DIY pond vacuum and filter idea!

z24frank

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Sep 9, 2006
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Well im planning on building my own pond vacuum that will also filter out the water and then return it!I bought a flood sump pump from home depot and I am going to fill a 37 gallon trash can full of sponge rum the water through it then back into the pond,what do you all think?will it work any suggestions or comments are more than welcome!
 

Jawbone

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Sep 29, 2005
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Could you be more specific. Like will the pump be in the pond or can, what are you using as the vaccum line and head. Basically how will it all be connected.
 

z24frank

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ok the plan is to have the pump on the ground with pool hose connected to a vacuum head and pole going to the inlet of the pump then,the output will go via same kind of hose to a trash can full of sponge then out the bottom of the trash can via another hose back to the pond!sound good?
 

Jawbone

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Sounds like it would work. The only thing I can think of is check if the pump is self priming, meaning will it pull water threw the length of suction hose to prime itself. If not you could just fill hose with water before turning on pump.
 

WyldFya

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Jawbone;548616; said:
Sounds like it would work. The only thing I can think of is check if the pump is self priming, meaning will it pull water threw the length of suction hose to prime itself. If not you could just fill hose with water before turning on pump.
That is risky. One power outage, and you could end up with a burnt up pump. A check valve is a must. I personally would just get a standard pond pump that is permanently in the water. Have that pump to the top of your filter, have it come through whatever media you like, and drain at the bottom back to your pond. How big is your pond?
 

Jawbone

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WyldFya;548622; said:
That is risky. One power outage, and you could end up with a burnt up pump. A check valve is a must. I personally would just get a standard pond pump that is permanently in the water. Have that pump to the top of your filter, have it come through whatever media you like, and drain at the bottom back to your pond. How big is your pond?
If I read his post correctly hes only using this to vaccum the pond. Its not something that would be running all the time just for cleaning purposes.
 

Dr Joe

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So basically a shop vac huh?

:iagree: with Jawbone

What kind of sponge? or did you mean foam?

Either way, you should use a pre-filter for the big stuff, (coarse washable air filter? or floor scrubbing pad) then if foam is letting thru to much fine detrius use poly-fil after the foam.

Dr Joe

.
 

z24frank

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Sep 9, 2006
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yeah its a pump for flood that you would normally just sit in the water but it says on the package good for up to 10 feet so I think I can use it outside the pond for my vacuum to connect to the inlet side of the pump.what else should i use for filtration besides sponge though?
 

Dr Joe

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WyldFya;548622; said:
That is risky. One power outage, and you could end up with a burnt up pump. A check valve is a must. I personally would just get a standard pond pump that is permanently in the water. Have that pump to the top of your filter, have it come through whatever media you like, and drain at the bottom back to your pond. How big is your pond?


Normally you don't want to draw garbage thru your pumps impellers unless it's made for it (macerator function), atleast put a pre-filter on pond pumps.

And yes, one of us read it wrong.

Dr Joe

.
 

z24frank

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Sep 9, 2006
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Dr Joe;548643; said:
So basically a shop vac huh?

:iagree: with Jawbone

What kind of sponge? or did you mean foam?

Either way, you should use a pre-filter for the big stuff, (coarse washable air filter? or floor scrubbing pad) then if foam is letting thru to much fine detrius use poly-fil after the foam.

Dr Joe

.
yeah exactly like a shop vac but i dont want to empty it every 5 minutes and the oase pondo3 or whatever is like 500.00 as far as sponge yes I meant that coarse stuff then some finner stuff I think Ill use your advise and use poly fil under it!
 
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