Cover the liner with what?

[BarbAZCA]

I'm having my small in-ground pond/waterfall deepened with vertical sides. The goal is to keep the raccoons out and make it easier to clean when I need to remove the sludge from the bottom. 1 1/2 years after the last cleaning, I removed the goldfish and river rock from the bottom (after draining) and there was about 3-4" of sludge. I would appreciate your experience and thoughts on what to put over the pond liner that will make it easier to clean and how you clean it. Thanks.

 

[Tula]

I think the easiest way to clean the bottom of a pond liner is to keep it bare, it's easier to scoop up debris or use a pond vacuum. The liner will get covered in algae and look natal over time.

Of course, rocks are beautiful, just be prepared for more effort to clean pond.

 

[Stephen Noble]

Is the source of the sludge dropping leaves, lawn mower debris or yard/garden runoff? That is a lot of sludge for a 100-gallon pond in that period of time.

 

[BarbAZCA]

Is the source of the sludge dropping leaves, lawn mower debris or yard/garden runoff? That is a lot of sludge for a 100-gallon pond in that period of time.

I get leaves that decompose over winter; nothing from a lawn or yard runoff. It does get algae that might be decomposing. Mostly might be that there are too many fish for the size of the pond. Before some got eaten by raccoons, I had six feeder goldfish last summer. There are now two of those left and they had nine babies that survived last winter and are going strong this winter. Lots of their droppings?

 

[Lisak1]

A well established pond will break down the waste from a few goldfish. They aren't big waste producers to begin with. I'd suspect the leaves decomposing in the pond are the more likely culprit. You can leave the liner bare for easier cleaning if you want, but a shallow layer of gravel won't allow any kind of debris to build up. It's when you have a larger rocks in the pond that things can get trapped between and under them.