Pond Vac

[Jennywren]

I am hoping folk will be able to recomend a good, easy to use, pond vac.......please.

I only have a small pond area consisting of four connected ponds.

Thank you.

 

[Waterbug]

Here's my take on vacs.

 

[Jennywren]

Thanks Waterbug...that was an interesting read. Will think about the options and have another read.

 

[Waterbug]

Years ago I was way, way into vacuuming.

 

[Jennywren]

I don't vac very often...maybe once every five years. I do have one that runs by connecting it to the garden hose, was looking for something easier as I have a few pebbles get into the pond, they block up the outlet and I have to turn the tap off unblock and start again.

 

[addy1]

I just net the bottom if I see stuff collecting. Dump it onto a screen to sort out the critters and toss them back into the pond.

 

[jhenkel]

Shalom, I have a vac and it has been a good assest, and it has cleaned the pond better than I expected for getting crud off the pond bottom and flat surfaces aas well as what was floating in the water but this portion was a very slow process and I ended up getting a dirty water pump.

I bought a dirty water submersible pump that would pump solids, I believe it was rated to pass solids up to 1/2" (?), set it at the pond low point and pumped the water into a trash can with a 2" drain pipe bac into the pond. over which I had a slip on filter sock over the pipe - by far much, much faster than trying to clean the water via the vac.

It took the pump, I guess, a total of 8-10 hours, or so, to get the pond clean, but the pond had not been cleaned, except some netting, for many years.

I've since installed a retro bottom drain that appears to be doing very well. I plan to keep the vac handy, nice way to do a quick bottom cleaning if we're going to do some entertaining, same for the dirty water pump.

I like to have handy the tools that I might need or make ponding a bit easier.

 

[Jennywren]

Addy1....I do the net thing, but every so often I like to clear out all the fine stuff on the bottom.

Jhenkel...I have a drity water pump in the pond pumping into my filter, that removes a lof of fine stuff but not all.

Thank you for all replies.

 

[JohnHuff]

I use a Sears wet-dry vac.

 

[taherrmann4]

I use the oasis pond vac. It works really well, gets any leaves out of the pond that I can't net out. It is a bit expensive and I only use twice a year once in the spring and again in the fall once all the leaves have fallen. My pond gets lots of leaves in it and it works to get them all out of the bottom so they don't sit and rot on the bottom.

 

[waynefrcan]

I use a Sears wet-dry vac.

I went one step better. A shopvac with a built in pump that drains and suckes at same time. Totally awesome not to have to stop and dump etc.

 

[addy1]

shopvacs work great unless your water is deep, then they don't have the draw power.

 

[waynefrcan]

True, I just used it to suck up whatever the utility pumps can't from a drained pond. And to clean out the skimmer and waterfall boxes. Also use the blower to blow out the 2" underground skimmer to waterfall hose of any water for over wintering.

 

[JohnHuff]

I went one step better. A shopvac with a built in pump that drains and suckes at same time. Totally awesome not to have to stop and dump etc.

What brand and model is it?

 

[waynefrcan]

This is the newest in the shopvac with a pump. This is 14 gal, mine is 11.5gal

http://www.amazon.co...=dp_ob_title_hi

Don't let the customer reviews scare you. Some of them are just idiots. It works great. Pump out while you vacuum or fill it up and it shuts off, then start the pump. Will work with bare liners if not to deep. With rock bottom it will only clean the surface of the rocks. Not between or under them. They should have come up with this pump set up 25 yrs ago.