ChrisC, you have a lot of question but I will try to answer one of them.

You could use a prefilter for your pump. This is simple to make by using a 5 gallon plastic pail. Just put the pump in the pail and push plastic window screen wire down around the pump.

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The screen will catch dirt and other things that clog up the pump. About once every one to two weeks, pull out the screens and rinse them off.

That will keep your pump clean and reduce your maintenance chores.

Hi Chris,
What great info you have given!

I am afraid I do not know that plant, but I think I can help with the filter. Also, the plant is not submerged growth so it is not considered an oxigenator. Anacharis, Hornwort, Cabomba and the like are considered oxigenators. To increase the oxigen in the water, there are several methods, possibly best used in combination. Use an air pump and airstone, or break the surface of the water with flowing water, plant oxigenating plants, use venturis. The other important thing is to keep decaying matter out of the pond as much as possible. Decay depletes oxigen.

This pond has survived some 30 years without an outside filter, so the addition of one is a major improvement. That is fine, if you want to do it. But in any case, if you want clearer water, you will need to increase filtering capacity in some fashion. Catfishsam and I have something in common. The first thing we think you should try, is to simply improve on what you have, to see if that works. I would go a bit further than window screening, but that too would be an improvement, and sam has reported great results previously with it. I think you should augment the filters on the pump, with a much larger surface area filter. Possibly wrap the outside of the pump cage with filter batting?

I have a small pump running that has a rubber coupling from the inlet to a 4 cm pipe about a foot long. I cut perpendicular slots all along the pipe with a handsaw, and made a very loose sock from filter material folded over and loop stitched around the seams. It is attached with a hose clamp to hold it and the pipe to the inlet side of the rubber coupling. The other side of the coupling is hose clamped to my pump, and I maintained access to the clamp to allow easy removal so to clean as an assembly. It worked all winter with monthly cleanings. However, now that spring is here, it needs to be cleaned twice a week to maintain good flow.

I have seen some very good designs with buckets, and also with plastic milk crates or storage cases. All the designs basically surround the pump entirely with filter batting, quilt batting, or other material such as catfish's window screen. The result is a much larger surface area exposed to the water, which will give you longer time between cleanings.

Keep in mind that a filter is not meant to clean up an accumlulation of sludge. Rather a filter is meant to clear and treat the water born debris and chemical wastes from the living things in the water. The outside box filters are excellent at achieving these goals, and if well hidden and sized adequately, will work for a long time without cleaning.

In my opinion, the pressurized filters are big time energy wasters, with no need to use so much power to generate the same results with a slightly larger filter. Though they are reported here on the forum to be easier to clean day to day, you also pay a great deal more for electric power day to day. I try to use the earth frendlier method of a lower power pump, and larger filter, then rinse it manually as needed.

Also make sure your filter material isn't resting on the bottom of the pond. Raise it slighly on a brick. Instead of clogging the filter with the bottom waste, consider an as needed cleaning of the bottom with a wet/dry shop vacuum. Let the filter worry about the water quality.

Best of Luck with solving your issues!
-TT

The previous owner ordered you not to remove the plant???? I'm such a rebel that made the hair raise on the back of my neck.

Seriously, it's your pond, you can do what you want. If you don't like the plant get rid of it. It does look a bit like a weed, and there are other plants that are oxygenators and don't take over the pond.

Very pretty pond btw.

I'm not the expert in the family, dh is but he's not here. I'll get him to look at this tomorrow. It sounds to me that the problem isn't the pump so much as your pond needs to be cleaned. If your fish are suffering from the heat now, I can't imagine how they will act in August.

I don't know what kind of plant that is, but a lot of oxygenators add oxygen during the day & use it at night. You might get more oxygen into your pond by taking out the big plant, adding lilies and a waterfall. Also check your ammonia level. Fish poop builds ammonia & that is a fish killer.

