I saw an article on the Internet about two years ago on making a sludge remover using a shop vac and a plastic barrel for collecting the mulk before it gets to the vac. It had, I believe, 2x4 external reinforsements on the outside of the barrel to keep it from collapsing when a vacuum was pulled in it. Unfortuantely I did not bookmark and can't find it. Can anyone help me locate this?
Thanks.
Tom
This message was edited Feb 9, 2006 5:41 PM
Homemade sludge Remover Using a Shop Vac
tomrhyne---I am new to DG. But I to have been toying with that very idea. although I did not think of the barrel colapsing, have not tried it yet. I wonder were you planing on useing a pvc pipe for a suction wand?
My pond is now ice covered except for the two places created by the pumps flow so I am waiting till spring to try anything.
My first thought would be to put in a bottom suction drain even if it has to come from a low spot on the skimmer and go through the linner and to the bottom then just close the wier on the skimmer then the "yuk" should be drawn to the falls filter and that could be drained off to the garden, with another fitting and valve and drain line to the garden. A little extra firterlizer for the veggies. However a small pump once primed could do the same thing while you were cleaning and it would also remove enough water and allow new to be added much like siphoning off 25% of the water in an aquarium to aid in getting lower amonia readings and such.
of course I have no idea the size of your pond or accesable your falls filter is for that idea. I did't give a thought that you may have been thinking of larger debris, so maybe back to the barrel???? fire back at me; I did see a hand operated suction pump for things like that too.
RP, thanks for the reply. My pond is about 3000 gallons. I haven't given a lot of thought to the type of wand I would use, but pvc would work. The article I'm looking for covered all that and had good pictuures and construction details. The author had to add the external support due to the vacuum causing the barrel to collapse. Hopefully some of the forum readers can point us to the website where I saw this contraption.
Tom
I had a friend a long time ago, who made a vaccum out of a wet/vac. It wasn't a constantly running pump/filter, but something he could use every other morning or so, much like sweeping your pool.
I'll try to explain it the best I can, but trust me, I'm not mechanic. He used the normal top part of the wetvac, hose and motor, then built a large square box, probably 3 feet high. He lined the box with pond liner so it was waterproof, then made 3 screened shelves that sat about a foot apart all the way up. The shelves were made out of wood slats and 1/4" chicken wire ( I think that's what the wire that looks like graph paper is called) On the top shelf, he had pebbles, just a bit bigger than aquarium gravel. The pump motor, feeding water into the box on the top, would run through the pebble shelf, down to the next shelf which had a layer of bio-balls(?) which were round little balls with like velcro around them. The last shelf was a fiber mat, it looked like what you put in your airconditioner (like a thicker layer of what's on the teflon sponges you clean your dishes with. After the water ran through the last layer at the bottom of the box, it ran back into the pond, fairly clean. Although he'd take the shelves out and clean them from time to time of the major junk, he didn't washt them completely, so he wouldn't ruin the good bacteria. The only layer he'd replace from time to time, was the bottom one with the fiber sheet, so the water would be clear.
The whole thing looked similar to a beekeepers box, just a bit larger.
sounds like you are describing a pump bio filter combo....and is doable if your time aint woth nothing ...if your time is worth more than a couple hundred $$ you could buy the same thing in a hundred variations that would also likly be less unsightly and take up much less space!!!. I think what the original poster was asking about was a sludge remover which what you have described IS NOT. I guess it would remove particulants in the water that become sludge but I don't think youd want to run your intake back and forth on the bottom to upchuck the sludge or you'd have to clean every 15 secs. or so...David
The box itself only took about 45 minutes to build....The first time he ran it, it was a bit tedious, until most of the sludge (that has accumulated all summer long) was finally gone. After that, it was only run about every other day to vacuum up the bottom, and took only a few minutes. The box itself, was attractive, it was 2 horizantal 2x12's ontop on one another, 2 foot in length, all the way around. 2x2x2x2 x 24"high. the part where the water cam out of the bottom of the one side and back into the pond, looked like a waterfall ledge just slightly above the pond water level....
Tom, I did some searching because the idea intrigued me. Is this what you're talking about, or close to it? http://members.shaw.ca/floydn/
Thank you gardenwife.!
I done a lot of searching also only came close. but did come up with a homemade biological filter from three plastic barrels.
Right now all I can find is the picture I coppied. but on the bottom of the page it says http://users.owt.com/jjspond/filters/photos/diagram.jpg.
Thought I copyed all of it. but if you are intrested I think go to google and type jjs pond filter it might get you there. will check it out and get back to yall if it don't work
I think I can make a working model from that. I am also sure that tomrhyne will also thank you. I may have to put a course screen on the suction end to keep my little baby fishies from being garden compost.
Russ
gardenwife, Yes! Thank You. Thank You. That is the article I was looking for but could not find it. I googled all combinations without sucess. How did you find it?
Again, thanks!
Tom
I tried several searches for keywords that described what you were talking about, and eventually got lucky with this combination of words:
shop vac sludge remover
The 6th hit was the shaw.com link I gave above. I love doing searches like that. Glad to help!