Unplanned water change:(

[CountryPond]

Yesterday I put some water hyacinth, penny wort and some parrots feathers in the top of my skippy filter. Made sure they were at the opposite side of the outlet. Everything seemed fine until this morning when my hubby told me it was time for a water change.....a hyacinth got sucked up to the filter outlet and blocked the flow so that the filter over flowed:surfing: Drained half the pond before we noticedissed:

This morning my pond was SO sparkly clean, hope this doesn't mess up all the hard work I've done to get it that way. I'm thinking it will be okay, but this is frustrating, could have been really bad if we didn't catch it.

I made a floating plant ring out of irrigation tubing, so far it's working, but it doesn't have a bottom on it so a plant could still escape. Wondering if this has happened to anyone else and what you do to keep the plants from blocking the filter outlet.

Now I'm questioning whether I should keep the plants in the filter or build a floating plant ring and put them in the pond. Don't want this to happen again.

 

[fishin4cars]

If the fish are doing ok after 24 hours the large water change should have done more good than harm. Not sure how your outlet is set up. But it's possible that you could make a floating ring (Like a plant ring) That would keep plants from getting to the outlet. Post a pic of the outlet area and someone should be able to come up with a simple way to keep that from happening again. I can think of a few but not knowing exactly how it's set up, some might work some wouldn't apply.

 

[KennethO]

What size is the outlet?

 

[CountryPond]

The plant got sucked up against the 2" shower drain near the top of the skippy filter...100gl stock tank...didn't go threw it but blocked the flow of water causing it to overflow. I did make a temporary floating plant ring, but I think I will need to add some netting or something to the bottom of it so the plants can't escape.

 

[addy1]

That would work countrypond. I have some small pots that are plastic, but like a net, I used that over the outlet to keep it from getting clogged. They were from some ponds plants bought at a nursery last year.

 

[koidaddy]

Here is what I did. Its a piece of lighting grid placed over/around the outlet to keep plants from flowing into the tube.

No plants in pic but there are now and it works. I have it attached with a zip tie to keep in place.

 

[LuLu]

I know it's not exactly the same setup, but I just built a bucket veggie filter, and used one of these kitchen drain strainers: http://www.imgsrv.worldstart.com/store/images/drain-strainer/drain-strainer-01.jpg over the outflow (back to the pond) to keep lettuce/lettuce roots from clogging the line. They're under $2 at Home Depot.

 

[CountryPond]

Thank you for all the input, my hubby also suggested we use some of the light grid to keep the plants out. Toying with a few ideas and will see what I come up with.

 

[addy1]

I used the basket (it is over the uptake of the stream pond pump pipe) to spread the pressure out. But since yours is an out flow it won't have as much suction.

 

[CountryPond]

Problem solved.....made a floating plant ring and moved all the plants into the pond for now. My plant ring seems to be working well, but it doesn't look as nice as the ones Koiguy made....not bad for my first try