I have a situation on my property that I haven't seen covered exactly in
these forums and wonder if anyone has any ideas. I bought my house ten
years ago and in the backyard are two ponds continuously fed by a stream.
These ponds were created by the original builder of this house by putting a
concrete dam on the original stream and having the created pond behind it
pour as a waterfall over a built-in lip in the middle of the dam to a lower
pond which contains a square drain towards the other end of it which drains
the excess water to a continuation of the original stream in a pipe under my
neighbor's driveway. The problem is silt/sludge. There's a LOT of it built
up over time and I'm very concerned about safety at this point with two
little girls of my own and a dam that seems to attract every kid in the
neighborhood. The mud/sludge buildup especially in the upper pond is
dangerous - it reminds me quite a bit of quicksand and I shudder to think
how deep it might be in the middle. What I would like to do is:

1. Dredge up this muck - at a minimum, it would drastically improve the
appearance of the ponds, especially the upper one which now has weeds
growing from this stuff everywhere. I also have shoveled some of this mud
up from the edges and used it in places where I wanted to plant some grass
and it is *spectacular* as top soil for this purpose. Would a standard
trash pump be up to this chore? I don't need to do this in a gigantic rush,
but I would like to get started on it and keep at it, and a regular 3" trash
pump is quite affordable if this is the right choice.

2. Raise the deep parts of the pond up to safe levels - I don't want the
middle of either of these ponds to be deeper than 2 1/2 - 3 feet. I'm not
sure how deep either one is at this point but would need to fill it in with
something appropriate (and sturdy to walk on if desired) and possibly top
that off with some nice round river stones. What would be the best material
for that? Clay? Fill? Once this project was somehow achieved, I'd
obviously want to keep these ponds as clean as I could after and wouldn't
want to inadvertently suck up fill or whatever during cleanings.

Any ideas on this? I can attempt to upload some pix of this to the NG if
it'll help clarify what I'm trying to do. Thanks in advance.

Mike O'Connor

"Mike O'Connor" wrote in message
news
I have a situation on my property that I haven't seen covered exactly in
these forums and wonder if anyone has any ideas. I bought my house ten
years ago and in the backyard are two ponds continuously fed by a stream.
These ponds were created by the original builder of this house by putting
a
concrete dam on the original stream and having the created pond behind it
pour as a waterfall over a built-in lip in the middle of the dam to a
lower
pond which contains a square drain towards the other end of it which
drains
the excess water to a continuation of the original stream in a pipe under
my
neighbor's driveway. The problem is silt/sludge. There's a LOT of it
built
up over time and I'm very concerned about safety at this point with two
little girls of my own and a dam that seems to attract every kid in the
neighborhood. The mud/sludge buildup especially in the upper pond is
dangerous - it reminds me quite a bit of quicksand and I shudder to think
how deep it might be in the middle. What I would like to do is:

1. Dredge up this muck - at a minimum, it would drastically improve the
appearance of the ponds, especially the upper one which now has weeds
growing from this stuff everywhere. I also have shoveled some of this mud
up from the edges and used it in places where I wanted to plant some grass
and it is *spectacular* as top soil for this purpose. Would a standard
trash pump be up to this chore? I don't need to do this in a gigantic
rush,
but I would like to get started on it and keep at it, and a regular 3"
trash
pump is quite affordable if this is the right choice.

2. Raise the deep parts of the pond up to safe levels - I don't want the
middle of either of these ponds to be deeper than 2 1/2 - 3 feet. I'm not
sure how deep either one is at this point but would need to fill it in
with
something appropriate (and sturdy to walk on if desired) and possibly top
that off with some nice round river stones. What would be the best
material
for that? Clay? Fill? Once this project was somehow achieved, I'd
obviously want to keep these ponds as clean as I could after and wouldn't
want to inadvertently suck up fill or whatever during cleanings.

Any ideas on this? I can attempt to upload some pix of this to the NG if
it'll help clarify what I'm trying to do. Thanks in advance.