Hi, ChrisC
Your garden and pond are absolutely lovely! In my opinion, and I am by no means an expert, most of your problems with your water and fish are being caused by the so-called "oxygenator" the previous owner insisted you keep. It looks to me like Crassula helmsii (commonly called Australian Swamp Stonecrop or New Zealand Pygmyweed and is an extremely invasive plant that the UK is trying to have banned from point of sale because it's extremely difficult to eliminate and very detrimental to bodies of water containing fish because it causes massive fluctuation/depletion of dissolved oxygen resulting in fish death and it quickly crowds out native plants as well. Personally, I would remove it carefully (pieces as small as 5mm can/will form new plants), vacuum out as much muck and gunk from the bottom as possible, replant with a few native waterplants, and restart your pump with new (uncontaminated) filter media--keeping a sharp eye out for any new growth of the noxious weed. Your wildlife will survive just fine without it and your ponding should go much more smoothly. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

Linda

Hi folks, firstly my apologies for my delayed response, the forum failed to let me know anyone had replied ;-(

I thank you all very much for the excellent replies and also for all the complements regarding the pond and garden, much appreciated. I agree, once correctly cared for, it will be even nicer. It's a bit of a jungle at the moment, as I moved in during the winter I've no idea what's here, I just have to let everything grow and see what turns up ;-)

In response to the replies , I'll tackle them in order :-

catfishsam :-
Many thanks for the pre-filter advice; I'd not thought of this, I've been trying to find methods of keeping the filter off the bottom to reduce the sludge intake. This has met with some limited success (I put the pump in a net and dangled it from pond edge). However only got me another 24 hours grace on the pump life. I'll give this a spin and see how I get on.

tillertilter :-
I'll give various pre-filters a try and see what works best for me. The info on the pressurised filters is much appreciated. The more I read about commercial filters the more I realise they seem to be an overpriced (and due mostly to size) ineffectual option, especially as it seems a large tub with some scouring pads is a cheaper and more effective option. I've considered sludge removal with a wet/dry vac, however I'm thinking this sludge contains plenty of good stuff (it seems to be full of worms and various other bits of life) as well as being a rare old pain in the backside, any thoughts on this?

marti8a :
Love you're comments regarding the previous owner ;-) You have no idea; she was a rare old bat and expert in everything. When my survey came back on the house, there were some minor issues with the roof etc, which needed simple repair. Suddenly the lady was a expert plumber, roofer, sparky, nothing was wrong and my surveyor had made it all up ;-) Generally I ignored her, however regarding the pond I am so new to this I've erred on the side of caution. I cut enough back so the fish could swim and the ton of newts and various other bits of life I found in there would continue to survive. I do intend to cut it out completely, I think. First though I need to clear up the pond so I can actually see what's in there and where I can put new things. Im thinking to wait for this winter for a cleanup, so I can catch it before the frogs spawn.

obsessed-nj:
I'm happy you think the garden is lovely, a great deal of hard work I have to say, however worth every second. Many, many thanks for the plant identification. It's a horror of a thing. I'm guessing you've got this spot on, whenever I remove any I always leave it on the side of the pond to allow and creatures I may have missed in the tangle to make there way back to the pond. The other day I removed an old dried up pile from the side of the pond and to my surprise found three stands at the bottom were alive and well as they were slightly in the pond. I'm a bit concerned about gunk removal for the reasons I mentioned to tillertilter, any thoughts on this?

To sum up, based on this information and various other bits of reading Ive done my plans for the pond thus far are: -

1) Pre-filter the pump and add some aeration to the pond
2) Slowly and painfully remove the plant horror. Replacing it with some decent oxygenating plants that dont look as weedy.

3) I may build a plant-pot style DIY filter Ive read so much about recently and give that a whirl to try and clean up the water a bit.

or

Im preparing an seating area at the end of the garden at the moment, this will overlook the drop we have to the small valley at the end of the garden. By a remarkable coincidence this would be a handy place to hide a skippy type filter. Im considering putting one up there. The problem is that its quite a distance from the pond, so Id need plenty of advice here, especially due to the restrictions I have on the current outgoing hose, which is very small diameter. If I re-post my plans here I hope I can get you all interested ;-)

4)Possibly, depending on advice given, clean the sludge from the bottom of the pond

Once again, many thanks to each and every one of for the replies. I look forward to speaking to you again.

Regards

ChrisC.

I waited to see what others said before I added my bit. Adding a skippy filter idea is one I'd go for. You definately need to add some movement to the water. Also please replace that plant with something else.

