Water Gardening: Does this help?.. changing water..., 1 by Dinu

Dinu wrote:
Here is the drawing I have made to show how I have made my pump out of PVC pipe - 1 and half inch diamater. The length of the pipe should be about 15 inches or so longer than the depth of the pond. The washer fitted to the handle should not snugly fit the inner diameter but allow about 2mm around it to bring water and also dirt upwards. The glass ball (usually played as a toy by kids - pebble, as you call) acts as a one way valve.

As soon as the pump is inserted in the water, the pressure of water pushes the pebble up and allows water in to the tube. Now, begin to move the washer using the handle up and down slowly and that draws more water inside while water is pushed up further as the handle goes down. Once full, water and dirt begins to flow out of the outlet pipe which is fitted using a "T". The top portion is fitted with a piece of PVC pipe so that it can be removed easily if the washer gets clogged with bigger objects. It is working well for me.

The greatest advantage is that it does not disturb the top portion of the pond but draws out unwanted things from the bottom. Once you start using you will learn how to handle the thing. I have used an old plastic bottle at the bottom and made holes in the sides and bottom so that it freely allows free entry of debris into the narrowish pipe near the valve. If it gets blocked, change the place of the pump. The disadvantage is that bigger objects will stay there. But this can be removed using a netting or anything suitable for that job, after the finer particles are gone.