Pond advice Needed for 2 ft of Mud sludge

[Dawngarden]

Hi - im a newbie here with pretty much a 4 foot hole in the ground that’s about 10 years old & it’s made up of 2 feet of water & 2 ft of mud & about 6ft diameter — I’m at a loss at where to begin. There’s no fish & no plants. Last year I bought a pump with a sprinkler attachment and dropped it in the middle & every time I ran it, by the next morning there was no water in the hole! I did not dare to put fish in it and I just gave up.

Please advise: I have a very limited budget and machines to pump out the water are quite expensive.

I included a picture of the pump/filter thingy I bought last year that kept draining my pond - it’s a combo type of thing - should my filter be separate from my pump?

After reading through posts, I now know that I should have elevated the pump - but there are no elevated ledges to place it on. Should I use milk cartons for a new pump & get a separate bio filtration thingy. I included a pic of a low cost filter.

I’d also like to cover some of that black liner - any advise on aggressive trailing plant. There’s only one area with soil to add in ground plants

I appreciate all advice! Thank you

 

[TheFishGuy]

To be perfectly honest, that pond needs a lot of work. I would start by removing the tile and rocks around the edge. then I would remove the water and as much sludge as possible, you can simply do this with a 5g bucket. After this I would take out the liner ( be careful so that you can re-use it ) and reshape the pond. Probably making it shallower, maybe a bit wider, and adding a plant and rock shelf around the edge. After doing all of this and replacing the liner you could hide the liner by putting edging rocks and plants on the shelf, and put your little fountain back in.

It is obviously an option to add some sort of waterfall and fancier filtration, but you mention a very limited budget so I attempted to formulate this plan around buying nothing but a couple more rocks and some plants.

 

[Dawngarden]

Thanks for the suggestions. My pictures did not give the full scope of yard. I have a very small backyard - there really isn’t any space to make it wider. I inherited this pond and if I take out the liner in an attempt to make it more shallow, I would need to bring in lots of bags of dirt to fill the hole. That “grass” is astroturf.

I appreciate the suggestion that I take out the water & mud but it’s not as though I can reach in and do that because it’s pretty much a 4ft hole in the ground & I’m 5ft 1” — I’m thinking I need a pump/vacuum - which I suppose I need to buy.

Perhaps I should start a new thread for product recommendations- Sigh still at a loss on how to move forward!

I’ve read in a few other threads that folks think it’s quite beneficial to leave mud in place since it has beneficial bacteria & Id like to put in some goldfish.

 

[TheFishGuy]

Thanks for the suggestions. My pictures did not give the full scope of yard. I have a very small backyard - there really isn’t any space to make it wider. I inherited this pond and if I take out the liner in an attempt to make it more shallow, I would need to bring in lots of bags of dirt to fill the hole. That “grass” is astroturf.

I appreciate the suggestion that I take out the water & mud but it’s not as though I can reach in and do that because it’s pretty much a 4ft hole in the ground & I’m 5ft 1” — I’m thinking I need a pump/vacuum - which I suppose I need to buy.

Perhaps I should start a new thread for product recommendations- Sigh still at a loss on how to move forward!

I’ve read in a few other threads that folks think it’s quite beneficial to leave mud in place since it has beneficial bacteria & Id like to put in some goldfish.

that is quite a bit tighter than I was imagining! I believe it is fine to leave a couple inches of mud in, but 2ft seems like a lot. Does anybody else have any ideas on how to proceed?

 

[YShahar]

If your old pump is still working, you should be able to use it to pump out the water. Once that's done, you'll be able to get to the mud on the bottom. As @TheFishGuy said, you can use a bucket to scoop the stuff out a bit at a time; it will make a really good addition to garden soil if used in small doses. Once you've got most of it out, you can take the edges of the liner and bunch it up in the middle so that you can get to the edges. Then it's just a matter of creating some shallow shelves on which to balance the existing rocks and tiles.

In order to elevate the pump, you can use a milk crate, a couple of bricks, or an upturned flower pot. With such a small hole, I wouldn't use a spray fountain, as even a slight breeze will carry the water right out of the pond. Instead, you can create something like a bubbling urn fountain or a something else that will allow the water to gently spill into the pond.

To make a bubbling earn. Take one of those terracotta pots, run the hose from the pump up through it, fill it with cobbles, and set in the middle of the pond with the bottom of the pot just at the water level. A milk crate is great for this!

 

[j.w]

@Dawngarden

 

[SarahT]

Welcome! You have an interesting challenge. I don't think you need much of a pump/ vaccuum to get the muck out of the bottom. Is it really two feet or are you guessing? Do you think the liner has a leak or does the pond hold water all the way to the top over several days without the pump/filter running?
I'm steering you in the same direction as @TheFishGuy and @YShahar; get as much muck off the bottom as you can between pump (water) and bucket ("other"). I'm short, too, so hear your concern over being in a 4 foot hole hauling buckets of muck. Have a friend help or at least be there as a safety person. Move the tiles out of the way, too (I'm assuming they are laid out, not mortared down solidly.)
Once you have the muck out, get a milk crate for pump/ filter elevation, get some inexpensive tubing to run from the pump up to either a small waterfall or @YShahar 's bubbling urn, and invest in a net to scooping leaves and such out of the pond to eliminate muck buildup (as much as possible). Your existing filter will do OK, just don't use the fountain spray.
If you to go one step further, buy a cheap tarp, empty the buckets of mud on it to dry, get it ALL out, and @TheFishGuy suggestion to re-do the liner on top if the dried muck which is now "dirt" for the botton of the pond, with some added sand and dirt to make it shallower and you can form shelves on the sides, and find some old carpet for padding under the liner when you put it back in. Then waterfall or urn.

 

[GBBUDD]

best solution in my book would be