Pond sludge

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We have a cement pond about 600 gal.
We have got all the water and fish out to clean it. What do you suggest to clean the sludge with? We have goldfish and a dog who loves the water also. We have pressure washed it
 

j.w

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@Cauthend
Wish you would have come here before you took all that water out of that pond w/fish in there. Too late now tho. See you will now have to go through the while process of making your new water capable of keeping your fish alive. Since you have already done the deed you might as well just get all the sludge out w/some kind of safe scooper that won't damage your cement. Rinse it all out and drain till it's good to go. Leave any nice short algae, like don't scrape the side off. Leave all that good stuff as it will help your water if you can do this all fast enough before it all dies. Oh no wait, I just read you pressurized it. Ok then you are starting all over from the start. I will warn you tho and don't know how many fish you have but if you can once you get this all set up w/new water only put a few fish back in at a time till your water adjusts. Hopefully others will chime in here as I know there is some kind of beneficial bacteria you can add to start your water up again before adding the fish back. I'll leave it at this for now.
 
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Yeah it sounds like a start over .
what do you have for a filter? have you kept water running through it?
I think i would rub the sluge around the freshly cleaned walls to get a bacteria seeded again
 
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I'll vacuum the bottom but no power washing.
 
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Did you save the old water?

We don't usually suggest draining and cleaning a fish pond unless there was a chemical spill or the pond was terribly ignored and full of nasty muck and dead fish.

By power washing you washed off all the natural beneficial biofilm and bacteria needed for a well balanced ecosystem.

What's done is done, but now you will have to restart everything.
You will most likely end up with green water soon after refilling it, but that's ok, it's just nature's way of balancing out the water by adding algae to rid the pond of the excess nutrients formed by the fish waste. We call it new pond syndrome.

It's going to take a while to get the ecosystem back up and running. You will need lots of plants and good filtration.
Forget about store bought beneficial bacteria. To me, it's a waste of money. Your pond will develop it's own. It just takes time.
 
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When most people think about their garden, the last thing on their mind is pond sludge. However, this dark and sometimes foul-smelling material can actually be great for your plants
 
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fish waste is one of the best boosters for any garden
 

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