started a pond and need to know if I'm on the right track.

Cichlid Kid · Jun 2, 2012

I have a 2" drain in the bottom of mine. In the center i dug down 1' deeper than the rest of it. Its a simple shower type drain with a 90°elbow. It angles up to ground level 9' away with a ball valve at the end. After taking all the big debris out by hand i open it up and it washes all the sediment out. It takes about 40-50gal of water out. Then I'm half way to doing a pwc.

jlk · Jun 2, 2012

I net out the big stuff, have a prefilter box on the intake that gets cleaned, and a bottom drain on the homemade filter (water barrel) that I open up as Im squishing the filter media. I open & close the bottom drain a couple of times allowing the all the dirt to be pumped out with as much water as needs to be changed. My husband is trying to figure a way to hook up a pool vac to the pump to suck out additional debris. Still working on that one!

Cichlid Kid · Jun 2, 2012

The pool vacuum idea is brilliant. That sounds like a patent in the making. Keep me updated. It would really solve a problem for alot of pond owners. Large or small scale.

jlk · Jun 2, 2012

Havent quite figured out this one yet! The pump is super powerful (as in 10,000-12,000gph) and it basically flattens any type of hose/flexible tubing its hooked up to. Maneuvering pvc pipe isnt really possible. I will definitely let you know if we figure something out!