Pond vacuum

mahoney

I need to empty, clean and refill my pond - it's been untouched for at least 2 years. Can anyone recommend a pond vacuum to get the water out? I contacted a company to clean it but they quoted £460 which is more than I want to pay for this doing.

sourcrates

You can use any pond pump to empty your pond, just remove the pipe from your filter and run the water to a suitable runoff point, when you get below pump level resort to a bucket, them a sponge to soak up any remainder, dont spend cash needlessly, if you dont have a pump check out ebay or just google "pond pumps" you dont need a specific pond vac to do the job, there very expencive(£200-£300 quid).
rich

mahoney

Thanks sourcrates. That sounds like a great idea. I was going to buy a pump too anyway. Do the pumps come together with a tube to remove water (or send it to the fountain or filter or wherever)

steady__eddie

The pumps that I've bought in the past have not had any tubing attached but I have used old hosepipe which I have found, begged borrowed or otherwise acquired.

blue_monkey_2

We bought ours for £65 new from a local garden centre/fishery. It is like this: http://direct.asda.com/Pondi-Automatic-Pond-Vacuum/001660967,default,pd.html?cm_mmc=gb-_-merch-_-13042-_-

It is time consuming as you can only get enough water in to fill the container and then it needs emptying, however you will find it easier to pump the water out and then use the hoover at the bottom to get rid of all the rubbish. I used to use it for emptying the kids water play centre paddling pool thing and cleaning it out.

Now is not the best time to do it, is there a reason for doing it now? There will be loads of wildlife thriving in it at the moment and it is the insect and fish breeding season, can you wait until the autumn?

mahoney

I'd like to do it now because it has been left untouched for at least 2 years. It's in quite a bad way, with lots of leaves in the bottom. We had frogs but they all appear to have left now. No fish. Just a struggling lilly really. It's getting smelly.

So if I don't go for the vacuum I need to get a pump, hook it up to some tubing, turn it on and the water will be sucked out?
Will it be ok to empty the water onto the garden? - considering it's quite stagnant water.

blue_monkey_2

You say there is nothing in there but there could be dragonfly nymphs or newts for example, especially if there are no predators and it has been in that way for 2 years. We have a pond with no fish and it is teaming with damselfly nymphs and it has only been 'wild' for a year.

Empty the top of the pond and put a net over the end so if anything gets sucked out you can pop it in a bucket and either return it to a pond or a bucket. When you get nearer the bottom run a net through it first. Great crested newts are protected so be careful not to disturb those if you find them, they have to go back into the pond.

Yes, it'll be fine to put the water onto the garden as it will soak in, it might smell for a few days but if you are worried just pipe it to the drain if possible.

mahoney

I've not seen any dragon flies. If I were a newt etc I'd definitely pick another pond the state mine's in

whowants2brich

My suggestion is to take a few inches off the pond using a pump and a hose, as above. Then replace the water with fresh from a tap, rainwater if preferable. If you have a water butt from the gutters, pour it into the pond and the wildlife will love it.

Then, leave the pond pump running, cycling the water and putting air in the pond. This will over the course of a month or two improve the quality of the pond and stop it from being so bad. If you leave the pump going for a long time, many months, even if it is only on for 6-12 hours a day and not 24/7, this will gradually improve the state of the pond.

Then cut back the plants, use a pond net to take out the sludge and anything else you can collect with the net, and you'll find that it might not actually need to be emptied. As someone said above, if you can avoid draining the pond until October, you'll do the wildlife and your garden a lot of good.

PS the smell is caused by anaerobic bacteria who thrive when there is no oxygen in the water. If you introduce a pump, that will create oxygen and thus cause aerobic bacteria to multiply (hence the need for new water with plenty of aerobic bacteria). Gradually, the anerobic bacteria will struggle, and aerobic bacteria will multiply, and the smell will disappear. And the pond quality will be as you would expect.

Good luck!

mahoney

Thanks whowants2brich, that's really helpful info. What do I need to do about the many leaves at the bottom?