We luckily didn't have any problem with splitting. The vacuum worked so-so. I used it for the first time today. The problem with this one is it adds water while sucking up silt (which goes into a little nylon type bag) so I had to bail some water when I was done. It's really hard to see what I was sucking up as there are no so many plant. We have duckweed that has exploded and covers about 75-80 percent of the surface!
Our above ground pond
- Thread starter OntarioTodd
- Start date
Also, is there an easy way to catch the baby fish? No luck with a net. I tried to capture some today to give away. They're everywhere...
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
so your using a POOL vac... they add 'chlorinated' water to boot..the finer stuff flows right thru the mesh bag!! you need a pond vac.
To catch small Koi you have to corner them and have a helper with another large net. I couldn't find a large net with a fine mesh so I took the large weave off a deep sea net and my wife sewed on a finer one. Babies about 1.5" long are too big to fit through the holes. Home Depot sells a net that has the right weave but it is kind of small. I use mine to herd the Koi into my larger one. I also put on waders and enter my pond since it is just large enough that I cannot reach accross when they make a run for it.
I contacted a couple of the large warehouse type stores last week on vacs and none had any recommendations except the $250 and up models. They said that almost all the others get returned due to poor performance. I specifically asked for the Muk Vac and that was the one they no longer carry due to performance issues.
So, I am going to put on my Design Engineering and Toolmaking experience and design then build my own.
Stay tuned...
I contacted a couple of the large warehouse type stores last week on vacs and none had any recommendations except the $250 and up models. They said that almost all the others get returned due to poor performance. I specifically asked for the Muk Vac and that was the one they no longer carry due to performance issues.
So, I am going to put on my Design Engineering and Toolmaking experience and design then build my own.
Stay tuned...
stroppy
stroppy
i managed to catch a load of my baby fish all in one go ....i put the net down in the pond then put food in water and grabed them as they were busy eating ..it worked that time but not sure it would again
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
my mucvac perfporms good.. you just have to have good water pressure.. and his ponds shallower than mine so it should serve him well as long as his water pressure is over 50#
but i cant see using it in a 4foot deep pond!!
but i cant see using it in a 4foot deep pond!!
Do you know what the maximum lift is? The input water must be angled towards the output tube. Do you know what that angle is? Also the water jet diameter and mixing chamber size where the vacuum is created? There has to be an optimum ration for maximum lift.
Knowing these will speed up development of a prototype.
Knowing these will speed up development of a prototype.
Well, today we bought a filter. It is the pressure flow type with a UV lamp. I have a Laguna submersible pump and was hoping I could configure the filter so that the pump would suck from the filter instead if sucking from the pond and pushing dirty water to the filter. If I could have done it the way I wanted it wouldn't have to clean the pond inlet screen anymore
Here is the pump I have:
The cover is removable which would allow a hose to be attached to the inlet which I wanted to run from the filter. However I soon found out these pumps don't have enough suction to draw water from this type of filter. I hooked it up the "proper" way and it is running now. We'll see if I notice a big difference from not having any filter at all. Another down side is I could no longer run the fountain without any head on it (we liked having the noise of the high pressure water shooting out of it). We installed a sprinkler type head and adjusted the diverter on the pump so just enough water shoots out of it while the majority of the water goes through the filter.
Todd
Here is the pump I have:
The cover is removable which would allow a hose to be attached to the inlet which I wanted to run from the filter. However I soon found out these pumps don't have enough suction to draw water from this type of filter. I hooked it up the "proper" way and it is running now. We'll see if I notice a big difference from not having any filter at all. Another down side is I could no longer run the fountain without any head on it (we liked having the noise of the high pressure water shooting out of it). We installed a sprinkler type head and adjusted the diverter on the pump so just enough water shoots out of it while the majority of the water goes through the filter.
Todd
Harbor Freight sells a "knock off" on this pump. Looks just like it. It is 3200 GPH and when on sale is $89.00. I have been using one for several years to circulate water from my lower pond to the upper pond. They even offer a 3 year "no questions asked" replacement guarantee for a little more.
Good one to have as a backup pump. Their regular price is $129 I think.
Good one to have as a backup pump. Their regular price is $129 I think.
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
whats the amp draw on the harbor frieght one? its only 100watts on the Laguna
koiguy1969 said:
It is 270 Amps but it is also 3200 GPH the one in the picture was only 1500 GPH.
Mine shows a rating of 75 watts.
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
o.k the laguna 2400 is rated at 100 watts, i had a brain fart there. anyways...good luck with that pump and all. gonna build a waterfall?
ZmanArt007
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I am hopefully going to build a pond that is 2 feet in the ground and 2 feet above the ground, this gave me some ideas. Nice.