I need help, anyone who has put in a tetra drain

15 years ago

I am feeling really dumb now, I put in my tetra drain as instructed, it will drain into my skimmer , I also have a shut off valve,I thought that it would work, but it did not, so I went back and looked up on the internet how to install, now I am finding that I needed to use a pump for the drain? duh- but the instructions did not say to attach to pump, so my question is to all that has placed a Tetra drain in, how does one attach to a pump. I actually thought it worked by pressure, does anyone have any info and diagrams , or installing drains for dummies

Thankyou, I'm sure that this will give a good laugh for some of you anyway

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Comments (10)

fireant
15 years ago
Our bottom drain also goes into our skimmer. Our pump (laguna 2150) sits in the back of the skimmer. The pump pushes water to a pressure filter and that goes to a waterfall filter and back in the pond. We use quilt batting on the front of the skimmer filter and under where the bottom drain comes in and it makes it very easy to clean.
gardeningfinch
Original Author
15 years ago
Hi thanks for your imput, my internal pump is in the skimmer also and then delivers water to the waterfall weir, but is your pump connected to the drain. Thankyou
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fireant
15 years ago
No, it just sits in the back of the skimmer. The water is pulled from the top of the pond and the bottom. If I want the bottom drain to suck up more stuff off the bottom I close the skimmer door.
curb1
15 years ago
The bottom drain works best if it is pulling water directly from the drain straight to the pump. A reason for the drain is to pull as much as possible (greatest area) from the bottom directly to a pump/filter.
fireant
15 years ago
Our set-up is pretty simple and our water is very clear. We have a small fish load though. I do have to clean algae muck off the bottom from time to time but if any critter goes up through the bottom drain he will be safe in the front of the skimmer away from the pump.
gardeningfinch
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks everyone for your info. Happy ponding
nancy
mike_il
15 years ago
Gardeningfinch you have gotten some good information but no one has asked a couple of very important questions. Which type of Tetra bottom drain do you have?(On top liner or through liner) How does the piping from the drain to the skimmer run?
Mike
gardeningfinch
Original Author
15 years ago
Mike.
I have the drain that is installed in the liner. As I have found out that for the drain to work by the gravity method it cannot run uphill, funny how the diagram on how to put in the drain never mention this and the pipe went straight up, so I have a delemma , do I go back into the pipe and make it straight or get a external pump and atacht the pipe to the pump into a filter, so I am still trying to decide on what to do. I am going towards checking out prices on pumps if they are spendy then I need to re-do the pipes.
Thanks
mike_il
15 years ago
The pipe can run uphill as long as the pipe does not get as high as the surface of the water in the pond. Gravity working the drain will work to some degree but not as good as a pump sucking the water.
Mike
gardeningfinch
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks Mike for your imput, I think I will direct the drain pipe into a skippy then re-direct the water back into the pond.
Nancy

I need help, anyone who has put in a tetra drain

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I need help, anyone who has put in a tetra drain

Comments (10)

fireant

gardeningfinchOriginal Author

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fireant

curb1

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gardeningfinch
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