First off, thanks to the Pond Lady for her helpful advice on her website vis-a-vis winter pond maintenance.
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We had a major snowstorm with freezing temps for over a week last month.
I procrastinated taking the UV light offline, so hurriedly did so the first day. I hadn't plumbed the connections in a way that I could continue to run the pump and filter with the UV off line. All I needed was either one cap or a short alternate line section, but I didn't have them.
So, I shut down the system and had to go to work. It would be nearly a day before I could make the replacement line section.
Pond froze almost immediately. Amazing. I gently broke up the ice as frequently as I could and then put a gallon water jug with warm water in it to keep the pond surface open as long as possible.. Ultimately I put in a replacement pipe section so I could run the pump and filter without the UV in. It was very easy to do once i had the parts.
Second issue was water in the main 2" line. I had installed a backflow filter near the skimmer/pump. so I couldn't drain the water from the UV section back down the line to the backflow filter, a distance of about 10 ft. Fearing the pipe might break, I got our small pump and inserted a hose down the line to the backflow filter and sucked out all the water. But, what a hassle that was.
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What I learned (this is hardly new information to folks like the Pond Lady, but maybe it'll help someone like me).
1) Plumb in flexibility in your system. Anticipate things like my situation where you have to take out the UV. I actually had thought about it, but I was so tired of the work at that point that I didn't get around to setting up that flexibility.
2) Put in a drain fitting just above the backflow filter in your main pump line. OR, I guess in some cases you could put the backflow fitting up close to your output--depends on your system. Just try to be sure you can drain the lines if you need to.
Hope this helps,
Rick:twocents:
________________________________________
We had a major snowstorm with freezing temps for over a week last month.
I procrastinated taking the UV light offline, so hurriedly did so the first day. I hadn't plumbed the connections in a way that I could continue to run the pump and filter with the UV off line. All I needed was either one cap or a short alternate line section, but I didn't have them.
So, I shut down the system and had to go to work. It would be nearly a day before I could make the replacement line section.
Pond froze almost immediately. Amazing. I gently broke up the ice as frequently as I could and then put a gallon water jug with warm water in it to keep the pond surface open as long as possible.. Ultimately I put in a replacement pipe section so I could run the pump and filter without the UV in. It was very easy to do once i had the parts.
Second issue was water in the main 2" line. I had installed a backflow filter near the skimmer/pump. so I couldn't drain the water from the UV section back down the line to the backflow filter, a distance of about 10 ft. Fearing the pipe might break, I got our small pump and inserted a hose down the line to the backflow filter and sucked out all the water. But, what a hassle that was.
____________________________________
What I learned (this is hardly new information to folks like the Pond Lady, but maybe it'll help someone like me).
1) Plumb in flexibility in your system. Anticipate things like my situation where you have to take out the UV. I actually had thought about it, but I was so tired of the work at that point that I didn't get around to setting up that flexibility.
2) Put in a drain fitting just above the backflow filter in your main pump line. OR, I guess in some cases you could put the backflow fitting up close to your output--depends on your system. Just try to be sure you can drain the lines if you need to.
Hope this helps,
Rick:twocents:
