Muffin,

Could you rig a bottom intake for your pump? Our koi stir the bottom as
they swim. The much moves around to our "deep well" (think former septic
tank) and falls to the bottom, where the pump pulls it to the veggie
filters. Some of the big stuff stays in the deep well, where we (I, Jim)
pull it out with a pool net annually. We have never had to vacuum the
bottom of the pond. We do drain the veggie filters annually, through bottom
drains.

If the bottom of your pond is clear (ours is bare cement...with algae to
cover it), the muck will find its way to the pulling drain.

If you could pull water from a low spot on the bottom of the pond, you might
not have a much problem.

Good luck, whatever you do.


Jim


____________________________________________
See our pond at: home.bellsouth.net\p\pwp-jameshurley
Ask me about Jog-A-Thon fundraiser (clears $120+ per child) at: jogathon.net

"*muffin*" wrote in message
...
hmmph!!

pond is only a year old,, who would have thought so much black gunk was at
the bottom!!
I was sooooo careful with covering the pond to keep out leaves, ,but of
course some got in, & what added to the "gunk" was pots that tipped over,,
yucky.
I figured one year?? how could it be bad??

well this weekend, after 2 months of murky water not clearing after
filter(S) running, I decided to try to suck out the muck.
we rigged up a shop vac, Hubby decided to hook in hose from pond to a big
barrel ( it was a big plastic one) & then a hose from the barrel to the
shop
vac. premise being, the muck would drop into the barrel, not filling up
the
shop vac.
all, very good idea.. hmmm, I thought okk this will take under an
hour....
untilll we couldn't find the big shop hose, so had to use a swimming pool
hose & house vacuum cleaner plastic suction pipes, so it was VERY small
opening to suck up the stuff( I already waited too long to do this I
wasn't
going to wait another week to find the correct hose).
ok, it did work,,,,,,, BUT.... with hose so small it got clogged
often,
especially with stones ( from the tipped over pots), so hubby had to stick
around & help empty the hose, needless to say I was covered in black gook,
by the time we were done, from trying to shake out the clog & it slopped
out
the top on me. arrghhh.
other complication, the plastic barrel started collapsing.......
figures, maybe with a metal one & tighter seals we would have had more
pressure & no problems,, so it was back to sucking the stuff INTO the shop
vac directory, & had to be emptied every so often.
this took over 4 hours,,, I am sooooooo glad the water was not cold!

now, according to my _feet_ the bottom was now clear of crud,,, but there
was a lot of stuff floating through the water, now... am I to ever expect
the water to actually clear???

hubby was saying empty the dang thing & start over, well I did not have
places for the fish, to do that & didn't relish chasing them around
catching
them, so I opted, for the "why can't THIS be done THIS way"???
I really don't want to empty the dang thing to get clear water...
*pout*. I will probably try cleaning the bottom again next week, before
the
tropicals go in,, but this is ridiculous!! I cannot see myself doing this
10
yrs from now ( no one else is doing it, I keep being told its MY
pond,,,,,,),, now I can only wait to bribe my grandson when he grows up!!

(Hubby keeps telling me he has pumps at work that will empty the 4000 gal
pond in 10 min,,, but catching those fish,,,,,,not my idea of fun!!!it
still
meant me gettign IN the pond!)