Need Pond Vacumn Recommendations

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Even after diligent leaf scooping this fall there is a fair amount of leafs on the bottom of my 2300 gallon fishless, in-ground, EDPM lined pond. I would like a Vacumn that captures the leafs/waste into and returns the water to the pond. Ease of use is the number one priority followed by quality and price. Your recommendations please.

Thanks
 

addy1

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How deep is it Lou, I don't recall, if it is not too deep a shop vac works. I have a return pump on mine so I could return the water right back to the pond. It does not work for my pond though, it is too deep.

The other thing that works is a swimming pool cleaner,
http://www.ebay.com/itm/INTEX-Clean...806?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51a8f7e326
I have used something similar to this, with a garden hose, the leaves etc go up into the net bag.
 
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My pond is over 4 feet deep and I still use a shopvac. I have a few extra pipe sections from a older vac I connect up to make it long enough. I don’t bother returning the water though, I find it’s too mucky, so I just dump it on the plants which love that mucky goodness. I figure in the spring it’s good to do a bit of a water change anyway, so I just vac and dump vac and dump then top it up.
 
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addy1 said:
How deep is it Lou, I don't recall, if it is not too deep a shop vac works. I have a return pump on mine so I could return the water right back to the pond. It does not work for my pond though, it is too deep.

The other thing that works is a swimming pool cleaner,
http://www.ebay.com/itm/INTEX-Clean...806?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51a8f7e326
I have used something similar to this, with a garden hose, the leaves etc go up into the net bag.
About 3' at the deepest. My pond bottom has numerous slopes. Thanks addy.
 
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Event Horizon said:
My pond is over 4 feet deep and I still use a shopvac. I have a few extra pipe sections from a older vac I connect up to make it long enough. I don’t bother returning the water though, I find it’s too mucky, so I just dump it on the plants which love that mucky goodness. I figure in the spring it’s good to do a bit of a water change anyway, so I just vac and dump vac and dump then top it up.
I previously used a large shopvac. Due my damaged back and left shoulder implant it is too difficult to use the conventional shopvac any more. Thanks EV.
 
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Easiest to use imo for leaves, sticks and big stuff is a venturi type vac. You can make a powerful one like my Muck Mop. Or buy one from any pool supply that's powered by a garden hose. They're very cheap but you need a pole too. So around $40 total. Power depends on hose pressure.

Even low power will work, you just have to move slower. These work by creating a current and if you move too fast the current doesn't get a chance to setup properly. Because moving slow is a good thing they're very relaxing to use as long as you have the time.

You generally can't see what you're doing because the muck on the bottom gets stirred up so you just kind of move in a pattern until you're happy. Nothing in the bag means you're done. The stirred up muck settles back pretty fast, few hours, 24 hours max generally.

There's no heavy lifting as it can be dragged out of the pond. The water drains out of the bag so it's pretty light. Or it can be dragged to wherever and dumped.

There are some venturi vacs that pump the water out of the pond which don't work very well at all. Been around for years but they keep changing its name. Latest name is Muck-Vac which they kind of ripped off from my Muck Mop imo. Pro Sucker is another one I'd stay away from.

I'm not a fan of any of the shop vac type vacuums for most cases.
 

koiguy1969

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JUST MY 2 CENTS...
I have a MUCVAC and it works quite well for me. it even sucked up the gravel my fish removed from the plant pots. altho at 3' + deep i cant say. my pond is only 28" deep. but, i dont like it for one simple reason, the amount of water used.. it displaces quite a bit of water from the pond.and you must have a minimum of 50#s of water pressure for it to function correctly, the higher the pressure the better.... luckily we run about 62#s here average.
you may use alot of water to run the vaccuum and then have to replace the pond's displaced water... end result is: that you may end up doing a good size water change to vaccuum your pond...
the hose powered pool type vacs with a mesh bag are O.K for larger debris like leaves and such, and allow all the water to stay in the pond and end up adding water. but if your on municiple water that means your flowing chlorinated water into the pond at a pretty strong flow rate,. and you may not know how much of it is being added. and we all know chlorines and chloramines are not good for your fish or plants. so you might wanna do it in sections and dechlorinate. you may want to watch for overflowing the pond as well.
 

fishin4cars

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I have the Muck vac by Matala, It is like a shop vac but has a flapper valve that dumps the water when full. My wife waters the plants while I vacuum. Works really well. but expensive for what it is. Ran about $200 last year when I got it. I like it's ease of use and the fact I can do a water change while cleaning the muck and it disturbs the bottom very little as far as stirring anything up. Like the one Koi guy has it will also remove small rocks from the bottom as well as leaves and pretty much anything that a standard shop vac will suck up. I could probably rig something up to allow the water to return to the pond but I haven't tried to make anything, In my case I get more benefit from the muck going to the plants around the pond and a chance to do a water change at the same time is a benefit for me.
 
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koiguy1969 said:
the hose powered pool type vacs with a mesh bag are O.K for larger debris like leaves and such, and allow all the water to stay in the pond and end up adding water. but if your on municiple water that means your flowing chlorinated water into the pond at a pretty strong flow rate,. and you may not know how much of it is being added. and we all know chlorines and chloramines are not good for your fish or plants. so you might wanna do it in sections and dechlorinate. you may want to watch for overflowing the pond as well.
For the record...only some of these are powered by a garden hose. My Muck Mop uses pond water. No water is added or lost. And the power is like comparing a Pinto to a 1966 Pontiac GTO.
 
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jlreed59 said:
Last year I used a Muck Vac and wasn't impressed. I have water pressure at least 50 psi - the vac was just cumberson. This year I am upgrading to a WaterGarden Outfitters® Pond Vacuum XPV so I was happy to read Larkin's comments. I am getting excited for the snow to leave so I can crank up the pond. Sure glad I used a net to catch the fall leaves! :LOL:
Will the XPV vacuum up leafs?
 

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