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Want to buy a vacuum. Any suggestions. My pond is under trees and gets a lot of leaves.
What is the best type of vacuum?
- Thread starter CLippincott28
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Do you have a skimmer? They do wonders for floating leaves.
We have a PondVac, 4 I think. It does a great job. But after the first couple of years it has very rarely been used for the pond. Just not needed there anymore.
We have a PondVac, 4 I think. It does a great job. But after the first couple of years it has very rarely been used for the pond. Just not needed there anymore.
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If you were in Maryland I would sale you mine. Used one season, not worth the work, in my pond.v
Mmathis
TurtleMommy
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I have a Pondovac 4, as well. Really like it.
No vacuum here - just a good leaf net and a “skimmer”.
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Not yet. Still pondering how to best do it without big investment. I enjoy the DIY method. Or maybe I’m cheap.
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Thanks Addy
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Can you tell me about your skimmer?
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Thanks. I’ll look at it.
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Thanks. Going to look at it.
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Thanks. I’ll look at it.
Negative edge pond that flows into an underground cistern - the skimming action is natural and no skimmer basket to clean or worry about getting overfilled.
Negative edge work very well. I built one on my pond as well but it has a couple twists to it. Theres a battle going on weather a negative edge or a intake bay is the best. Well as usual i have my own take on the subject.
The intake bay that i have built is rather large it is not just a small bump on the side of the pond. Mine is 17 feet long and 8 feet wide 30" deep and shaped like a tear drop. The intake opening to the pond is 18" wide and varies at different times of the year from 6" deep to a foot deep. when the intake is shallow the draw into the intake is much stronger along the surface.
This in the fall is invaluable as it pulls in all the leaves from the large maples that fall on the pond and draws them into the intake bay. They can then be netted out in a smaller condensed area. Even if i do not get to them before they get water logged, the debris simply falls to the bottom and makes it way slowly toward the bottom of the falls on the uphill side where it sits until I do use a pond vac to suck it out,
The big difference here to a standard intake is the debris is not pulled down into the rock and clog up or get pulled down to the pump where it gets chopped up and mixed into the water column. bad bad
The water in my intake then goes over the negative edge instead of being pulled down into the rock and getting chopped up by the pump. It falls down to the next small pond 6'x8'x2' and as it falls depending on the time of the year i built this falls with a small shelf under the falls so i can slip in a large net on this shelf thats on a pole and as the leaves fall over it is collected where it can be easily removed. Invert the net ,emptying the leaves and simply slipping it in back under the falls.
I had high hopes this would be the best of both world together and it truly is , i recommend this over any other
The intake bay that i have built is rather large it is not just a small bump on the side of the pond. Mine is 17 feet long and 8 feet wide 30" deep and shaped like a tear drop. The intake opening to the pond is 18" wide and varies at different times of the year from 6" deep to a foot deep. when the intake is shallow the draw into the intake is much stronger along the surface.
This in the fall is invaluable as it pulls in all the leaves from the large maples that fall on the pond and draws them into the intake bay. They can then be netted out in a smaller condensed area. Even if i do not get to them before they get water logged, the debris simply falls to the bottom and makes it way slowly toward the bottom of the falls on the uphill side where it sits until I do use a pond vac to suck it out,
The big difference here to a standard intake is the debris is not pulled down into the rock and clog up or get pulled down to the pump where it gets chopped up and mixed into the water column. bad bad
The water in my intake then goes over the negative edge instead of being pulled down into the rock and getting chopped up by the pump. It falls down to the next small pond 6'x8'x2' and as it falls depending on the time of the year i built this falls with a small shelf under the falls so i can slip in a large net on this shelf thats on a pole and as the leaves fall over it is collected where it can be easily removed. Invert the net ,emptying the leaves and simply slipping it in back under the falls.
I had high hopes this would be the best of both world together and it truly is , i recommend this over any other
I bought a cheap pool vac that is supposed to hook up to a water hose and the water pressure "sucks" the debris into a net. Rather than hooking it to a water hose, I use a spare pump to run it on pond water so I don't have the chlorine/chloramine issue to worry about. It doesn't catch small particles, but it does a great job picking up any leaves that may have accumulated on the bottom. If you already have a spare pump and some basic adapters, you can get the vac at Walmart or Amazon for about $20.00.
I thought I'd better make an edit... My pond is under an Elm tree, so the leaves aren't very large. I don't know how well this will work if the leaves are large. It may clog up the intake.