foot of mud and silt under old diving platform.....need help

[mnruxpin]

hi, about 20 foot of freshwater, a foot of mud and silt under there, have found some jewlery and some coins, but need to get to the bottom,,,,any and all ideas appreciated....i use a snuba or hookha for diving...thx

 

[bigscoop]

What machine are you currently using?

 

[mnruxpin]

excal 2, 10 inch coil, gonna get the gbn upgrade this fall though

 

[Jason in Enid]

Befriend a gold dredger and suck the muck out.

 

[DewGuru]

Get a dredge. Dredge it out.

 

[TheRingFinder]

That's a tough one no doubt - I deal with that same problem. I know of one person who rigged up a small fan blower to a waterproof DC power pack and mounted it to his tank. He says it works great for the silt and muck. When he hits a target and starts waving his hand the fan pushes clean water from behind him into the area he searches. It seems to be a lot of work and extra stuff while diving, though I myself have never tried it - I will someday!!!

 

[pat-tekker-cat]

It may take something like a snow shovel, or a bucket on a rope, to just get the muck moved outta there. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Also, please be careful and aware of the following. While it is rare, it is a reality, and the odds are horrid, if you are that 1 in 10 million.

Brain-Eating Amoeba (Naegleria Fowleri): Causes and Symptoms

 

[mnruxpin]

i know people who have lost nice rings there, its like a 20 by 20 area, maybe a snow scoop and a sifter so hard to dig when your basically weightless though.... any other suggestions?? oh, tons of weeds growin there too gggrrr

 

[Jason in Enid]

WORKING underwater is a completely different animal than scuba diving. You need weight and you need a lot of it. I wear 25 pounds (with no neoprene) while dredging in a river hole and I could easily wear 10 to 20 pounds more to make working easier. Shoveling will not work. The second you start, you will have a huge silt cloud that won't go away and you will be working completely blind. The only way to remove deep underwater silt from a lake is to use a dredge.

 

[Midas_touch]

I know this may sound strange but depending on how much time you have and how thick/cake like the mud is. If its like pea soup i dont kmow how. But if its thick I have had success using a smaller hand trowel to clear the top 6" off of an area of about 6'x6' area. I put it in on a tarp and then pulled it up to the shore to check for goodies. This got me down deep enough to detect items that had sunk down into it. Bigger shovels were just to hard to use while sinking into it myself. I worked it section by section.

How deep do you think the mud/silt is.

 

[Midas_touch]

Oh hahahah my bad I didn't realize this was underwater. Yeah you need a dredge.

 

[pat-tekker-cat]

Small Redneck Dredger.

 

[wetfly]

Would a small compressor and an airlift work??

 

[wetfly]

Rig the end of the compressor hose to the bottom of some PVC weigh it down to bottom then the muck should start flying out the other end of the PVC--

 

[Jason in Enid]

At 20 foot, an airlift would work, but you'd need to have some form of screen basket to catch any coins or jewelry that get sucked up.

 

[bigscoop]

A dredge would probably work but it's also probably not allowed. You might try this...a smaller coil on a short hand wand - something you can working through and under the muck if it's fairly loose. Just grid off small 6 - 8ft sections at a time.