Pond Vacuum Cleaner

Question:

Leaves keep blowing in my pond. Is there an easier way to get them out besides using a net? It keeps getting tangled in the plants.

Pondlady sez: There are vacuum cleaners sold at swimming pool places. They look like large blue triangles and attach to a garden hose. The force of the water from the garden hose pushes the debris into a net that you have attached to the top of the triangle. You move the vacuum around on the bottom of the pond and it collects debris.  Be sure to empty it often because it gets heavy.  You can't turn off the hose when you lift the vacuum out of the pond, so be prepared to get wet. Either that or go back to the hose bib, turn off the water in between each emptying.

Some look like this, but there are other shapes available as well.

TIP 

Instead of using the large holed mesh that you buy at the swimming pool store, use the leg of an old pair of panty hose. It will pick up finer debris as well.

Get ideas like this and more in my new book, A Practical Guide to Building and Maintaining your Pond available here.

Join us at pondlady.com to ask questions you may have and get answers from experts from all over.

Make your own pond vacuum cleaner

One of our readers made his own pond vacuum cleaner. He reports it works great and was cheap to make. He graciously shared how to make it with the readers of pondlady.com. I though it would be nice to post it here as well for readers who do not get to pondlady.com regularly.

Thanks for sharing, Darrel. We all appreciate it.

From Darrel:

Here's a list of the parts I used:
(1) Utilitech 0024840 Lawn Pump or Flint & Walling/Star Water
#HSPJ100(any 1hp utility pump with 1" intake/outlet)
(1) Culligan HD-950 Whole House Water Filter
(2) Union 1" slip X slip
(4) 1" male adapter, 1" slip socket by 1" NPT
(1) 1" 90º elbow slip
(1) 8 ft. of 1" spa flex hose
(1) 10 ft. of 1" PVC pipe
(1) 1" coupling
(1) Circular brush attachment from a vacuum cleaner to fit the PVC pipe.

Procedure:

The filter is attached to the inlet side of the pump.
(1) Screw a male adapter into the pump inlet.
(2) Cut about a 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(3) Glue this into the male adapter.
(4) Glue one side of one union to the pipe.
(5) Screw a male adapter into the filter outlet.
(6) Cut another 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(7) Glue the pipe into the adapter.
(8) Glue the other side of the union to the pipe.
(9) Screw another adapter into the filter inlet.
(10) Cut another 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(11) Glue the pipe into the adapter.
(12) Glue one side of the other union to the pipe.
(13) Glue the other side of the union to the spa flex hose.
(14) Glue the coupling to the hose.
(15) Cut a 6' length of PVC pipe.
(16) Glue the pipe into the other side of the coupling.
(17) Screw an adapter into the pump outlet.
(18) Cut a 2-1/4" piece of PVC pipe.
(19) Glue the pipe into the adapter.
(20) Glue the 90º elbow onto the other end of the pipe.
(21) Glue the remaining PVC pipe (approx. 2') to the elbow.

You want the filter on the intake side of the pump so you're not sending crud through the pump. There's also the possibility that if you suck up something living, you may be able to rescue it from the filter housing.

The pipe for the wand should not be more than about 6' or it bends too much and is difficult to control.

Lawn pumps need to be primed. They have a port for priming. You can also fill the pump/filter/pipe with water from a hose, or by scooping it from the pond. Just know that the pump, to begin with, will not suck the water up by itself.

You may notice that I used two additional male adapters, one on either side of the filter. This was only because the store had only one slip union. I had to buy one 1" slip union and one 1" NPT union. I then mixed the two halves of the unions so that each one became a 1" NPT X 1" slip union. The additional adapter then screwed into one side of each union.

When glueing the flex hose to the union hold it for a long time. The glue does not seem to set as fast as on the PVC pipe.

I've included a picture to help.

Darrel 

Spring questions

I get questions via email constantly. I like to feature the most common ones so all can see.

Here's one I get often:

Hi Jan,

I love your site and hope to ask a question specific to our pond. Can we avoid changing out all the pond water in the spring, as is recommended for most ponds in the spring? We live in Westminster, Maryland and have a 3' x7' x10' pond with liner to 2' depth, then stacked landscaping stones to surface and above to the bank. It is an awful lot of water to exchange for spring maintenance (more than 1200 gal) and the habitat is very healthy - 15 koi/goldfish and aquatic plants. We use an ultraviolet clarifier with regular filter ( no biofilter) and a separate pump for the waterfall. In December we removed them down for winter.

Could we simply start up the pumps, filter and uv system in the spring to get things rolling instead of exchanging all that water? I know we'd have to clean our filter almost daily for a period, but don't mind. I'm afraid to shock a healthy ecosystem, but not sure how to proceed.

It's our first spring with the pond and I don't want to mess things up!

Thanks so very much!

I think you can get away without a full water exchange. Use an enzyme like Microbe Lift PL
to get things started when the temps hit 55ºs day and night. First pump out about 25% of the water, put the Microbe-Lift in. Start up your pump/UV/filter. Repeat the following week. If you do this 4 times, you should be fine. If you see lots of gunk at the bottom, you have to get it out of there before it starts to release ammonia as the weather gets even warmer. You may need a pond vac
to get it out of there. I like it as well as any of the vacs even tho it is not perfect.

Pump that water into a veggie or flower bed because it is great fertilizer. Don't forget dechlor every time you exchange water.

Winter Prep

It's getting to be that time of year already. Time to get your pond prepped for winter. Be sure to remove all the debris on the bottom before cold weather sets in. The debris can contribute to toxicity in the winter, especially if the pond freezes over. If you can't remove the debris with a net, there are some nifty vacuums out there. With water conservation being an important issue in the world today, I am beginning to suggest vacuuming rather than total cleaning.


So while you are prepping your garden beds, don't forget your pond.