Plumbing Question...

[Steveo McNello]

Alright guys I'm back for one more. Can you believe it? ; )

Long story short: I'm redoing the plumbing on my pond. I'm going to try and make it work before I switch and go to an easy above ground pool with a submersible pump.

I'm fixing the stupid pvc path from the back pond wall to the pump. I don't like it nor do I trust it very much. Along with this, the pump will be coming out from under the stand that holds my sump. Its a pain in the butt trying to get under there to work. And I don't really have a problem with the return lines.

Another note, I had to put silicone around the intake bulkhead in the back wall of the pond. It's covered in that white stuff and looks crappy and I'm very nervous about the silicone giving out. Which would lead to why I even had it there in the first place, water was getting through to the wood somehow. So I'm going to figure out the liner and that bulkhead to the point where I hopefully don't need silicone.

Now, the fun part. My pump is 3900 GPH, and I only have one intake. You can probably assume I'm looking to spread the intake pressure. Every few minutes my intake makes a little whirlpool and makes a super loud sucking noise. I was thinking of removing the intake strainer, and maybe putting a T from the bulkhead and putting two 2-3' arms parallel to the back wall of the pond. Obviously the end of each arm would have some sort of strainer. And they would be painted black. That way the water would enter at half velocity in each pipe. Does this sound doable? My pump's plumbing is 1.5", so I would make both intakes 1.5".

And with the new plumbing to the pond, the pump is going to be on a stand at intake level so it's just a straight shot, one elbow to get it out from under the stand, and right into the intake. There will be about 4 feet of horizontal pvc pipe between the pond and pump.

I think I hit everything. Here are some pictures for reference.

Thanks again MFK!

 

[Steveo McNello]

Morning bump! Hopefully some input when I get home from work.

 

[Sarmo]

i think that would help but i'm not sure if adding the "T" and extra intake will keep you from forming a wirlpool and getting the sucking sound. from what i can see from your pic, i'd just put a street 90 where your strainer is and and put the strainer facing down.

with intake plumbing under water you don't have to glue it together so you could try several options and see how they work before you decide. i really think the problem is that the intake is to close to the surface not the suction pressure.

 

[Crazyfish88]

I agree by lowering your intake would definitely eliminate the water sound. Also if your worried about the silicone around your intake/bulkhead giving out you could use the heavy duty constructed aquarium safe silicone. Other then that I think your system is fine.

 

[Steveo McNello]

I agree by lowering your intake would definitely eliminate the water sound. Also if your worried about the silicone around your intake/bulkhead giving out you could use the heavy duty constructed aquarium safe silicone. Other then that I think your system is fine.

Wow very cool guys, thanks for both of your opinions. And yeah, I never thought of that... why couldn't I just face the intake downward. I was looking to get surface plants and the way I have it now they all just end up clumped over the intake. My mentality with the two intakes underwater was that it would cut the suction in half and disperse the draw.

 

[Sarmo]

with the closed loop on my salt tank, my intake came over the top. i cut slits in the pipe vertically about every 1/2" once the pipe was about a foot under water. i had a strainer at the bottom. the slits helped reduce the suction through the strainer. i cut them with a dremmel. you can go as low as you want but be careful if you have sand as it may get sucked into your pump. i kept the pipe about a foot off the bottom to avoid sucking up sand.

 

[Steveo McNello]

with the closed loop on my salt tank, my intake came over the top. i cut slits in the pipe vertically about every 1/2" once the pipe was about a foot under water. i had a strainer at the bottom. the slits helped reduce the suction through the strainer. i cut them with a dremmel. you can go as low as you want but be careful if you have sand as it may get sucked into your pump. i kept the pipe about a foot off the bottom to avoid sucking up sand.

Thanks Sarmo. I thought of that today as well. The slits just make the total intake space wider so it draws over a bigger area. Got started on the plumbing renovation today actually. Drained the water down past the pesky bulkhead.