Mine works that way, too. You didn't mention whether you have fish. One
thing I do is to push the suction pipe into a long handled net, and kind of
grip the handle along the length of it. It takes two hands, but the net
keeps the fish out. It does take a lot of loads, but my pond is about twice
the size of yours. My net also has a fairly coarse mesh. It allows most
anything in. If your debris is too big, what you might try is to push the
opening fairly tightly against the pond bottom and only let up a little bit,
as you move it along. Good luck.

Ann
"Remydog" wrote in message
news:v0emc.37565$Ik.2403161@attbi_s53...
Most wet/dry vacs that I have seen have a safety to prevent water from
reaching the level of the motor. There is either a float that shuts off
the
air flow or a switch that shuts off the motor.

"O3raledale" wrote in message
...
Thanks to all who responded to my post. I'll try it out this weekend and
let ya
all know how I made out.
Thanks,
-Pat