Was wondering how much debris is on the bottom of the pond? As that will add to the low oxygen levels in the pond.

Good luck and don't worry about the wildlife. If they are here now they will be back again. I know I'd come back as it is lovely.

Hi tomkaren,
my thanks for the reply and the kind complement on the pond ;-) I'm pretty sold on the skippy filter, however one step at a time I think ;-) As for the debris on the bottom, it's a bit hard to tell, it's impossible to see that far down. I've used a mini hand spade and scooped up some, I got the spade back up to the top and it was pretty full (however quite a bit was lost on the way up) so I think the answer is quite a bit. I've tried pointing fishycam down there, however as the camera is in the pond and the monitor is 70ft away in the house it's a bit tricky. As you can imagine, despite copious amounts of reading and surfing on my part, my head is still spinning from the list of things to do in order to bring the pond to a decent condition. The house is falling apart around my ears at the moment, the previous owners job on the pond/garden was nothing compared to the DIY in the house, however fishy friends take priority at the moment ;-)I've already grown quite attached to them and I've not seen this much of them.

Regarding the plant. I'll be posting another reply shortly, however rest assured it is going. I hated the thing before I posted to the forum, much more so now I know what it is.

Regards

ChrisC

Lovely pond and gardens. Alot of work, but what fun to see what comes up this spring!

I'm pretty new at this too, but I agree with the need for a pre-filter for your pump, and also that you need to scoop out most of the sludge on the bottom. Use a sturdy net, the water will get stirred up but the crud will settle out again in a day or 2. The critters will return :)

Hi folks,
just a quick update on the plant. Sadly it appears that obsessed-nj was quite right with her identification of the plant (for which I can't thank you enough) as Crassula Helmsii, a non-native invasive weed, which is a horror of a plant. It seems it also may answer some of my oxygenation questions (as suggested by various here). It seems that anything underneath this monster will eventually be starved of oxygen.

As suggested, it will most likely end up on the UK list of banned plants very shortly, however it has been(and continues to be) sold in aquatic shops for years as a good plant for oxygenation. It seems many of the UK's larger environmental bodies (RSBP/Defra/Rural England etc.) have spend thousands of pounds trying to get rid of it and thus far have all failed. Mechanical removal can make it worse as it fragments and can re-establish from as little as 5mm. Chemical removal has been moderately successful (a no-no for me as I have a strict no pesticides policy for the garden), it seems the most effective method of treating it is to cover it with thick black plastic and leave it for several months. It seems however that it grows back pretty quickly if any fragments have been left un-checked. As I don't plan to be covering half the bond in bin-liners anytime soon, I'll assume it's like a dandelion; often removed but ever present ;-)

Ho-hum trust me to get the weed from hell has the "do not remove" plant ;-) So out it will have to come, the question is what to do with all the newts? ;-)

This forum is a complete education, Im enjoying it thoroughly. Once again my thanks to all involved for all your time and effort.

Regards

ChrisC.

Hi Shepco,
sorry missed your post, seems to be have been squeezed in-between my last two posts. Thanks for the compliments, I can't disagree with on this one, the pond and garden are wonderful, sold me on the house. That and the fact that it's an up-side-down house. The garden at the back is about 30+ feet below the main entrance at the front ;-)

Many, many stairs ;-( However from the main living room of the home I get a view right across the garden ;-)

I'll give the sludge removal a go, however I think the pump filter will come first. The screen material is not widly used in the UK, so I'm a hunt. I'm also concerned about what I'll be taking away when I remove this sludge. As mentioned before it seems to be full of life. Any comments on this would be much appreciated. I suppose I could sieve it?

Regards

ChrisC.

ChrisC, you said, The screen material is not widly used in the UK."

Really, so what do they use to cover the windows to keep out mosquitoes and flies?

Hi chris, my compliments also on the lovely looking pond. Here's my 2 cents worth.

