Help a Dredge Newbie Troubleshoot?

[dredgenewbie44]

Hi all,

My irrigation pond has been silting up over the years and I'm trying to pump out the muck and keep it usable as the water level continues to drop this summer.

I've been reading about DIY dredge set-ups in this forum and thought I had a workable set-up, but it's not sucking at all... only pumping water and bubbling the muck up to the pond's surface. Here's a picture:



I'm using a 2" Honda water pump (pumping at around 75 GPM) with some PVC fittings and ABS pipe I had lying around. You can barely the 2" intake behind the pump in the picture. I'm then pumping out through the sorry contraption pictured above. My failed venturi is a tee at the end - 2"x2"x1/2". Coming out of the 1/2" part of the tee is a 1/2"x3/4" fitting, a 3/4" elbow, and a 3/4"x1" insert fitting attached to 25' of 1" suction hose. I've bent chicken wire around the tee as there are leaves at the bottom of the pond which I don't want to suck up and clog the tee.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

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[Back-of-the-boat]

If it is silted up I think you are going to need an excavator to dredge out your pond.

 

[mike(swWash)]

I agree with B.O.T.B. on the excavator. If that's out of your budget and you have the time here's something that will work with what you already have bought, as long as all you are sucking up is mud and silt. Not exactly a 1st rate, high efficiency dredge nozzle but should do what you want.
Drill a hole in the pipe install an elbow inside the suction pipe, center the 3/4" elbow outlet in the suction pipe as best as you can, glue the crap out of it, Add more pipe and a coupling as needed to be about 18" from the nozzle inlet . You can even install another "jet" 1/2 way down the pipe to help keep it moving through a longer pipe.
Crude but cheap 2 stage dredge.

Don't try to hog it out, by that I mean bury the nozzle, you'll want at least a 50\50 mix of water to mud maybe even 20%mud/80% water.
If it's trash pump then you can use the pump inlet line directly as the suction hose, pump the mud/water through the pump and discharge the muck/water mix through the outlet line..... but it'll wear out the impeller much faster.

Good luck my friend

 

[russau]

wrong pump (pressure & volume)/ wrong venturi setup (needs to be balanced with the pump your using!. Venturi need's to be under water at all times! I agree with using the excavator to dig it out !

 

[dredgenewbie44]

I appreciate the advice guys - thank you!

 

[akflyer]

despite everyone saying you have to have a high pressure pump, you can use a dredge nozzle and your pump as long as the outlet hose is not too long, maybe 10' or so. It wont be the best but it will beat trying to muck it out with a shovel. you can get a 2 or 3" dredge nozzle for around 125 bucks.

 

[Goldwasher]

Ive used a trash pump to run a dredge. Just have to build up pressure to the jet/nozzle depending on what you are using.

 

[N-Lionberger]

As far as I can tell he is running a 2" by 1/2" T from a trash pump with some 1" suction hose attached at the T, I fear the OP has some things mistaken on how a dredge operates. The side inlet of a venturi is typically your high pressure inlet, it cannot be a T connection or else it will not create suction, its just water crashing into a wall and squirting in two directions. The high pressure inlet needs to go in at 11 degree angle to create suction. Looks like you have things backwards.