How To Pond Dredge A Large Acre Pond

Owners of a large acre plus pond need an economical solution for pond dredging and cleaning their prized watering holes. They want to know how to dredge their large ponds. Over time, ponds start to get filled up with sediment and if not constantly maintained, they get mucky and lose their water level. Looking to clean the pond and increase the water level by pond dredging, pond owners need to remove a couple of feet of sediment and recirculate in clean water without disturbing the current wildlife. Pond owners resort to a variety of methods, like excavation to clean the outer area of the pond but cannot get to the center with the excavator’s arms reach. A complete drain and excavation are likely out of the question for many of these pond owners. 

These pond owners are in search of a product that can help them complete their job of cleaning and lowering their pond. Attracted by the small and mini dredges DAE Pumps offers, like the Sediment Slayer and Silt-Bot, pond owners look towards these units to be able to reach the center and edges of the pond. Unfortunately, many customers shy away from them because of the price even though they can rent them monthly at reduced costs. Others resort to service companies for renovating the ponds for them. Unfortunately, the sad result is that these pond owners never end up cleaning and lowering their ponds. Years of neglect lessen the beauty and use of these ponds. Over time, the pond builds up with even more sediment, gets murkier, and becomes less desirable or dries up.

Small and Mini Dredge

The DAE Pumps pontoon dredges are floating dredges that have highly durable submersible slurry pumps for suctioning and moving material. These well-designed systems can help pond owners complete the clean-up in a short time. Sometimes this can take a couple of days or a couple of weeks depending on the size of the pond. 

 The Sediment Slayer is a ride-along pontoon dredge equipped with a 6” pump and 66” auger for agitation and breaking up material, then moving it away. This powerful system carves out over 5 ft. wide sections at a time, providing quick and complete results with ease. As a small pond dredge, the Sediment Slayer is capable of accessing every area of a pond or waterway. With an extended arm, it can reach depths of 15 ft. 

 Another option for reaching the full width and length of a pond is the Silt-Bot. The Silt-Bot is on an electrical pulley system that moves forward/backward and up/down. With stakes on both sides of the pond, lagoon, or another water area, the operator monitors the Silt-Bot from the shoreline with the handheld remote control. This mini pond dredge is powered by a 4” submersible pump that suctions a radius of about 12- to 18-inches. The Silt-Bot has a little more limitation, for operating at depths between 2 to 11 ft. of water

Sediment Slayer

What You Need To Dredge A Pond

1. Slurry or sludge pump
2. Nitrile lay-flat discharge hose 
3. Hose and cable floats
4. Generator
5. Raft
6. Support chain
7. Heavy-duty carabiners or chain clamps
8. Double Braided Polyester rope
9. Eyelet stakes
10. Eye pulley
11. Straw wattles
12. Anchor stakes

Eyelet Stakes

Eye Pulley

Straw Wattle with Stake

Chain Clamp

The lay-flat discharge hose should consist of synthetic woven liner reinforcement with a ribbed nitrile rubber cover or higher quality. This helps protect the hose for less wear and tear as abrasive material passes through. 

DAE Pumps offer rafts for many of our submersible pumps. These rafts are designed to suspend the pump in water for  pond dredging and dewatering. The Raft is an integral part of the set-up for designing a pulley-style dredge. A properly sized raft must support the pump and offer chain length modifications.

The catch on a pond dredge system can be set up in a couple of ways: 

• The cleanest and easiest catch is a dewatering bag. These bags fill up with sediment and water from the discharge and the water seeps out, thus collecting the sediment and muck. Using dewatering bags is pretty easy, but they can slow down your production time filling bags quickly and having to stop and replace them with another bag. Once the material is dried they offer easy removal. 
• Another option is to build a multi-level drainage system not too far off the waterline so the water can flow back into the pond. Between each level add straw wattles and secure them with stakes. The straw wattles act as barriers and strainers. They hold back the sediment and filter the water so clean water fills back into the pond while pumping.