- If you wrap the pump in some kind of material to pre-filter, do check often at first to see that the pump is not overheating. (Our submerged pump did when it was wrapped in quilt batting, so we put it in a plastic crate with a plastic mesh laundry bag around it. That kept the little fishies out, and since it was on top of something as well, that kept a lot of debris out too.)
- When you get rid of the plant and of the sludge on the bottom, you will also be removing a lot of surface area that has beneficial bacteria on it. May I suggest that you have a mesh bag with pot scrubbies (or something like it) in the pond for a few days before starting the removal? That will give your pond a replacement surface for those bacteria. (Our pond turned terribly green three days after we removed the layer of grit that the goldfish had dug out of the waterlily pots. We're still scrambling to improve the bio-filtering!)
- the sludge makes excellent garden fertilizer. A little smelly though.

:) Mary

Hi catfishsam,
in answer to your question...nothing ;-) We don't really have mosquitoes (although as it get's warmer some parts in the South of the country are starting to suffer) as for flies, mostly bluebottles and houseflies. You see a few in the house every now and then and they either get squished or the spiders get them, other than that I'll dodge the odd wasp and bumblebee. We get many midges & gnats but they are usually confined to the garden. My new place here has quite a few in the garden already, so summer will be a pain. A bit of selective planting usually helps with this.

Regards

ChrisC.

Hi maryo_nh,
many thanks for the advice and the compliments. Nice one regarding the pump, I'd not really thought about this, it runs warm as it is (although this may be because it spends 90% of it's time blocked)

As you may have guessed, removing the sludge is a concern for me. I'll heed your advice on this one, if I take the sludge out and the pond looks worse, my other half will drown me in it! At the moment she's leaving me to this as she's busy bird watching and trying to identify all the visitors ;-) If the pond turns bright green, I'm in big trouble.

Many thanks for the reply, much appreciated. When I've got everything together here I'll re-post with some more pictures. I've found the screen on Ebay and I'm off the garden centre tomorrow to buy a cart load of pots ;-)

Regards

ChrisC

ChrisC, that is interesting about not needing screens in the UK. You are so lucky.

Here in Colorado, USA, we couldn't get by without window screens since we have lots of mosquitos, house flies, wasps and gnats.

Hi catfishsam,
I appreciate that, I've a few friends in the US and my other-half is from the south of Spain where mosquitoes are rife, oh and how they love me. Whenever we visit her folks, I get bitten until I look like a tea bag ;-(

As for lucky, I'm not so sure, the only reason we don't have mosquitoes is, the weather is so dreadful. This year has been an exception thus far, warm and sunny. However especially here in the North West of the country, it's mostly cloudy, grey and damp, when it's not that then it's just raining ;-) I kid you not when I say that arch in China town of the closest large city (Manchester) has an Chinese inscription that reads "welcome to Manchester...Rainy city". On the up-side all this rain makes the place very green, when it's sunny it is truly beautiful, my home has a view of rolling green countryside, I woundn't trade it for anything.

Personally though, I envy your sunshine and the fact that for the most part the weather does not dictate where you can go & what you can do. This is something I truly envy. It's a national vaction here today (2 a.m here) and I was going to vist a gardening show and then mess around with my pond filter for a while, however the weather is forecast to be...rain and more rain. Perhaps I'd swap for the mosqitoe screen after all ;-)

Regards

ChrisC.

Catfishsam ..... did you leave the handle on your 5 gallon bucket?

Hi Chris,

A formal pond like yours is nice but I'm into more natural ponds. Was the former owner of the house Hyacinth Bucket? lol My wife is from Manchester, England. She moved here after meeting me in person. She is a great woman. I love her accent as well.

My suggestion for cleaning out the pond is to find a container to put all the fish and other aquatic life into and drain the pond completely. Clean out all the muck and refill it. If you can get dechlorinator there, treat the water and put everything back in. You will probably need to keep your fish in a seperate container than the rest of the life. Once you get it cleaned out, build your filter and install it. Good luck.

