Hi Jan,

We have inherited a pond and after a year, created a new one. This is now
about four years old and is working a treat. It's bigger than yours, but
the principals are the same.

We have problems with filtration everytime I get in the pond (in waders. I
look like Wallace in the wrong trousers!) and thin out the canadian pond
weed.

We started with a biozorb outfit and an Oase 10000 pump. This required
cleaning daily to begin with (the full story is at www.pennix.co.uk), hence
creating the current pond (3000-3500 gals). We now have a biotec 10 (Oase)
and bought it for £400 including a new Oase 10000 pump.

This year, I have cleaned the filters once and it seems to be working fine.

In our opinion, pump cages just reduce the flow through the pump and cause
the pump to work much harder. That's why we went for the Oase pump, which
can allow most of the gunk to pass through and be removed by the filtration
system.

We had on-board filters on the original pumps left by the previous owner of
the property and they were absolutely knackered. We also bought a Blagdon
(£80) pump for a small fountain and it lasted about two weeks before it too
clogged. We wouldn't touch Blagdon now, because we feel that the impellor
pump operated by Oase is a much more appropriate design and does not clog -
or hasn't in the last three years.

"Jan-I" wrote in message
...

Hi, new here, my first post and I'm looking for a bit of advice with
something we're unfamiliar with. We've had a 1000 gallon pond with
orfe, GF, etc since we moved here 9 years ago. We have a Blagdon pump
(operating waterfall and small fountain, filter box, and UV.

A couple of weeks ago our pump packed up, so we bought a new one direct
from Blagdon. It came with a free plastic "pump cage" which the pump
fits inside and is supposed to reduce maintenance. Our old pump slotted
inside a large square sponge filter, which caught lots of sludge and had
to be cleaned out weekly/fortnightly depending on the time of year.

We have not had very clear water yet this year (usually it's really
clear) and assume it's because the old pump wasn't working properly
before it packed up. We installed the new pump, put a new bulb in the
UV and thought we would be clear within days.

However about 5 days later, we are no clearer. There seems to be gunge
in a suspension in the water, which is not clearing. The filter box,
which hardly ever needed cleaning got so gunged up it pushed the lid
off and started leaking.

Is this a sort of run-in period for the pump with the cage? Does the
cage mean that the silt/waste etc is pumped into and trapped in the
filter box, instead of being trapped in the square sponge filter as it
was previously. Will the water, does anyone think, clear, or does
using the cage instead of the old sponge filter mean less maintenance,
but murkier water? Is the muck being pumped back into the pond at the
other end - is that why it's not clearing? If so, we still have the
option to ditch the cage and go back to using the sponge filter. But I
note that the newest Blagdon pumps (we bought an old model as it was
what we were familiar with) are actually encased in cages - I can't see
a new product giving an inferior performance as far as water clarity is
concerned - even if it does mean less cleaning.

I don't know whether to persevere longer (how long?) with the cage, or
revert to the sponge filter. I'd be grateful for advice from anyone
with similar experiences.


--
Jan-I