Benign Vanilla wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm planning a new pond and stream and have the following problem
figuring out how to clean out the gunk carried away from the bottom
drain. In short, it's going to be 5' underground where I can't
just
open a valve and drain it off.

The distance from the bottom drain to a bio filter at the head of
the
stream will be about 45'. With the bottom of the pond at at least
3'
and the bottom drain pipe dropping at least 1/4" per foot, that
puts
the output of the drain pipe at least 4' below ground level. I
plan to
have a gravity-fed drum there from which water will be pumped into
the
bio filter. The drum will act as a settling tank for the crud
carried
away from the bottom drain. Should I put a small pump in the drum
that
can tollerate the gunk in the water to occasionally pump it out, or
is
there a better solution?

My VF is gravity fed by a bottom drain. My pump is in the VF and
fills
another pond, which overflows back to the main pond. From time to
time, if I
want to do a big pull or blow of the plumbing, I put a 5 foot piece
of pipe
into the bottom drain so no water can get into it. Then just as the
VF nears
empty, I pull the pipe out of the bottom drain and WHOOSH. I've shot
an
entire Water Hyacinth from the bottom drain clear across the VF. LOL.
Of
course, I never got around to installing a diffuser so this is easy
for me.
This year, I plan to put in a diffuser so this technique will become
more
difficult.


Ah. I was wondering how to clean out a long drain pipe. Clever.

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice.

Chris