Lava rock is extremely (I really mean EXTREMELY LIGHT - it floats). It also
has a great deal more surface area than just about anything. I'm 56, 5'2",
1__ - well never mind the weight - and have no problem dealing with pulling
the bucket and all out of the pond. The only weight to the bucket is really
the water and the pump. The water can be poured out as it is lifted out. I
never thought to use a crate but that would be even easier to pull out given
that the water is displaced by air as you lift it out of the pond. The
bucket works because the draw is from the bottom of the bucket and this
pulls the water through the lava rock making for a nice bio filter...


"Newbie Bill" wrote in message
m...
I indeed have read numerous references to filling a 5 gal bucket or milk
crate with pea gravel or lava rock. I tried the milk crate with pea
gravel
for a while and found even that very difficult pull out of the pond. In
that I am pretty sure most of you lift 12 oz much more often than what
50-70
lbs dead weight, how do you manage this?
Weakling in Austin
Bill Brister


"D Kat" wrote in message
...
I hesitate to post this again after just being made fun of for my
repeating
it continuously but it really does work for me. I had the same issue
with
not being able to deal with the cleaning of the prefilter all of the
time
(I
was about to just fill in the pond because of the twice a week clean
that
this system needed). Someone else posted in here about putting a pump
in
a
bucket filled with lava rock. This acts both as a bio filter and as a
prefilter to the pump. I only clean mine out about once a year and I
have
been using this method for some time now. I had been using a waterfall
pump
which is not picky about being prefiltered but when the cord was damaged
I
fell back on my old pump that had needed prefiltering and it has been
working fine.


"Pat" wrote in message
newsWFBc.86339$HG.80536@attbi_s53...
"grubber" wrote in message
...
"Pat" wrote in message
news:spEBc.90019$Sw.26836@attbi_s51...
Hi all,

I would like to select an efficient (submersible) pond pump for
my
pond
(capable of 1200 gph at 4ft head). Unfortunately, most pump specs
only
list
a single "power consumption" value without specifying what flow
(or
head)
that occurs at. What I really need is a power consumption vs.
flow
(or
head) curve so I can determine the power consumption at my
particular
conditions. Is there any way to extrapolate this from typically
pump
specs?
Any other sources for this information? I'm currently considering
Oase
and
Cyprio models.

Thanks for any help. I appreciate it. -Pat





I know Sequence pumps have power v flow curves available, but those
are
external pumps. For submersibles, the Laguna 5000 should give the
flow
you
need at around 85 watts, which is the most efficient submersible I
found
when I looked.

If you can make an external pump work, they tend to be more
efficient
than
the submersibles.




Thanks for the reply.

I considered a Sequence but all their models are designed for larger
applications. The smallest I found (3200SEQ20) was rated for 2800gph.
The
Laguna 5000 looks good, but would probably need a prefilter. Our last
pump
required a prefilter, which constantly clogged and was a real pain.
Also,
given how much lower it's advertised power consumption is than other
comparable mag drive products, I wonder how real it really is (either
that,
or else the flowrate is not what they claim).

The appeal of either the Oase AquaMax/Powermax or Cyprio Titan is
their
ability to pass solids, which (I think) should make them more
maintenace
free. And they both look (on paper at least) to be pretty effiicient.

I'm surprised the manufacturers don't include more information on the
power
use of their products since (in my opinion) this an important aspect
to
consider when making a selection, given how much it can cost to
operate
these things 24/7.

Thanks again, -Pat