Happy ponding,
Scott

You might get another filter idea if you look at CatfishSam's post titled....Is your water clear?
Down at his second post and his second picture, there is a waterfall type container I used to have. I wish I knew how to link the picture but I don't.
You can take one of these containers or any other type (I have used a 5 gallon bucket on a block) fill it with gravel, batting, filter material, about anything that doesn't have chemicals in it, and put the output from your pump in the bottom. Either you can cut a hole in the bottom to hide the hose and seal it with silicone or you can just stick the hose over the side to the bottom before you fill it up with filter stuff.
It will clear your water right up.
BUT do a prefilter also.
I never, ever, ever run my pump without a prefilter.
First off, it has sucked at least 2 fish into it and all I found were bones.
Secondly, I think that is the major reason my pond stays clear. I don't do much else with it besides replace the prefilter 2 times a year.
But then again I don't feed my fish so I don't have lots of gunk either. Mostly I have leaves :( They drive me nuts. If I were you, I would do some wet vac if possible. I have never done it, mainly because all I have are leaves, but "the experts" say gunk will breed anarobic bacteria. Also you can end up with fungus and all sorts of other nasty stuff "so they say".

Good Luck,
Karen

I agree with Scott. I think it would be easier in the long run to just start from scratch once again. Trying to get all that cleared up, and all that sludge off of the bottom with everything else in there will probably take forever.
Drain, a good clean, pre-filter/bio, dechlor, refill. And definitely add a waterfall for oxegyn.

missa7, yes I leave the handle on the bucket since I pull the buckets out to clean the screens. I buy my orange buckets at Home Depot.

I have tried all sorts of filtering material from batting to swamp cooler pads. The problem is that most get clogged or wear out too quickly. The plastic screens rinse off easily and last for years.

Also the screens catch the dirt really well. Every couple of weeks I pull them out and hang them over my garden fense and using a hose rinse them off. They are usually covered in mud.

Chris,

I'll throw my 2 cents into the ring as well.

I have a pump almost identical to yours that has a removable plastic cover with a screen prefilter in it. I had the same problems as you. I run my pump 24/7 and mine would clog up every day. I found a good solution as described above. You really need to find a pond store to get the appropriate material though unless you can find a similar material elsewhere. Get a large strip of filter material like what you currently have in your pump. I got one 4ft long by 1ft wide. roll it into a 1ft wide tube that is the exact diameter of the outside of the filter grate. Cut off the excess and sew up the tube with fishing line or such making sure that it fits tightly on the outside of the filter grate. Then cut a circular end piece and sew it onto the open end. Then you will have a 1ft long prefilter that fits over the grate. Now I have to clean mine once a week instead of every day.

Get a small fine net and scrape the bottom of the pool little by little. Muck is bad.

Right where the hose leaves the pump, install a "T" and run a small pipe up to the surface and put a bubbler or such on the end. This will break up the surface of the pond and add oxygen. There's no reason to get a second pump for that. You should install a valve in the pipe so that you can regulate how much water is diverted. You can do all of this cheaply with PVC pipe. The bubbler ends are usually found at a pond shop.

LOL @ Hyacinth Bucket! (Bouquet!...LOL)

Brenda

Chris, I couldn't live in England since it rains so much.

If it is cloudy or rainy for 3 or 4 days, I get real depressed. My wife and I lived back East for a couple of years and we hated the cloudy rainy weather.

We like the sunny days that we usually get.

One way to increase filter capacity would be to buy a second filter, the same one you have or one of the flat Tetra kind and connect to the pump with a Y tube. Also have you tried cleaning the debris off the bottom with a large fishnet of pool net? There may be so much gook and leaves on the bottom the filter will never get it out. Draining the pond would be an option but you may be able to net out most of the gook. The pond will be a mess until it settles down and the fish will hate you for a while but it may work.

Goodness me, I go out for the day and piles of messages ;-) I'll take these on in separate posts I think.

scottspond, thanks for the reply, lol ;-) The previous owner was very much like the inimitable Mrs Bouquet, with the exception that Mrs Bouquet was mildly amusing and did not, as far as I am aware, breath fire ;-) She really was a star, the pond is bad, her electrics were better; I found the pond pump mains connector was 240v wrapped in that well known insulatora dusting cloth (one of those yellow fluffy ones, useful for nothing). The problem is, it got wet and err. stayed that way, bang..pop..fizz.

You are a brave man indeed marrying a Mancunian lass, LOL, does she miss the place at all? Im guessing not as everything costs an arm & a leg here.

Say "Hiya" from the rainy North. If shes been away for a while she wouldnt recognise the centre of Manchester these days, its under gone a radical transformation in the past few years.

