question - filter/pump/waterfall

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I have an 8x10 pond - approximately 1200 gallons. I bought a Pondmaster pump last week (the old one wasn't powerful enough) that works at 2600 gallons per hour. My filter is a pool filter (Hayward - I have no idea how many gallons but my husband said it is MORE than enough for our size pond (it supposedly filters a 4000+ pool at the least) . I used the pump for the first time Saturday, and the flow was great. Tried it out after we built our waterfall, and things were fine. However, that only lasted for a short while, pretty soon, water was trickling instead of flowing. I backwashed and the flow was good again. That lasted a few hours, and then the same thing - a trickle.

The filter has never been cleaned (It was new last year). I have a mixture of sand and bio-media in it. Can the sand be the problem? My husband is NOT putting out the money for another filter, so I have to make due with this one. Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
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Okay, well, here's the bad news: pool filters are not made to be on a pond. Sand filters such as the hayward, are just downright awful for ponds.

As I like to say, pool equipment doesn't belong on a pond and pond equipment doesn't belong on a pool. Pool equipment uses extremely high pressure to function--the complete opposite of what a pond needs.

There are folks that take these sand filters and convert them to use on a pond. They start by removing all the sand and buying the proper beads that would be used in a pond pressurized bead filter.

Warning, that doing this will require some serious DIY skills above what we normally do in this site. And you still need to buy the proper sinking media (expensive). I've PM'ed you a place you can see exactly how to do this.
 
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Wow. Thanks. As you can tell I'm a total noob, and my gut feeling to begin with last year was not the pool filter route. However my husband insisted that it would work as well and now it looks like we'll have to fork out more $ to change it. Thanks so much for your help.
 

koidaddy

karps house of koi
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I did run an old 2 hp pool pump for my waterfall but it only ran a few hours per day and was not connected to any filter. My water fall was 2' high by 4' long. More then enough movement but very expensive compared to pond special pumps. Actually the one I used was quite old and not the most efficient $ wise, but I was just sitting in the shed so that price was right. I have since removed the waterfall to minimize maintanance some(long bad story).
Just remember, Pool equipment/plumbing is presurised and needs to be overkill to push the water volume. Most pond pumps or filters are not so they don't need to draw as much power, which is a big savings on the power bill.

koikeepr can you send me the hayward conversion link please? Thanks
 

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