Pump cover keeps getting clogged

12 years ago

I have a small Pondmaster pump. It has a cylinder that fits over the opening (where the water enters). This cylinder is a piece of foam surrounding a plastic core. See below for picture. It's what they're calling "replacement media."

The problem is that every day this foam gets so densely packed with -- something -- dirt? that the flow of water pretty much shrinks to a dribble. When I look at it, it's kind of sucked in in the middle of the foam, impeding the flow of water. I have to get out the pump, remove this cylinder, wash it out, and put it back on the pump.

I don't know why this is happening THAT often. It seems strange. The pond is small, around 3 ft. in diameter, and really doesn't seem that dirty! in fact I just recently set it up from scratch once again with new liner and everything after I had a leak.

Anybody had this experience?

Here is a link that might be useful: foam

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Comments (3)

annedickinson
12 years ago
Liz,

Thankfully I don't have that problem as I have a different kind of filter system with my Pondmaster. I don't know if you can adapt a regular square pondmaster filter to your pump. A friend has the foam type and mentioned that she has to rinse the foam daily.

What affects my filter the most is old plant matter: dying algea and little bits of roots etc.

There was a thread about making your own filter and I've included it here. Horton has a good idea using plastic colanders.

Good luck!!

Here is a link that might be useful: DIY Prefilter
sleeplessinftwayne
12 years ago
Hey there. Most of the time I just toss those foam filters out. They really aren't adequate most of the time. DIY prefilters can do a good job and I have used a couple of Tetra designed filters in a 100 gallon pond for more than 6 weeks without clogging so it sounds like you have a bigger problem with the water quality to start with. You don't really give us a lot of information to work with so I am going to make some assumptions. You know the problem with that so I could be totally wrong.

The first thing you should do is check the water for particulates. Just scoop out a jar or glass of the water and let it sit for an hour or so. Heavy soils will settle to the bottom, clear water will be in the middle and particulates like peat, perlite, plastic foam and general debris will float on the top. It is the top layer that is likely to be the problem but clay or sand particles can clog up a small filter just as bad if the water is moving so fast it washes them out of the pots.

One guess is you have a lot of plants potted in regular bagged potting soil and the tops of the pots are submerged. This type of medium has lots of peat and perlite (hard white granules that crumble easily) in it that floats out and is picked up by the pump filter. This is a very common problem. You need a soil that doesn't have the perlite and isn't peat based. There are soils sold for pond plants or you can use clay based soil from the garden if you sterilize it first in the microwave. Even some types of kitty litter are used for potting pond plants. To avoid soil washing out of pots, cover the soil with a layer of stones. Keep the intake of the pump as far as possible from any pots, especially lily pans. Don't let the out flow of water splash into the pots.

Do not use the type of soil that has crystals to hold moisture. They can clog up a filter very fast.

I'll be glad to pass on details if you are interested or you can do a search at the box at the end of the forum introduction.
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joe_09
12 years ago
throw the foam pad out,get a plastic mash planting basket,place the pump in side,with out any thing on the in put.fill the basket with lava rock.

Pump cover keeps getting clogged

Comments (3)

annedickinson

sleeplessinftwayne

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