Anyone Use a Trash Pumpt to Clean pond?

[CollinLeon]

That is correct and I understand that bentonite is readily available in Texas at a reasonable price. Here in Georgia where it is not a natural resource and has to be trucked in the price for a 3/4 acre pond is way up there. We looked into it for a smaller pond on another property.

You don't have any oil wells in Georgia? That's what it is mainly used for from what I understand... Something dealing with the drilling mud, best I remember...

 

[scesnick]

Collin Leon,
The water is crystal clear. It is spring fed and you can see the bottom easily. The diver Idea is not a bad one but the pond isn't all that deep and I am just going to pump most of the water out till it is only about 2-3 ft deep before I start removing the sediment.

Curly Dave,
The pond is on a bit of a hill and I can easily pump the sediment/sludge right over the hill and into to woods. Wifey wants to put it on the garden once it dries out a bit.

I am going to atleast try a diaphragm pump. if I have any success at all It will save me a ton of money by not hiring out a dozer and operator.

 

[MikeD74T]

Collin Leon,
The water is crystal clear. It is spring fed and you can see the bottom easily. The diver Idea is not a bad one but the pond isn't all that deep and I am just going to pump most of the water out till it is only about 2-3 ft deep before I start removing the sediment.

Curly Dave,
The pond is on a bit of a hill and I can easily pump the sediment/sludge right over the hill and into to woods. Wifey wants to put it on the garden once it dries out a bit.

I am going to atleast try a diaphragm pump. if I have any success at all It will save me a ton of money by not hiring out a dozer and operator.

Use two centrifugal pumps, one 3-4" to suck from the pond & another smaller one to jet the silt loose in front of the larger pump's suction. Like this - New Mini-Dredge Sediment Pumping System, not necessarily float mounted.
Here's some more stuff if you get serious - http://www.akmining.com/cart/suction_nozzles_and_suction_tips.htm

Right now at my worksite are commercial divers pumping muck from out cooling water inlets. They use hand manuevered 4" axial electric pumps. Bubblers won't move much above water level. I did some jet dredging years ago to remove fertilizer from a sunken barge. Great fun for the first 10 minutes, then two weeks of boring work in zero visability. Have fun. MikeD74T

 

[tawilson]

Collin Leon,
The water is crystal clear. It is spring fed and you can see the bottom easily. The diver Idea is not a bad one but the pond isn't all that deep and I am just going to pump most of the water out till it is only about 2-3 ft deep before I start removing the sediment.

Curly Dave,
The pond is on a bit of a hill and I can easily pump the sediment/sludge right over the hill and into to woods. Wifey wants to put it on the garden once it dries out a bit.

I am going to atleast try a diaphragm pump. if I have any success at all It will save me a ton of money by not hiring out a dozer and operator.

I'd put a rope on it then drop the hose right down into the bottom from the get go. Let the water flowing to the pump stir up and drag the silt to it. Then drag it to a different spot when that areas cleaned up. I've thought about doing the same thing around my docks.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Use two centrifugal pumps, one 3-4" to suck from the pond & another smaller one to jet the silt loose in front of the larger pump's suction. Like this - New Mini-Dredge Sediment Pumping System, not necessarily float mounted.
Here's some more stuff if you get serious - Suction Nozzles & Suction Tips
Have fun. MikeD74T

:thumbsup: Yeah ... fer sher sucking alone is not going to do it. I envision a 10% by volume 100psi jet to upset silt stasis right at the suction nozzle. Also, perhaps a backflush capability to clear occasional suction blockage.
larry

 

[boggen]

3/4 acre lake, is what i am looking at doing as well.

contact the various mini floating dredge companies. you might find a used one to buy vs a new one. a couple times i found searching google a couple used mini dredges for about 5,000.

if ya going to drain, you may need to break dam and let the pond dry out for a year or 2 pending on how deep the silt is. so you can even get in there to remove stuff via excavator / dozer. for me i know i will have to let this pond dry for at min a year. if a break the dam open. i would say 5 to 8 feet of silt build up.

contact folks with ""long reach"" excavators. that can say reach 20 to 30 feet out. if you can drive all the way around right near shore line.

myself i am torn between mini dredge vs excavator.

using a trash pump like you are wanting to do. would be spinning my wheels and never make it worth while. just way way way way way way to much time.

if i did mini dredge, the front lake has a low enough area on one side. that i can get a bunch of straw bails in. and line the entire area up with lines of bails. and then pump water to far end. and let water trickle back through all the mud and through straw bails before going back into the pond. this allows me to suck more water and less mud (which the mini dreges tend to do, or even a trash pump you are looking at will do. to maintain the water within the pond. but also allows all the spoils (sludge) to stay up and off shore. were i can let it dry out. and if need be spread out on fields or move to other places on the property.

if i just pumped water and sludge right over dam of pond. i would end up pumping out all the water before i even got a chance to do any good portion of the pond.

 

[scesnick]

I rellay don't want to spend 5k for the mini dredge. I think the diaphragm pump will basically do the same thing as the mini dredge for A LOT less money. I might end up spending a small fortune on a dozer but I figure it is worth a try to hit it with the diaphragm pump first and see what happens.

 

[CollinLeon]

I rellay don't want to spend 5k for the mini dredge. I think the diaphragm pump will basically do the same thing as the mini dredge for A LOT less money. I might end up spending a small fortune on a dozer but I figure it is worth a try to hit it with the diaphragm pump first and see what happens.

Rent a pump for a weekend, see how far that gets you, and then extrapolate for the rest of the pond. You might find that it won't be all that cheap once you get done with it.

 

[20 20]

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if ya going to drain, you may need to break dam and let the pond dry out for a year or 2 pending on how deep the silt is. so you can even get in there to remove stuff via excavator / dozer. for me i know i will have to let this pond dry for at min a year. if a break the dam open. i would say 5 to 8 feet of silt build up.
.

I have to ask why do you need it to dry for a year or 2 ? I could see where after you throw the spoils you may want the pile to set, but confused about the dredge

 

[CollinLeon]

I have to ask why do you need it to dry for a year or 2 ? I could see where after you throw the spoils you may want the pile to set, but confused about the dredge

He's probably assuming that the pond is large enough that you won't be working from dry land and as such, you could end up getting the dozer / excavator stuck in what would basically be a swamp. It is possible to get a tracked vehicle stuck!

If it is a big enough pond that an excavator cannot reach at least to the middle or so from the shore, a drag line can be used to reach a bit further than the boom will reach. I suspect that letting it dry out and using a dozer is cheaper than a drag line though. Whether a dozer is cheaper to operate than the pump, I dont know... You might have to do a test to find out. Rent a pump for the weekend and see how large of an area you can clear. Figure out how large your pond really is, divide that by the size of your test area, and then multiply that times the cost of renting / operating the pump for that period of time. That will give you a rough estimate of the cost to use a pump to clean the bottom of the pond.