I inherited a fairly large pond (29' x 18' or so) when I bought my home about 2 years ago. I've been through a lot of issues already with it and am still learning about things on the fly. Water clairity, pumps, pipes, etc. The set up that I have is: I have a Hayward Super Pump pulling watter in from the pond and then that goes to a sponge/bio filter as well as a Hayward Sand Filter. From the Bio Filter there is a line that supplies water to the waterfall. The outlet from the sand filter goes back into the ground and I'm not sure where that goes. The problem I've been having lately is that I'm not getting as much water FROM the pond that I used to. Thus the flow on the waterfall is not nearly as much as it used to be. A while back it would seem that once I backwashed and rinsed the sand filter, I'd get better flow from the pump. Now it doesn't seem to matter what I do. I can backwash/rinse and clean all the sponges and still get very little water flow.
At this point, I'm suspecting I may have a clogged or semi-clogged inlet line from the pond to the pump. In the pond, I believe there is a round inlet and that is surrounded by a modified milk crate to keep the larger debris from going through. I've alreaady been through that problem before and had to place some cinder blocks to keep that milk crate down and from larger items to come through. The result of that would be that the basket in the pump would fill and THAT would cause the flow to decrease. So, I'm not sure what to do at this point. Should I be able to use a snake and snake the line from the pump to the bottom of the pond? Could I used my air compressor to run air out to the pond inlet and then look for bubbles? I dont' want to harm anything and have to deal with new plumbing.
ANY advice on this will greatly be appreciated! If you have any other questions about my set-up, please let me know! I know this is confusing if you don't actually see it for yourself.
Anyway, please e-mail me at (e-mail address removed). I'll try and post this on as many "pond" forums as I can find. (If anyone knows of any good ones that have a lot of users, please let me know)
Thanks in advance!!!
Dave
At this point, I'm suspecting I may have a clogged or semi-clogged inlet line from the pond to the pump. In the pond, I believe there is a round inlet and that is surrounded by a modified milk crate to keep the larger debris from going through. I've alreaady been through that problem before and had to place some cinder blocks to keep that milk crate down and from larger items to come through. The result of that would be that the basket in the pump would fill and THAT would cause the flow to decrease. So, I'm not sure what to do at this point. Should I be able to use a snake and snake the line from the pump to the bottom of the pond? Could I used my air compressor to run air out to the pond inlet and then look for bubbles? I dont' want to harm anything and have to deal with new plumbing.
ANY advice on this will greatly be appreciated! If you have any other questions about my set-up, please let me know! I know this is confusing if you don't actually see it for yourself.
Anyway, please e-mail me at (e-mail address removed). I'll try and post this on as many "pond" forums as I can find. (If anyone knows of any good ones that have a lot of users, please let me know)
Thanks in advance!!!
Dave