Mike O'Connor

==============================
It's hard to picture exactly what you have to deal with here. I personally
would start by removing all the muck and anything else in these ponds. You
will then have a better idea of what you're dealing with. You can make them
shallower by adding some type of grid on the bottom, set on bricks. It can
be removed when small children are no longer at danger of falling in and
drowning. Fences around ponds work wonders and are required in some areas.
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
EVERYONE: "Please check people's headers for forgeries
before flushing." NAMES ARE BEING FORGED.
My Pond Page http://tinyurl.com/cuq5b
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o
http://www.hyphenologist.co.uk/killf..._troll_faq.htm

"Mike O'Connor" wrote in message
news
I have a situation on my property that I haven't seen covered exactly in
these forums and wonder if anyone has any ideas. I bought my house ten
years ago and in the backyard are two ponds continuously fed by a stream.
These ponds were created by the original builder of this house by putting
a
concrete dam on the original stream and having the created pond behind it
pour as a waterfall over a built-in lip in the middle of the dam to a
lower
pond which contains a square drain towards the other end of it which
drains
the excess water to a continuation of the original stream in a pipe under
my
neighbor's driveway. The problem is silt/sludge. There's a LOT of it
built
up over time and I'm very concerned about safety at this point with two
little girls of my own and a dam that seems to attract every kid in the
neighborhood. The mud/sludge buildup especially in the upper pond is
dangerous - it reminds me quite a bit of quicksand and I shudder to think
how deep it might be in the middle. What I would like to do is:

1. Dredge up this muck - at a minimum, it would drastically improve the
appearance of the ponds, especially the upper one which now has weeds
growing from this stuff everywhere. I also have shoveled some of this
mud
up from the edges and used it in places where I wanted to plant some
grass
and it is *spectacular* as top soil for this purpose. Would a standard
trash pump be up to this chore? I don't need to do this in a gigantic
rush,
but I would like to get started on it and keep at it, and a regular 3"
trash
pump is quite affordable if this is the right choice.

2. Raise the deep parts of the pond up to safe levels - I don't want the
middle of either of these ponds to be deeper than 2 1/2 - 3 feet. I'm
not
sure how deep either one is at this point but would need to fill it in
with
something appropriate (and sturdy to walk on if desired) and possibly top
that off with some nice round river stones. What would be the best
material
for that? Clay? Fill? Once this project was somehow achieved, I'd
obviously want to keep these ponds as clean as I could after and wouldn't
want to inadvertently suck up fill or whatever during cleanings.

Any ideas on this? I can attempt to upload some pix of this to the NG if
it'll help clarify what I'm trying to do. Thanks in advance.

Mike O'Connor



I don't think a trash pump will do what you want it to do. It will pump
heavily silt-laden water, but will not pump pure silt,and could damage the
pump altogether. You'd end up pumping nrealy all of the water out of your
pond before you pumped anywhere near as much of this material as you appear
to need to get rid of. Depending on the size of your pond, you could rent
a small backhoe and dredge the bottom. If you have deep parts that you
want to fill, why not scrape the silt/sludge from the shallow areas into
the deep areas, thereby eliminating the need to get rid of it? The process
of distributing this material around the bottom should add oxygen to it and
allow the organics in it to decompose more rapidly. And since you have a
continous source of freshwater entering the stream, much of the resulting
nutrients should be carrried off in the current. Just my 2 cents worth.
Perhaps if you could post a link to photos of your project area along with
dimensions, some of us could better help you. And remember that no matter
what you do, once you disturb the bottom sediments, it will likely take
time afterwards for the water to clear up, so have patience.

Message i.d.:news by author Mike O'Connor aka inspired
me,
[big snip]
Any ideas on this? I can attempt to upload some pix of this to the
NG if it'll help clarify what I'm trying to do. Thanks in advance.

Most pumps wouldn't survive what you have in mind.
If the height difference is big enough you don't need a pump, a big
hose and some time can do the trick.
--
d:Johan; Certifiable me; http://www.aacity.net

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