As far as getting the silt out of the pond, it's probably a good idea. As for using your ShopVac again, bad idea, I think.

There is a pond at the park on our street and I see guys getting the silt out using big canvas tarps. It looks like an absolutely awful job. But then the pond looks so nice when they're done.

I don't know ... if you did ShopVac it up, what would you do with it next? Could you rinse it out somehow? Where would the silt end up?

Depends on your shop vac and the size of your little pond.

I had to shop vac a lot for a recent research project (long story) and I found that having a bucket as an intermediate (you will need extra attachments) would make something like this doable. This way most of the slit/water goes straight into the bucket which can be emptied rather quickly. This doesn't also gunk your filters too much.

But then again, I may also just give this a try and see what happens.

The beauty of the ShopVac is that it's wet/dry, and the filters are totally removable for the wet part.

I think I'm going to give it a shot. Will report back.

Did it work?

Should work fine - wet/dry vacs are designed to suck up water, so go for it. I've emptied dirty, sludgy water with them before. Just make sure you keep an eye on the level in the tank - letting the water get too close to the motor is a bad, bad idea (trust me on this).

Actually, I found a fish net I forgot I had. Attached it to a long pole, used that. The fish net worked much better than the pool skimmer, and it didn't require hauling out the ShopVac. Scooped out 5 or 6 5-gallon buckets of muck, then turned it into one of my garden beds. (It was glorious, black, composty stuff.)

Now the pond is much clearer, and I think there's a good chance that my water lily will bloom this year! Also, I can confirm the existence of my fish, and that's good.

Yay, existent fish!

Yay, soil amendments!

Damn, loss of the possible existence of a movie featuring mudpuppie using a shopvac to pull pondscum out of a pond! Because that would have been AWESOME.

Yes, but did I ever tell you about the time I seriously considered (as in, had it plugged in and ready to go) using the shopvac to catch the rat that Cosa had cornered in the kitchen?

Shopvacs are multitaskers!

I feel it's a bit remiss that no one has brought out this song (and I like this video because it's machinima).