I meant to reply earlier and forgot but this brings to mind what I do and
how it keeps my pond from ever being pumped dry. I put my pump in a 5
Gallon bucket and then fill the bucket with lava rock. Ideally the bucket
should be the opposite end of the pond from where the flow of water comes in
(that is if you are pumping the water into a second pond that then runs back
into the primary pond). I can run mine all year and doesn't need cleaned
except for in the spring when I simply pull the dump the bucket out, rinse
the rocks with pond water and then reassemble. The water in the pond cannot
go below the level of the buckets side and you develop a nice bio filter as
well.
"tom A" wrote in message
...
HI
something you may want to consider, which I did not see mentioned.


If you have your pump sucking water from the bottom of the pond, and
the outlet hose/pipe goes outside of the pond. if for some reason it
develops a leak :-( it will suck your pond dry and all your fish
will die or easily be caught by coons and other predators :-(

what I do and suggests is raise your pump off the bottom of the pond
to the 1/3 to 1/2 level then if the leak develops and you are not in
the immediate area the water level will only drop to that level.


I at one time tried putting the pump in a bucket, with the bucket
setting on the bottom of the pond. and this seemed like it would work
OK .
but if the level dropped below the top of the bucket, the pump would
empty the bucket, then it would float and the pump would fall out and
then suck the pond empty :-(


JUST my .02$







tom A.
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