Beautiful Pond Vacuums

Pond Vacuums

The goal of all pond keepers is to stock their pond with healthy fish that are long lived and keep the water quality as high as possible. Fish pond filters do most of the work but they also need help, the fish pond filters, if rated correctly will turn over the total water volume of the fish pond at least once every hour and remove any suspended debris as well as hosting beneficial bacteria that convert the fish waste and rotting detritus into nitrates. This is the limit of the fish pond filters, they cannot keep the bottom of the pond clear of silt and leaving this in place can cause a build up of toxic gases that are trapped in the mud so help is at hand by using a pond vacuum on a regular basis, this will remove the silt, lifting it clear of the pond thus keeping your fish pond looking nice and clear.

Pond vacuums are relatively simple to use and the task of vacuuming the pond out can be performed by any member of the family, even the youngsters at the weekends. Nowadays there are many models to choose from and these can all vary in price dependant on how much power that the pond vacuum is running at. There are basically three main types of pond vacuum:

In-pond Vacuums
Pond-side Vacuums
Hose powered Pond Vacuums

All three of these have their advantages and disadvantages, some are more suitable for smaller ponds, some for the larger ponds, browsing around the suppliers websites will give you all the information that you require to make the right choice.

In-pond vacuums are very easy to use, they are basically a pump that is mounted on the end of a pole, as the pump runs, the silt and debris is pulled through the pole and out of the pond. Many of these will also house chopping blades that can break down larger pieces of debris so that the pumping action is never halted by the pipe getting blocked. The blades are safely housed inside a casing and are will not put the user at risk of losing their fingers. If you do need to clean out the blades, always unplug the vacuum so that there is no chance of the pump striking up while the blade housing is being cleaned. Some models will also include two heads, a large head for vacuuming the open areas and a smaller head for those awkward places that we all come across.

Pond-side vacuums, as the name suggests, consist of a canister which houses the pump and this sits at the side of the pond, the suction heads are connected to the collection canister by means of a length of hose and this makes the cleaning operation a bit easier than using an in-pond vacuum as the hosing is lighter to hold due to it only having the suction heads attached, you are not lifting the actual pump all of the time while you are using the pond vacuum. Most of the canisters will hold straining baskets which catch the larger particles of debris and these can easily be removed for cleaning.

Hose-powered vacuums are ideal for the smaller fish ponds or even small water features. They simply attach to any garden hose and are very easy to use. When the garden hose is switched on, it creates a venturi effect and the waste is pulled through and all of the dirt is trapped into a muslin bag, the resulting clean water is then dispersed back into the pond. These simple hose kits are very cheap to purchase but they are only suited to very small ponds and cannot be used in larger and deeper ponds.