removal.

The forced air rises rapidly taking anything under the open end with it. The hose needs to be of the same diameter as the stiff pipe. You need a method of shutting off the air at the working end, in case you are stuck/sucked onto the bottom.

The bottom/business end of the suction pipe needs to be made relatively heavy, but longer than the maximum depth expected. A flat bottomed boat or raft (with a watertight hole in the middle, twice as large as the pipe diameter) is needed for large ponds. Put grips all the way round to facilitate handling. the business end should have a ring tube for the compressed air supplying four jets, looking something like this:-

Simple welding should do it........sell it to an Angler club with ponds and lakes when finished and you will get all your money back!!!

Pick a warm day as you will get very wet and cold!!!!!

Thanks for all the input!

Some more details in response.

The pond is ~ 1500ft2 and the silt is about 1-2 ft deep in the center.

The silt is very fine and is easily disturbed but there are some leaves that have not decomposed.

I was going to pump it into a low lying area about 200 ft away. or alternatively I would use the staw dam or just dig a big hole.

I was planning on doing this on weekends over an extended period of time and do not want to spend alot of money.

A standard water pump(impeller based) with a coarse strainer at the inlet was my plan. If this clogs too easily then I would do to the sewage/sledge pump.

I am located in Ontarion Candada.

Thanks for the advice!

Most pumps will clog, even sewage pumps.

The air life needs no sieve, it is very high volume (needed) and low pressure, it will move everything and if you get a fish or other wild life accidentally he/it will reappear at the other end undamaged!!! But not with a sewage pump!!

The air lift pump is cheap to make, cheap to use and will easily be sold on if not needed, try that with the sewage pump!!

To do such a large pond, you will take weeks to do it with such a pump!!

Hello beerman

As you have un-decomposed leaves in the pond, you should for best choice, make and use the airlift type of pump.

As Andy Germany says above, any other type of pump will clog.

The airlift pump is easy and cheap to make, you can have a lot of fun using it as well.

Kind Regards....

Good post.

Hire a local contractor or lease the equipment and self manage the project.

www.dredge.com

www.mudcat.com

www.lwtpithog.com

Good post.

Hello again beerman

You could do it the easy way.

Fill your pond with Koi carp.

They will eat everything, including the un-decomposed leaves.

Mind you, nothing else could live in the pond, after the Koi carp are liberated there.

Hope you like eating the Koi carp.

Kind Regards....