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Hi:

I've got a 1,000 gallon poly stock tank, 9' diameter circle, 2.5' deep or so (but only filled about 3/4'ths full, of course). I've got a lot of water hyacinth, water lettuce & some other things, so naturally it builds up crud on the bottom fast.

I use a PondMaster 1700 filter system and added a PondMaster submersible UV-Sterilizer to eliminate a 'green water' problem, which once I removed the 'fountain head' & made the pump blast horizontally away from the filter, it did.

Weeeeeeeeeeell, crud builds up on the bottom of this pond. And over time clogs the filter's pads, which then require servicing. This is annoying.

So I started checking into pond vacuuming options. At Wal-mart they sell a vacuum for this; it hooks to the water hose & sucks the crud up into a bag. Cute. Problem: fine particulates get through the bag & make a muddy water mess. So I ditched that.

There are pool vacuums offered that look good, but there's a problem: they require being attached to a pool filter. Went to a local pool store today; their smallest pool sand filter is over $350, a big metal tank sitting beside a sizeable pump, and that would need a base to sit on & probably some kind of little shed to keep rain off the pump. Seems a bit much.

I've heard of people using Shop Vacs to clean out submerged setups. Here's a promising one at Lowe's http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=215731-20097-93013-11&lpage=none]http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=215731-20097-93013-11&lpage=none[/link]. And here's a higher volume cheaper one that lacks the 'stainless steel' of the other.[link=http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=215729-20097-93019-11&lpage=none.

Is this an acceptable use for this type of device? Is it reasonable expected to work well?

Thanks!

Richard.

You could probably use either of those for vacumming assuming that you could route the water out of the vacumn. I just have always used a pool skimmer net and just scooped out all the big stuff and just cleaned the filters really good.

I've ordered a product called the Muck Vac from Pet Warehouse online, & it should hook to the water hose & work like a Python system does for indoor aquariums. Assuming my water pressure's adequate...

Richard.

I use the same python as I use in my aqarium.

We use a regular ol' Wet-Dry Vac we had for keeping water off the garage floor. It works extremely well and it's pretty easy to empty.

-Molly
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Just wanted to post a late update. The Muck Vac worked fine. Since the stock tank sits on top of the ground, once the water hose's output establishes the siphon (primes it, whatever you want to call it), it sucks well (now if that's not a contradiction in terms... ). Kind of like a gravel vacuum would be if you used a vacuum cleaner hose for tubing.

Now, with an inground pond where the water level is below the ground level of the output hose, your mileage may vary. I have not tried that.

Some other turtle keepers indicated that if I used a Shop Vac for this sort of thing, it'd fill rapidly with water, & I'd often have to stop & wait for it to drain since it'd fill much faster than it'd empty.

Richard.