Back to the pond I'll answer both your comment and the one from csrliz here. I think draining the pond and starting over is a very drastic solution and one which I would only use as a very last resort. Apart from not wanting to distress the fish this much, my reasons would be:-

Draining it really only helps with the sludge, which either way I still have to clean, although I do appreciate it would be allot less effort if the pond were empty.

If I were to drain it, Ive got to find somewhere for 5000 litres of water to go, as this is contaminated by a plant that is already causing havoc in the UK lakes and streams, it would be horribly irresponsible of me to dump it into the environment, especially as there is a stream nearby that runs into a river.

Id only be postponing the addition of a pump pre-filter and a Skippy filter.

The water, when tested came out well and the fish seem happy enough, apart from hot days in summer, which a little more oxygen (via a none-clogged pump) and the removal of the plant from hell will help to cure. The pump clogging can be dealt with easily enough it seems, with regular maintenance and very little cost on my part. The sludge can be scooped/vacuumed away over time, getting me some nice free fertilizer ;-)

At the end of the day, in reality, despite the 1,000 scientific reasons I could find for the Skippy filter, its for me, so I can enjoy the fish. Theyve been here a long time and dont seem to mind living in murky waters, Given the Mrs Bouquet took zero care of the pond at all its a miracle they are here at all, they must be sturdy to have put up with the old bat, Id a beached myself ;-)

Also wheres the fun? Bringing the pond back from this mess will be a slow process however each improvement along the way will be a pleasure to see. For a start it's got me onto this forum and talking to excellent people from all over the world. I'm sure I as I go and I report back to the forum on the progress of things, it will be even more fun.

I'm quite looking forward to seeing how it all goes.

Regards

ChrisC.

Okpondlady, Keithw & james_ny (and anyone else I may have missed)
Hi and many thanks for throwing your 2 cents worth to this ever expanding thread (its currently growing quicker than my plant from hell ;-)

okpondlady (excellent username BTW ;-)
Thanks for the advice, very kind. Really the pump is not unfiltered; its just that the regular filters are a bitwellrubbish. Im not worried about the fish being pulled in, mostly because the things are always full of sludge ;-) Seriously they dont seem to let much through even when clean. The filter you describe, unless I misunderstand is generically referred to as a skippy filter is it not? Ive decided Ill put one of these in, I just have to find the bits and the weather to let me plumb it all.

Keithw :-
I appreciate the tips on the pump, funnily enough my local aquatic centre tried to sell me some Koi pump filter bags to do this very job today (400 or 800 microns apparently) IMHO they were too small and way too expensive (5UKP for a small 400 micron and 8 UKP for a large 800 micron one) Ive found the screen material on Ebay and have some on order. I measured up the pump for a bucket this morning and because of the top hose attachment it needs something really wide, much bigger than I would like to sit in the pond, so Im looking around for some other kind of container that will be wider but less deep. I plan to mesh the pump up as you suggest and then mesh the container it ends up in. This should keep the bloody thing clean, well for a week at least ;-(

I will ask you a question though; I like the bubbler idea, can you post me a link to one? Im pretty sure I know what you mean, however they seem to go by a different name here in the UK. I had a quick surf on Google UK and came across many hits, which turned up for the most part to be related to the practice used in hydroponics when growing certain ever so slightly illegal narcotics LOL ;-) I hope UK government is not watching my surfing habits, especially as I need a POT for my filter LOL ;-)

james_ny:

Dont currently have a filter, just a pump. The filter is incoming, Its a national holiday here today, so Ive had chance to start buying the bits today. Gunk/Sludge removal is underway already with my newly acquired net and yes, the fish hate me with a passion for my constant meddling in there home ;-)

Catfishsam:
LOL, sometimes its hard for me to live here also. Last year we had one month solid of none stop rain. It was the most depressing month I can remember for a long time. Add to that it was in winter, so freezing cold and windy and dark when you went to work and dark when you leave. This is how us Brits throughout history have all been so bloody miserable ;-) I do have a quick question for you, how thick is the screen you use in the US? The rather dire picture I found on the item Im buying shows it as being very fine indeed.

Well thanks once again for all the posts, time to go and build a filter.

Regards

ChrisC.

