ok.. here is what the pros did to clean my 2 big UNNETTED ponds at my mothers.
1. they had a couple really large metal troughs. they filled this with pond water.
(suggestion for doityourselfers, get a cheap kiddie pool holds 600-800 gallons.)
2. they got 2 huge pumps with large diameter hose on them and started sucking the
water out. (get large diameter hoses and learn how to get the siphon going)
3. when the fish were nearly flopping on the bottom they netted everything
(including the tadpoles) out and into the big troughs and then put styro over the top
to shade and quiet the fish.
4. they "washed" the plants down with the pond water and removed them from the pond.

5. When the pumps were getting gunked up too fast the have these smooth plastic snow
shovels and they shoveled the muck into buckets .. 1 up to take the buckets and dump
them, the other in the hole to fill em. they use a broom to move the gunk to the low
point. they broomed the sides but didnt scrape them. At the end they used very
little fresh water to wash the sides of the pond down.
6. they start filling the pond and then put the fish in and pump the water from the
troughs back into the pond and they were done.
Ingrid


"Mike" wrote:

What is the best way to clean out the muck and leaves from one's pond?
Doing it by hand is not very efficient. My pond is just under 1000 gallons.

Mike




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