Could not resist the yok. My thinking is that if you are loosing too much
water then perhaps you need to find a smaller singularity.

A far as I know a gravity filter is any filter that is fed via gravity
instead of
a pump. That is to say you pump the water out of the filter and let gravity
feed it. While the pump is running the level of the water in the filter
will
be a bit lower then the pond, with the pump off it will be equal. So the
sides of the filter need to be same as the pond itself.

vortex filter screenIt is possible to build several filter stages that feed
each other with
the pump moving the clean water back to the pond.

Along another line. A commerical pond filter know as "big sister" and
"little sisters" use brushes to do the initial removal of solid waste. They
are said to be very effective. A few days ago I seen similar brushes on
"ask this old house". They were called gutter brushes used to clean
rain gutters. I am going to check with the local home centers to see
if they carry them.

The vortex sounds like a good idea but the brushes may be easier to
make work. Still looking for the DIY vortex webpages.
Ha just found it search was "vortex filter screen" The author is
Michael J. Singleton and the page is at
http://www.livingjewels.com/DIY/vms/vms.htm
The author says it is a DIY version of Aquatic Eco-System's
"Vortex Microstrainer, by Swee****er."
This is his second try at making one an perhaps he has it right.

Howard


"BenignVanilla" wrote in
message ...
"BenignVanilla" wrote in
message ...
Does the rest of my yard eventually get sucked into the singularity as
well?

BV.

"Howard" (remove XYZ) wrote in message
...
Quite simple if you can get the parts.

You take a 55 gallon drum like the sort pepsi syrup come in.
Use a 4" bulkhead on the input side and a 1" on the ouput.
Next you need to locate a hard to find singularity and attach
it to one side of the drum about half ways up. If you get
the placement of the singularity just right the thing does not
even require a pump. Thats about it, never needs cleaning
but for some reason a lot of water seems to get misplaced
along with the solids.

More seriously...does a gravity filter need to be below the level of the
main pond? I don't understand.

BV.