Best way to clean bottom of pond!

[Dwaynen66]

I bought a house and inherited a koi pond. I have had it for a couple of years but have never cleaned out bottom of pond. Does this need to be done and if so what is the best way to do this?

 

[RobAmy]

Depends on how dirty. Usually a net works fine. If deep pool nets work very good. Vacuums work but has risk sucking up things that are in the muck. If extremely dirty then a drain out and cleaning maybe needed, I would avoid this method and do only as a last resort.

 

[sissy]

I use a swimming pool net and do it slowly with a crate in the water fall with quilt batting in it .

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome @Dwaynen66 to the GPF! Looks like you joined a while back but we're happy to "see" a new face!

A few more details about your pond would be helpful - how big, how deep, how many gallons, how many fish, what kind, what kind of filtration, is this a rocked pond... you get the drift! Pictures are even better!

 

[Magzire]

Last year I wanted to redo the pond after 1 year being up. So I empty the pond and start recovering up the 100kg of gravel I laid. Of course there was a lot of muck below these stones and the remaining water turn jet black. However it didn't smell bad, actually very earthy, like soil. So I assume the beneficial bacteria was doing its job and supporting a healthly system.

Two weeks later I had to retake out the liner I just placed cause it didn't fit. Anyways when retaking up the gravel again this time it had a really bad smell. So after that I decided never to disturb the gravel again, now over a year and no issues. Once you have a good filter, should get most of the dirt.

Now, I'm not saying this is way to go. It's just what I notice and seems best for me.