Hello, I tried the Muck-Vac. It's a cheap vacuum the you hook up to a water hose. I wasnt impressed with it. I felt like all it did was waste water.

Shalom, I have a Pontec Pondamatic typ 1649, bought on sale few years ago and for my pond it works. It came with several attachements, some of which I've lost, like a home vac. When the unit is full, the discharge hose opens and discharges whatever, small rocks will remain in the vac bottom. the unit came with a fine mesh bag which I tie over the end of the discharge pipe so I can return the water to the pond, then empty the bag. It picks up most of the muck in my pond. It may well pull the hornwort, but reclaim it at the other end.

This is basically a wet vac with a discharge hose. It works for me, my pond is bout 5' x10' and 2.5' deep.

McKool

Shop Vac will suck up the gravel too and will clog up with the algae. It will not suck the algae off the hornwort.

Can you use a skimmer net for a swimming pool to scoop out the algae?

Hi
I've never had much luck with pond vacs. has all th faults you mention.. My main method is elimanate plants that grow submerged and concentrate on moveable floating plants and no rocks on the bottom. my main filtration is a "purge" system which changes around 50 percent of the water at a time depending on the amount of rainfall. i add around 30 gallons per day of tap depending on the clarity of the water. While it doesn't eliminate all algaes it does keep the floating and green water types to a minimum. Takes time to balance out but when it does will go years without major problems .
Cleaning is easy because there is nothing to get caught in the vacs. I kept this pond mainly for plants and tropical fish so only have a couple of years experience with GF. they are large and messy but so far have not overwhelmed the system !!
gary

Back years ago, I think in this forum, several members were interested in building vacuums specific to cleaning fish ponds. I was one who got into it. I developed several vacuums and went to several people's ponds to test vacuums in different conditions. Here's my page on vacuums. There's also links to building vacuums.

I don't know your pond, but in general, some species of string algae when alive and mature is like horse hair. Bind a little together and it's like rope. I've pulled every bit of out of a pond in one pull and it brought pretty much everything in the pond with it up to the size of a brick.

I don't think it would be possible to remove the string algae without removing the hornwort too. Once removed you could try and get some hornwort out of the string algae and replant. But string algae can come back, although often it's another species or it doesn't grow the same way next time.

Even if you had no hornwort, gravel or reeds, I don't know of a single vacuum that is effective with string algae. If the string algae is still alive it is basically one plant and in your size pond when removed it could be in the 100-200 pound range. No vacuum can't handle that. I've seen a vacuum with a cutter on the end that's suppose to be able to cut the string algae. I doubt it works, but you should read reviews if considered.

Even dead string algae, which breaks up easily is a big problem for a vacuum because of the volume. Easier to remove by hand or a swimming pool leaf rake.

For live string algae I used 2 pieces of 1"x1" wood nailed or bolted together in the middle so they would open and close like scissors. I'd make them about 5' long. Open them a bit, push into the algae, close, and then spin them so the algae wrapped around the wood. Once I had a good ball I'd pull it out. Generally every bit of algae came along with this ball, along with anything it was attached to.

Different species of string algae and the different life cycle stages can require different methods.

I learned 2 basic things.

First, there is no single vacuum that is effective. Ponds are cleaned in steps, removing big stuff first and ending with the small stuff. Different tools for each.

Second, don't build a pond that's hard to clean. Loose rock, gravel, plants, all good great...until it's time to clean. I mortared rock so it was easy to clean and moved all plants into their own beds and so their crowns were above the water. Crowns above the water = no string algae = happy pond keeper. That means no underwater plants like hornwort and no lilies. Lilies can get their own pond or their own deep water bed adjacent to the pond so the pads can grow out over the fish pond.

I have made a very effective tool for getting string algae out. I made it from an extendible pole/handle that I found in a dollar store. I attached a round dollar store toilet brush to it with electrical tape and plastic strip clamps for extra optional strength. Total cost was four dollars. I just twirl it and it grabs the algae far better than the twenty dollar pretty much useless tool I bought at a pond store for this purpose. I can clear my whole 1200 gallon pond just sitting from my chair! Unfortunately, you would lose some hornwort but it would be easy to save some.

Floyd hasn't posted in a long time but his pond vac is still there and from all I have seen and heard it works quite well. One of these days I'm going to make one myself if DH will stop sabotaging my projects.

Here is a link that might be useful: Floyds Pond Vac