yep. what the "pros" do when they come to clean the big ponds at the
dacha is fill a holding tank with the "first" water out of the pond,
drain it with their big pumps until the fish are almost flopping, net
the fish, frogs, etc. move everything out. then they start with
buckets and plastic shovels to remove the muck. they end up with
brooms on the bottom, altho they dont do the sides and dont "rinse"
either. running the water back in is the slowest. they do this when
the temp of the pond water is @55o, which is the temp of the water out
of the well so there is no thermal shock to the fish. Ingrid

On Tue, 15 May 2007 06:54:10 CST, John
wrote:
- just scooping out
the muck would presumably stir up all the poisons and kill the fish?

John