Want To Fill In A Pond

Hi
Probably the opposite to what the Water Gardening Forum is about but we have moved into our new bungalow about 6 months ago and it has a pond, I think it used to have fish at some stage but that was probably many years ago and there's been very little maintenance in the past few years :( but now its just a slimy mess, so it has to go, plus the Mrs Intel can't stand even the thought of frogs :(

The size is about 22ft x 10 ft, I have managed to drain most of the water and cut away the liner as much has I can (there was carpet under the liner) and a load of bricks and rubbish in the pond but I am left with an area that is about 18 ft x 6ft and about 10 inches deep that I cant pump out because is full of sludge and my sump pump cant cope with it :(

I had a few thoughts about hiring a company that does gully sucking etc (very expensive) or
maybe getting a gully pump and spreading it round the garden onto the grass?

Just don't want to end up slimy mess on that grass that wont go away or even worse and kill the grass off :(

Any ideas on what to do please?

 

Personally i would go out and buy something this Clarke CSE400A 1¼" Submersible Water Pump - Machine Mart - Machine Mart and enough pipe to reach to a drain/man hole, drain it down then to want to make a soak away at the deepest point.

 

Would that be ok? only that's a lot of sludge to pump down a drain, I would be worried about blocking the sewer?

I have a pump like that already but it kept blocking up when it got to the sludge :(

 

It wont pump sludge out but you need to get the water out to get the sludge out, once you get to the sludge you need to bucket it out onto higher ground once all sludge is out out you need to dig a soakaway and fill it with gravel of some description.

 

If you slash the liner, will the water not drain away on its own?
I'm guessing you want to fill it in, so you could then just dump top soil in there.

 

I was hoping to get rid of the liner and the carpet (as this will improve drainage) and then back fill it with rubble and maybe 12 - 18 inches of top soil, most probably it will end up with grass anyway.

 

Think I'd just puncture the liner where ever possible and see.
If we get some dry weather it should drain, you can then dig around and get the liner out, cant really see the point of getting all the sludge out before filling in.

 

I presumed he had Pete it would be the most obvious thing to do

 

Oh right,maybe I am just being stupid

 

May be its me but its the first thing i would try .

 

Mini digger,big skip,new topsoil delivered,grass seed, sorted.

 

Laugh all you like mate A puncture in the liner might drain the water away, but it wont get rid of the sludge and there is over a ton of it, if the puncture holes block up you will have no drainage, so the best method is to get rid of the liner and the carpet, then you can be sure of the drainage.

I was asking for advice and making a hole in the liner is good.....but mocking people is not!!

I guess your post might stop other people from posting if all they are going to get is abuse

 

Pete/me mean no harm intel please don't take things the wrong way we have a stupid sense of humour,

Rip the liner back to where its dry and put the sludge there the sun is your friend to get shut of it best just to dry it out but that could take a while, but next week should be nice .

 

Sorry was not taking the pee, just cant see the point in getting rid of the sludge.

 

Really gentleman, no point in getting into a fight over slugdge..