You can find dozens of lake muck removal solutions in the market today. However, they differ in their effectiveness, application process, effort, and price.
Some of the lake muck removal solutions around include:
Lake muck aeration
Lake muck blaster
Lake muck chemicals
Lake muck dredging
Lake muck rake
Lake muck removal pumps
Lake muck roller
Lake muck shovel
Lake muck tablets
Muck mats
Before you get to choose any muck removal product to try out on your lake, you’ll do yourself a favor to know how well they perform and whether they are a cost-effective option. That’s why in this article, we’ve created a comprehensive review of these products. We also drew up a table to rank these options according to effectiveness, effort, and price.
Lake Muck Aeration
Aeration is a process of letting oxygen into the lake. It’s very beneficial for your lake in general and fish. Through aeration, essential bacteria in the lake reproduces in astronomical proportions. In turn, these bacteria help clear up your lake by feeding on organic materials like weeds and algae.
However, muck aeration is not a suitable option for eliminating muck in your lake. It comes with a fair price tag with the lowest range starting at $200 and going up to about a thousand dollars.
Lake Muck Blaster
Otherwise known as lake muck blowers, these products are less productive than they seem. They are simply electric-powered fans that work to blow out muck from underneath the lake through artificial underwater current. Most blasters are usually stationed to a dock and have an electric line that supplies power to them.
Lake Muck Blasters come in several forms, including those that stay at the bottom of the lake and those that float around the lake. Muck blowers are not usually effective especially if you have a lot of muck on the farm. They cannot move all the muck and even if they do, their effectiveness is limited by distance. Most blowers have a maximum distance of 10 to 12 feet to which they can push lake muck to.
There are two major pitfalls of these products. Firstly, a live electrical wire is potentially dangerous in water. Electric current may discharge from a faculty cord and harm people swimming in the water.
Besides, the product is expensive. The price for blowers can range from $700 to $2500.
Lake Muck Removal
Chemicals
As it stands, no known chemical solution can get rid of the muck. The possibilities of it being a future invention, while fine-sounding, is quite bleak. That’s because lack muck is pure mud and using chemicals to remove muck seems fictional.
Lake Muck Dredging
Lake muck dredging is not a product like many other solutions in this review. Instead, it is a process whereby a specialist company comes to a lake to scoop out the mud with a dredge.
This solution is probably more expensive than many others in this review. However, when properly undertaken, it has proven to be a very effective process. You only need to be certain that you will take good care of the lake afterwards, otherwise, the muck will only come back to fill the lake.
If you’re unsure of the best methods to ensure the muck doesn’t fill up again, consult your dredging company to offer you proper lake management practices. While this procedure is advisable, it’s not viable if you wouldn’t work to keep the muck away.
Lake Muck Removal Rake
The muck rake, like the name suggests, works to pull out the muck from the bottom of the lake. From experience, this option is quite back-breaking. Muck is quite weighty and worse still, it is not a solid matter. So, it’s very tedious to rake muck out of water.
Besides, the raking muck requires you to be in the water thus making it more difficult to push out the muck while you’re standing in it. Using a muck rake is also a very lengthy process and it may leave you distraught especially if you’re not seeing visible signs of progress. Lake muck raking can also leave your lawn quite muddled with sludge and sediment all over.
The only upside to this option is that it is cheap. Muck rakes cost between $40 to $100
Lake Muck Removal Pumps or Vacuums
The lake muck pump works just like a vacuum cleaner. It sucks up your lake muck and accumulates it in an internal system till you dispose of it where you wish.
Companies have vacuums that could move muck away as much as two thousand feet. You can move muck from one pond to another dormant pond. However, for most lake owners, government rules determine where you move your muck.
If you think this option is suitable, you may want to hire “Muck Suckers”. They are a specialist company in Ohio and the best company for muck removal that we currently know of. However, you should know that this option comes with lots of bureaucratic hurdles and an expensive price tag.
Lake Muck Roller
Muck rollers are apparatuses that roll in underwater mucky areas. The basic principle guiding the application of muck rollers is that it forms a semi-circular area where weeds cannot survive. Muck rollers, regardless of their name, are not as effective in muck removal as they are in weed control.
Moreover, rollers merely remove the muck from one area and spread them to the external parts of the lake. Also, similar to lake blasters, they need electricity to function, so, there’s the need to transfer current through an electric line. Electric cables running from your house to your lake can be very dangerous.
Besides, rollers function round the clock and it may be inconvenient for you to swim while they are currently powered. You surely want to avoid the possibility of being hit by a muck roller.
The roller is quite expensive and it may cost between $1500 and $4000.
Lake Muck Shovel
The shovel is by far the most basic implement in this review. It usually comes in the form of a normal shovel but with holes to prevent the shovel from packing up water. Albeit, the process of shovelling muck is just as difficult as using a rake.
It is a very time consuming and messy process. That's because you have to walk between land and water every time to dispose of muck from your lake. So, if you are keen on fast and visible progress, the muck shovel is a terrible idea.
Compared to the muck rake, it's a fairly more effective tool. It's also as cheap as the muck rake with the price ranging from $50 to $100.
Lake Muck Tablets
Lake Muck Tablets primarily consist of bacteria and organisms that feed on fish waste, leaves and plant remain. Unfortunately, this product is not suitable to get rid of muck since a vast majority of what constitutes muck is silt, mud and dirt. Organic material that can be consumed by bacteria only accounts for a tenth of the entire components of muck.
Therefore, these tablets or pellets are mere rip-offs and you shouldn't consider wasting your money on them. Ultimately, they provide no solution at all.
Muck Mat
The Muck Mat is our special and exclusive answer to all your questions about Lake Muck removal. The MuckMat makes your lake bottom firmer for you to walk in without sinking. They are perfectly suited for large swimming areas. Practically, they have the same effect as Tetris blocks, only that they work in water. MuckMats help rid your lake of both weeds and muck and can come in very large sizes.
The MuckMat comes in two pieces. They are the large LakeMat material that helps block sunlight from weeds and ultimately kills them, and the snowshoe-like material which helps you stand firmly on your lake bottom without sinking.
The main reason why people sink into muck areas is that the muck gives way due to their weight. Thankfully, the MuckMat spreads out your weight across the mat and holds it up, in a similar form like the snowshoe works on snow.
MuckMats (Lake Muck removal) are very cost-effective seeing that they offer more value at a relatively affordable price. They cost between $500 to $1500 depending on the size or number of the mats. They do not require any special installation process. It would take you about five minutes to install and spread across your lake area. It is a highly commendable solution for lake owners who want a muck and weed-free lake for swimming.
Below is a table that details the ranks of the above products according to their price, effort and effectiveness. The rankings are indicated by figures 1-5 with 1 signifying the worst value and 5 being the best value.
Now that you have an idea of all the potential solutions to Lake Muck removal, we believe you're in a better place to choose an option that offers you a realistic chance of getting rid of the muck. We understand that many products work differently in reality than when advertised. So, if you have questions about any muck removal solution, contact us. We're more than willing to use our industry knowledge and experience to provide you with more details about products.