How to clean out a deep settling tank?

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I'm planning a new pond and stream and have the following problem
figuring out how to clean out the gunk carried away from the bottom
drain. In short, it's going to be 5' underground where I can't just
open a valve and drain it off.

The distance from the bottom drain to a bio filter at the head of the
stream will be about 45'. With the bottom of the pond at at least 3'
and the bottom drain pipe dropping at least 1/4" per foot, that puts
the output of the drain pipe at least 4' below ground level. I plan to
have a gravity-fed drum there from which water will be pumped into the
bio filter. The drum will act as a settling tank for the crud carried
away from the bottom drain. Should I put a small pump in the drum that
can tollerate the gunk in the water to occasionally pump it out, or is
there a better solution?

[Snooze]

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> I'm planning a new pond and stream and have the following problem
> figuring out how to clean out the gunk carried away from the bottom
> drain. In short, it's going to be 5' underground where I can't just
> open a valve and drain it off.
>
> The distance from the bottom drain to a bio filter at the head of the
> stream will be about 45'. With the bottom of the pond at at least 3'
> and the bottom drain pipe dropping at least 1/4" per foot, that puts
> the output of the drain pipe at least 4' below ground level. I plan to
> have a gravity-fed drum there from which water will be pumped into the
> bio filter. The drum will act as a settling tank for the crud carried
> away from the bottom drain. Should I put a small pump in the drum that
> can tollerate the gunk in the water to occasionally pump it out, or is
> there a better solution?


I can't imagine that a submersibile pump would create the suction you'd need
to pump up the gunk every so often. Especially not if it has to pump out
muck at least 5 feet. Remember this is something that needs to be done
regularly, if it's not easy, it's not done regularly.

I use two 55 gal drums that are hidden behind the waterfall, as two settling
chambers in series. I drilled out a hole near the bottom and put a valve at
the bottom. Just open the valve, drain out the water, move the nearly empty
drum to the lawn, dump out the rest, hose out the inside, and i'm done.

-S

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

>On 20 Mar 2005 18:29:15 -0800, wrote:

>I'm planning a new pond and stream and have the following problem
>figuring out how to clean out the gunk carried away from the bottom
>drain. In short, it's going to be 5' underground where I can't just
>open a valve and drain it off.

Look into gate valves (I think they're called) and vortex filters. They are
about 5 feet deep (in ground) with a coned bottom and pumping off the tip.
Gate valves can be pulled up with a hooked tool (or some may have long
enough handles) to open from the 5 + feet level.

The demon pond has it's valve ~3 ft. below the ground, it is a ball valve,
I use a garden claw to turn it.

There's also the threaded stand pipe idea, that you screw into the bottom
drain (of the filter/barrel) but then you have to work your filter material
around this pipe that goes all the way up and slightly above the top edge.
When you want to drain, unscrew. Could be used as an overflow pipe too.
~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

[Benign Vanilla]

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> I'm planning a new pond and stream and have the following problem
> figuring out how to clean out the gunk carried away from the bottom
> drain. In short, it's going to be 5' underground where I can't just
> open a valve and drain it off.
>
> The distance from the bottom drain to a bio filter at the head of the
> stream will be about 45'. With the bottom of the pond at at least 3'
> and the bottom drain pipe dropping at least 1/4" per foot, that puts
> the output of the drain pipe at least 4' below ground level. I plan to
> have a gravity-fed drum there from which water will be pumped into the
> bio filter. The drum will act as a settling tank for the crud carried
> away from the bottom drain. Should I put a small pump in the drum that
> can tollerate the gunk in the water to occasionally pump it out, or is
> there a better solution?

My VF is gravity fed by a bottom drain. My pump is in the VF and fills
another pond, which overflows back to the main pond. From time to time, if I
want to do a big pull or blow of the plumbing, I put a 5 foot piece of pipe
into the bottom drain so no water can get into it. Then just as the VF nears
empty, I pull the pipe out of the bottom drain and WHOOSH. I've shot an
entire Water Hyacinth from the bottom drain clear across the VF. LOL. Of
course, I never got around to installing a diffuser so this is easy for me.
This year, I plan to put in a diffuser so this technique will become more
difficult.


--
BV
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[Chris]

Benign Vanilla wrote:
> > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> > I'm planning a new pond and stream and have the following problem
> > figuring out how to clean out the gunk carried away from the bottom
> > drain. In short, it's going to be 5' underground where I can't
just
> > open a valve and drain it off.
> >
> > The distance from the bottom drain to a bio filter at the head of
the
> > stream will be about 45'. With the bottom of the pond at at least
3'
> > and the bottom drain pipe dropping at least 1/4" per foot, that
puts
> > the output of the drain pipe at least 4' below ground level. I
plan to
> > have a gravity-fed drum there from which water will be pumped into
the
> > bio filter. The drum will act as a settling tank for the crud
carried
> > away from the bottom drain. Should I put a small pump in the drum
that
> > can tollerate the gunk in the water to occasionally pump it out, or
is
> > there a better solution?
>
> My VF is gravity fed by a bottom drain. My pump is in the VF and
fills
> another pond, which overflows back to the main pond. From time to
time, if I
> want to do a big pull or blow of the plumbing, I put a 5 foot piece
of pipe
> into the bottom drain so no water can get into it. Then just as the
VF nears
> empty, I pull the pipe out of the bottom drain and WHOOSH. I've shot
an
> entire Water Hyacinth from the bottom drain clear across the VF. LOL.
Of
> course, I never got around to installing a diffuser so this is easy
for me.
> This year, I plan to put in a diffuser so this technique will become
more
> difficult.
>

Ah. I was wondering how to clean out a long drain pipe. Clever.

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice.

Chris

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

>entire Water Hyacinth from the bottom drain clear across the VF.

WH as pipe cleaners? :) ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~