Since my part of east texas in under a severe drought, we have lost approx 5ft from our 4 acre pond. Its neat to be able to see how the pond was or is now constructed. Anyway, I walked out a few feet into the pond yesterday and was over come by the amount of "muck" that is in the pond. There is a 4-6" layer of "muck" on top of the ponds bottom. As soon as my foot hit bottom, I couldn't see into the water any more. Is this a common occurance? Will it heal itself over time? Or do I need to do something about it? I am not to sure now if I have a algae problem or if its just "muck". Will the drought help take care of the "muck" problem?. P.S. AND IT SMELLS. thanks in advance. Eric

Eric,

Yes, it happens in every pond. It is the result of detritus and decomposing organic matter that has no where else to go. Fortunately it takes many, many years but left completely unchecked, ponds tend toward naturally filling in.

It takes a long period of time, however. Very long, normally.

A lot of people drain their ponds and clean out the muck. I've done that myself in one very old pond which had evolved to about 1 foot depth of water and the rest muck....several feet of it.

There are a couple of things which can delay and possibly even reverse this natural occurence...aeration and Tilapia.

You probably aren't surprised by aeration....but maybe have doubts about Tilapia. Check it out. Tilapia eat detritus and decomposing organic matter. They litterally clean the bottom of the pond. There is an article online, forget the exact link, that describes a huge Tilapia stocking program on the Nile/Aswain dam. They had a severe problem with muck buildup and stocked large numbers of Tilapia to remove it. I forget the exact numbers but they measured the decrease in depth of the muck every year due to Tialpia and it was significant.

In ponds that have both aeration and Tilapia, I do not experience muck build-up. In new ponds, Tilapia alone seem to be able to keep it in check....older ponds with significant build-up experience improvement, but it is very slow.

thanks again meadowlark, Once again tilapia seem to be the way to go. I think next year I am going to triple the amount of tilapia I put in this year. I am not seeing any difference. Learning lesson. You have to make errors to be able to learn.

The changes are slow, very gradual. Usually the first thing folks notice is decreasing and then vanishing algae. Then they usually notice increases in bass weights in the late fall following an initial spring stocking of Tilapia, and then increases in the number and size of BG. Muck decrease is a very slow process and difficult to determine in an old pond with deep layers of the stuff. Every pond is different also with sometimes different results.