I love the pond the garden around it looks just amazing. Look forward to seeing updates on the improvements you will be making on your pond. Don't forget to add pictures to :o)

teri904,
many thanks for your kind words. The garden was one of the things that sold us on the house, it's a lot of work though. It's been left to get out of hand a bit. Luckily (for me at least) my other-half is the gardening expert, I mostly get the donkey jobs ;-) For me one of the best parts is all the wildlife it attracts, we have frogs, field mice, foxes, badgers, owls and just about every bird in the UK book of birds (for the North of the country at least). I've even put in some night cameras so we can the nocturnal vistors ;-) I'll be keeping everyone here posted as to the progress of the pond and rest assured it will have pictures galore.

Regards

ChrisC.

Hi folks,
Ive been pondering my pond (so to speak) today. And I have one final question before I finish my action plan for pond recovery.

I think Id like to keep the current pump in it's role of feeding the fountain (and lion head) as it doubles as bath and drinking water for the birds. Also when this pump is clean its throughput is reasonable, however its not great, no where near its rating pumping speed. So Im thinking Ill get a dedicated filter pump for Skippy and to supply some aeration to the pond. Ill go a higher rated pump than I need and control the flow downwards as I can then use this pump to running a bigger Skippy filter at some point in the future. Whilst I appreciate that the "which pump is best" question is a pointless one, given what you know about my pond now, Id like your thoughts on the type suitable for skippy pumping (perhaps assuming Ive lowered the sludge levels via the net) I also thought and interesting approach might be to list the common manufacturers available in the UK and see which ones the forum thinks I should AVOID ;-)

Id also be interested in the models available in the USA, whist you might think this is madness, postage costs to the UK are not huge and we have almost 2 dollars to the UK pound at the moment, coupled with the fact that the US is generally much cheaper, I can get quite a bargain sometimes (so as long as UK customs dont pick up on the item and slap me for import duty..Grrrrr.)

Excluding the really expensive specialist KOI pumps and assuming a submersible model, the usual suspects in the UK are :-

Lotus.
FishMate (popular due to sale in most DIY sheds).
HozeLock (the Titan pumps are popular here).
Blagdon (also known as Interpet)
Oase.
Fontana
Heissner.
Ubbink

Not sure if any or all of these are available in the US, however if you can advise, it would be most welcome

ChrisC.

ChrisC, the fiberglass screen wire is very fine so it will even keep out gnats. It is very flexable though like cloth so it is easy to stuff it down around the pump.

I think that there is actually only one mesh size?

catfishsam,
cheers for that, the only reason I asked, is it looked quite thick in the photo, density of the pile I guess. Also what I'm buying is an Ebay special, I was thinking I'll endup with someones wife's old stockings ;-)

ChrisC.

ChrisC, my wife doesn't miss it at all. We live in Florida. Her mum still lives in Manchester though. For the record, and because my dear wife wants to know, what is the area called that you live in?

Happy ponding,
Scott

Hi scottspond,
some how didn't think she would, Florida vs Manchester, no contest really ;-) The area I live in is New Mills, in High Peak in Derbyhsire. If it doesn't ring a bell, it's just past Lyme park, Buxton is about 2 miles away, Stockport 9 miles and Manchester 20 miles (all via road) Handily the railway station is about 5 mins away from my home, so trips to Manchester are pleasent through the countyside and don't require I use the car ;-) And in summer I get to hop on the odd steam trian, every boys dream. My Mancunian mates reckon I've gone "all posh" living here, as I was born and grew up in Fallowfield and went to school in Rusholme.

Regards

ChrisC.

Hi scottspond,
I was in a bit of rush to go to work this morning when I posted. I forgot to ask, where in Manchester does your good lady hail from?

ChrisC.

She came from Ashton-Underlyne. She use to drive a taxi through Glossop.

Scott

scottspond, LOL, I write this email sat in Ashton-Under-Lyne. I work at Barcrest, which I'm sure you're missus will know very well indeed. Don't tell me she worked for call-a-car in Denton? What a small world it is ;-)

Regards

ChrisC.

Chris, how are you coming on getting that pond cleaned?

Chris, she did work for call-a-car in Denton.

Scott

Hello pilgrim1,
Just wondering what has happened to you & your pond clean-up.
No email to contact you. Please post with update.

Did pilgrim ever surface again?