Does anyone have experience in pond vacuum cleaners.

I need to buy one asap and found one at http://www.superpumps.co.za/shop/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=302 for R 2495.00 (1400 watts)

Any other options? any views will be appreciated.

Hi Paul ek persoonlik dink dit is baie geld vir iets wat ek nog nie sien werk het nie so ek gebruik die folgende al vir omtrent 'n jaar en dit werk.

http://southafricankoi.11.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=646

Hi Bubbles, weet jy waar ek een kan koop in die Kaap. Ek sien Pieter het by Builders Warehouse (Gauteng) gekoop maar ek het nog nie een by ons takke gesien nie.

Ek het myne ook by builders warehouse gekry in Paarden Eiland.

Kon nie een kry nie, so ek het maar gegaan vir die elektriese weergawe. Met 17 ponds sal ek waarskynlik waarde vir geld kry. Sy prys het opgegaan met R 400.00 sedert ek hom gesien het.



Sal laat weet hoe hy werk.

Hi,
How about making one your self?
1) a trolley.
2) a ,45 or ,6Kw swimming pool pump.
3) a P18 sand filter with fine sand not the usual 2.5 - 4.5mm koi sand.
4) some flexable piping.
5) a suction head from a vaccum repair shop. Or take a short piece of 110mm pipe and heat it then flatten it at one end to make the vaccum fitting. A few reducers on the other side to the flexable piping.
6) Bolt pump and sand filter to trolley.
7) an extention chord with a plug box mounted on the trolley.
suction water from bottom of pond / tank pump through the sand filter with fine sand and return to same pond.

Chris

Hi Chris have you built one of these ?? If you have some pics would be great as I am a DIY fanatic

Chris I was also wondering do you use a protien skimmer or foam fractioner ??

Hi Chris, the idea sounds good and I actually thought about making one with a pump and a normal 25 liter canister.

With a sand filter, would it not be more economical to buy a complete vacuum, unless you use a second hand pump and filter?

Pool pump 1200.00
Sand filter 1200.00
Suction head 200.00
Trolley: 100.00
Electrics and piping: 200.00

Total: R 2900.00

I also think that the sand will clog up very quickly and you will have to backwash constantly. Would it not be better to use very coarse gravel?

The nice thing about the vacuum bought, is that it has an auto emtying of the chamber. I still have to see how it works.

Hi Paul

May I please have 3 of those R100-00 trolley's

No seriously the pond vac is worth the R2900-00. Lee-Ann demo one today to a client in PTA and it was my first time to see it in action as well and I am impressed, so are the client and his friend so we sold 2 today. This was the Matala version selling at R3900-00.

Hi,

There is another way to do it.
1) a ,45 kw pump. An old one that has been reconditioned will do just fine.
2) flexible piping.
3) 40mm poly piping to waste
4) aluminium pole to support piping.

You simply suck through the open pipe to waste. The water you "loose" is not lost as you need to do regular water changes anyway.

It really depends on what you want to vacuum for. If it is leaves or a lot of sediment, then I would go the above route with a larger leaf skimmer attached to the fromt of the pump.

If its just fish waste on the bottom - what happened to the bottom drains?

If its show tanks and you just need to keep the bottom clean from time to time - I would go via the sand filter with fine sand. You return the same water to the ponds after removing the fine solids. Also you would polish the water before returning it to the ponds. This adds to the clarity of the water and beauty of the koi.

The vacuum pictured in the previous posts will work just fine. Also look at WAP products they may have something that can be used and Kartcher. These companies have wet/dry vaccum cleaners designed to such up water.

Protein Skimmers
You can also build one of these yourself if you want. Built one with Neville Marias back in about 1991. Used 110mm piping some fittings and a plastic venturi. Blasted - sorry - pushed water through it with a swimming pool pump - and yes a valve to control the inflow of water.

On fresh water ponds you cannot really get a lot of foam. Nothing near what you get in marine tanks or in trout farms (massive stocking densities).

You will get a more foam as the stocking densities increase or if you change the water quality such as when you add salt and the next day there is foam on the pond. Cheapest way is to have an overflow and just top up the pond till it overfow a bit in the mornings when the foam is worst.

I must honestly say I doubt if protein skimmers are worth it on the average koi pond. Rather increase your water changes to get rid of DOC (dissolved organic carbons) etc.

Hope this helps.
Chris

I received my vacuum and it works fantastic. It sucks the whole pond totally clean from sludge, leaves and other debris within minutes.

Also very handy to suck up all the sludge in your filters. You also don't loose a lot of water, as the gunk are being sucked up with a combination of water and air.

The water and air pulls the debris into the container, and when it is filled, it automatically discharge the gunk through an outlet hose, fitted with a sludge filter(optional), and starts to suck again.

When I empty porta pools, I always had to empty the last bit of water and sludge with containers and sweep with a broom. Now I just suck it up, dry leaves and debris included, (wet or dry) in no time.

If I knew how easy it works, I would have bought one long ago. It makes a huge difference on the clarity of my ponds and water conditions in general and well worth it.

If you do not have a bottom drain, you should really consider buying one.

Hi Paul

I hate to say it, but I told you so!

Hmm managedto build a big pond, think this should be a walk in teh park to build a pond vac.

here is a DIY one veryu interesting:
http://www.koiclay.com/diy/pg3.htm

I had quite a surprise this morning when I woke up at 2 am when the power tripped. My whole house was filled with at least 5cm deep water after a pipe burst.

Thank goodness I had this pond vac, which cleared all the water within 30 minutes and I could go back to bed at 2:40. Would have taken me ages to clear without it.