"Jake" wrote

harry wrote:

Sacha wrote:
"Bob Hobden" said:

"Steve J" wrote ...

Does anyone happen to know if you can hire some equipment to suck the
sludge out of the bottom of a pond?

Any help appreciated, thanks.

What you want is a swimming pool hoover but I don't know if they can
be
hired. You will also have to be careful it isn't too powerful for your
pond. How many gallons/litres is it?

Whoa! Why take out the sludge? It's not a swimming pool! But the
sludge is home to all sorts of pondlife. Leave it alone unless you're
talking about genuine dredging of a very large pond to increase its
water depth from a natural inflow. That's another whole issue.

The sludge is primarily fish crap (if you have fish) and needs to be
removed preferably before Winter as it evloves methane which gets
trapped udner the ice and can poison the fish.
If you have fish, there is no pond life, they eat everything.

The sludge will be a mix of stuff depending on what you have/don't
have in and around the pond. I don't have fish but do allow an amount
of leaves to get into the pond each autumn. These rot to create some
sludge which is home to all sorts of critters (dragon fly larvae look
like aliens!) and also accommodates hibernating frogs.

The sludge is kept under control by the introduction of sludge eating
bacteria (you can buy these from pond suppliers). Then about every 6
or 7 years, I drain the pond, bucket up the wildlife and reduce the
sludge level before refilling and reintroducing the wildlife.

It's usually only in the year following such a clearout that I
experience cloudy water. The rest of the time the life balance in the
pond keeps the water perfectly clear.

Pond vacuums will suck either nothing (cheapo domestic ones) or
everything (proper ones) out - including the beneficial creatures
living in the sludge.

My pond is for a few big fish and waterlilies and for various reasons I
don't want detritus building up in my pond. I also don't want frogs in it
because of the disease they may carry (Red Leg) and because the fish may
bloat themselves on the tadpoles before their digestive system is fully
functional, they being cold blooded.
A description of a pond as "a wet hole that is always trying to fill itself
in" has always struck in my mind.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK