Settling tank cleaning

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There is a sedimentation tank; the clear liquid on top is pumped away, while the residue at the bottom has a very high viscosity. The bottom of the sedimentation tank features a conical end cap, with a small circular hole in it through which pipes and valves are installed. The diameter of these pipes is around 50 MM. The sedimentation tank needs to be cleaned once every month or so. Due to the extremely high viscosity of the residue, cleaning it used to be slow, as it was difficult to remove the residue from the bottom, and manual intervention using wires and similar tools was required. Later, some people would jump into the sedimentation tank and use shovels to move the residue into a red bucket, which would then be pulled out from above. This method made the process a little faster, but because of the viscosity of the residue, cleaning it remained a laborious task. Is there any better way to remove the residue?