How To Stop Clogging Pond Pump

I have a 5000 gph pump on my pond that feeds my waterfall. At the
height of summer when all the algae blooms the pump gets clogged. I
do not want to burn the pump up so I am looking for some ideas for a
pre-filter or something that will keep the majority of debris away
from the pump itself. I have considered a container but with such a
large pump I do not want to restrict the water flow either - I could
easily burn it up that way too. Any ideas appreciated.

Rick

You might check out some of the skimmers on the market. The pump is housed
behind a filter in the skimmer and the skimmer itself is designed for a
certain water flow. Mine is a pondsweep:

http://www.pondsweep.com/PondSweepSkimmers.html

It has a huge added benefit which is, of course, the skimming action.

Joe


Chester Deja wrote:

I have a 5000 gph pump on my pond that feeds my waterfall. At the
height of summer when all the algae blooms the pump gets clogged. I
do not want to burn the pump up so I am looking for some ideas for a
pre-filter or something that will keep the majority of debris away
from the pump itself. I have considered a container but with such a
large pump I do not want to restrict the water flow either - I could
easily burn it up that way too. Any ideas appreciated.



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Leaf Basket?

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"Chester Deja" wrote in message
om...
I have a 5000 gph pump on my pond that feeds my waterfall. At the
height of summer when all the algae blooms the pump gets clogged. I
do not want to burn the pump up so I am looking for some ideas for a
pre-filter or something that will keep the majority of debris away
from the pump itself. I have considered a container but with such a
large pump I do not want to restrict the water flow either - I could
easily burn it up that way too. Any ideas appreciated.

Rick

The nicest way is to get the pump out of the pond, see *My Filter*. )
In the meantime, an easy fix is to encase the pump inside two LARGE mesh
plant baskets (an example of a smaller setup is on page 7, scroll down to
lower left corner picture after clicking on *My Pond Photos* at
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/). Larger baskets can be purchased from
www.aqua-mart.com, I used plastic zip ties to attach the two baskets
together. Do not put any media in the baskets with the pump, this set up
will keep your pump clog free all season, yet gives enough surface area
that water can always get thru. ~ jan

See my ponds thru the seasons and/or my filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

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

On 20 Oct 2003 14:54:38 -0700, (Chester Deja) wrote:

I have a 5000 gph pump on my pond that feeds my waterfall. At the
height of summer when all the algae blooms the pump gets clogged. I
do not want to burn the pump up so I am looking for some ideas for a
pre-filter or something that will keep the majority of debris away
from the pump itself. I have considered a container but with such a
large pump I do not want to restrict the water flow either - I could
easily burn it up that way too. Any ideas appreciated.

Rick

We have our pump in a 5 gal bucket with 1/2" holes (the size material the
pump can pull through) all around it. It has about as many holes as I
thought I could reasonable put in it. No clogs, no flow problems in 5
years. The bucket is on bricks to keep it off the bottom.

--
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Check out Jog-A-Thon fundraiser (clears $140+ per jogger) at:
www.jogathon.net
See our pond at: http://www.home.bellsouth.net/p/pwp-jameshurley
"Chester Deja" wrote in message
om...
I have a 5000 gph pump on my pond that feeds my waterfall. At the
height of summer when all the algae blooms the pump gets clogged. I
do not want to burn the pump up so I am looking for some ideas for a
pre-filter or something that will keep the majority of debris away
from the pump itself. I have considered a container but with such a
large pump I do not want to restrict the water flow either - I could
easily burn it up that way too. Any ideas appreciated.

Rick

On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 03:04:57 GMT, "Just Me \"Koi\""
wrote:

Leaf Basket?


Look at my toilet bowl brush pre-filter. It filters out the junk that clogs and
lets the larger but "filterable" go on through to your other filters. It cost
all of $2.00 to build.

Check it out at http://community.webshots.com/user/rhino218

Rhino
See My Pond

Follow the Pond Links

"Without the second ammendment, the others are just suggestions."