Our pump pulls from near the the bottom of our pond. The intake is in a 5
gal bucket with as many 1/2" holes as I could get into it. The silt goes w
ith the water to our veggie filters, where we can drain it annually. The k
oi stir up the in the main pond, so we have not had to clean it in more tha
n a decade of operation.

When we drain the 4 x 8 berm ponds, we put a strainer over the 2" drain and
let the water drain slowly. When the water is low, we have no trouble net
ting the tadpoles and other critters. They get tossed into the other berm
pond or into a bucket. Then they go back in when we have cleaned the pond.
Cleaning is done in the early spring before the plants have begun to grow
..

What does your present pump do with circulating silt? Do you run a filter
or have an overflow? A veggie filter would gather it for you.

Wild ponds have a special solution to silt: They fill and go away. Our po
nds need some sort of silt removal or they go the way of natural ponds.