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There’s a lot of crud in there, but still plenty of room for water…
Prevent Pump Hose From Clogging
- Thread starter Ratsima
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There’s a lot of crud in there, but still plenty of room for water…
Which means that the level of crud in the old 5/8” hose must have been incredibly thick to reduce the flow to a trickle.
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I agree
mrsclem
mrsclem
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Maybe try a foam prefilter on the pumps to cut back on the crud going thru the tube
I think it will be OK. After two days the pressure at the fountain end is about half what it was when I first installed the new hose. I'm still hoping it will level off at an acceptable rate of flow.
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Maybe do this if the larger hose starts to clog.
You will be rinsing the foam instead of reaming the hose.
I have tried the foam pre-filters in the past. They clog up with the same biofilm very quickly and end up needing daily cleaning. There's never any big stuff in the foam, just the sludge. It's not a big deal to rinse them when I'm home, but when I'm away for a week (once a month) the foam gets so clogged that hardly any water can get to the pump. I figured if there was going to be a restriction in the flow, it's better to have it after the pump rather than before.
Is that correct?
Is that correct?
mrsclem
mrsclem
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That is correct. I'm just not understanding how you are getting that much sludge going into your pump.
I've never understood where it comes from. The pond water is always crystal clear and there is rarely any algae buildup anywhere in the pond. My guess is that the sludge that builds up in the foam pre-filter is formed there, just like the sludge in the hose doesn't come from anywhere, it forms inside the hose.
Clearly, something is feeding the bacteria and other organisms that create the biofilm, but I don't know what it is. There are no large fish in the pond. I have eliminated the Pistia (as advised in this thread). You would think that if there were excess nitrogen in the pond it would show up as cloudy water or algae build up. But it's not like that.
After all these years, it's still a mystery.
I finally remembered to test the pH of the pond. It appears to be 7.8. I also tested our tap water which is just the same. No surprise as the pond is constantly being kept full with ordinary tap water.
I was somewhat concerned that the increased water flow might affect the stream as bio filter.
But the water remains nice and clear.
The pinkish thing above is the remains of a night-blooming lily.
The blue is the new hose.
But the water remains nice and clear.
The pinkish thing above is the remains of a night-blooming lily.
The blue is the new hose.
I think we may be done here. Fingers crossed.
I ran the pump through the 1" PVC Flex for four days. During that time there was only a slight reduction in pressure at the fountain. I expected that as I assumed that there would still be biofilm buildup; but not enough to prevent a decent flow. But the !" hose alone produced too much flow into the stream. When I showed my wife the first thing she said was, "It doesn't make a nice sound anymore." Very true.
So, I tried running the water from the 1" PVC flex through a reducer to a ½" ID piece of rigid PVC about 30cm long. This piece fits through the existing hunk of bamboo:
This is an overhead view of the elephant fountain. At the left is the blue PVC Flex. At the right is the stream with the fountain making the pleasant sound we've enjoyed for over a decade. I've been running this for four days now and have noticed no significant reduction in flow, so far. If it does happen, I'll first check to see if just reaming the rigid PVC works. If not, it will be back to the drawing board on the fountain configuration. (I left the old green garden hose in place in case I needed to suddenly revert.)
Thanks to all who offered suggestions, help, ideas and criticism. I truly appreciate how much assistance I received and how much I learned.
I ran the pump through the 1" PVC Flex for four days. During that time there was only a slight reduction in pressure at the fountain. I expected that as I assumed that there would still be biofilm buildup; but not enough to prevent a decent flow. But the !" hose alone produced too much flow into the stream. When I showed my wife the first thing she said was, "It doesn't make a nice sound anymore." Very true.
So, I tried running the water from the 1" PVC flex through a reducer to a ½" ID piece of rigid PVC about 30cm long. This piece fits through the existing hunk of bamboo:
This is an overhead view of the elephant fountain. At the left is the blue PVC Flex. At the right is the stream with the fountain making the pleasant sound we've enjoyed for over a decade. I've been running this for four days now and have noticed no significant reduction in flow, so far. If it does happen, I'll first check to see if just reaming the rigid PVC works. If not, it will be back to the drawing board on the fountain configuration. (I left the old green garden hose in place in case I needed to suddenly revert.)
Thanks to all who offered suggestions, help, ideas and criticism. I truly appreciate how much assistance I received and how much I learned.
It's been a week now with no noticeable reduction in flow, so I decided to cut the blue flex PVC to the desired length and have a look at everything.
This is the inside of the 1/2" PVC which runs through the bamboo. Although there is some sludge it's minimal and certainly not enough to impede the flow of water.
This is a section of the flex PVC that I removed. There is certainly some sludge, but not much.
Here's that section cut open. It looks to me like the sludge, whatever it is (biofilm?) doesn't adhere very will to the flex PVC.
BTW, I was able to cut the flex PVC quite easily with an ordinary PVC cutter.
Once again, thanks to all for helping me solve this problem
This is the inside of the 1/2" PVC which runs through the bamboo. Although there is some sludge it's minimal and certainly not enough to impede the flow of water.
This is a section of the flex PVC that I removed. There is certainly some sludge, but not much.
Here's that section cut open. It looks to me like the sludge, whatever it is (biofilm?) doesn't adhere very will to the flex PVC.
BTW, I was able to cut the flex PVC quite easily with an ordinary PVC cutter.
Once again, thanks to all for helping me solve this problem