Pond clogging underground before it gets filtered

[Robert Cappiello]

Blow out the line using a shop vac. Attach the hose to the exhaust side of the Vac and attach to the pump side of the clogged line and blow it back into the pond.

 

[Lisak1]

When you say it's "water plastic pipe" do you mean PVC piping - the white stuff we can see in your filter picture? Or some other kind of pipe? If it's PVC pipe, I would go ahead and snake it - I think you'd be hard pressed to damage that stuff with a snake as you have to cut it with a saw. You can proceed slowly from one end and see how far the snake will go anyway and that might tell you where your clog is. And it might just be enough to break it up and get things moving again. But if it's acrylic tubing or some other kind of flexible plastic line, your dad may have a valid concern.

Your ducks are beautiful by the way, but may be more trouble than they are worth with your bottom drain issues. Hey... another thought just occurred to me - what if you abandon the bottom drain completely and set up an alternate line to the filter from a submerged pump maybe? You would then have access to your pump line if it were to continue to become clogged. Just a thought...

(Does anyone else have problems with their font suddenly becoming much smaller or much larger when you are posting? Happens to me every now and again - weird!)

 

[Meyer Jordan]

When you have unclogged this in the past, did you regain FULL water flow afterwards or only partial?

 

[jducour]

When you say it's "water plastic pipe" do you mean PVC piping - the white stuff we can see in your filter picture? Or some other kind of pipe? If it's PVC pipe, I would go ahead and snake it - I think you'd be hard pressed to damage that stuff with a snake as you have to cut it with a saw. You can proceed slowly from one end and see how far the snake will go anyway and that might tell you where your clog is. And it might just be enough to break it up and get things moving again. But if it's acrylic tubing or some other kind of flexible plastic line, your dad may have a valid concern.

Your ducks are beautiful by the way, but may be more trouble than they are worth with your bottom drain issues. Hey... another thought just occurred to me - what if you abandon the bottom drain completely and set up an alternate line to the filter from a submerged pump maybe? You would then have access to your pump line if it were to continue to become clogged. Just a thought...

(Does anyone else have problems with their font suddenly becoming much smaller or much larger when you are posting? Happens to me every now and again - weird!)

We are going to snake it today. It is PVC. My husband has a small snake- a ribbon something or other. We will just go slow. The ducks are totally worth the trouble if you ask me ask any of the men in my life, though, and they would say the ducks should go. They are good egg producers, and I make a nice chunk of extra money selling their eggs. However - I understand that I may need to prevent their use of the pond in the winter if we can't solve this problem before it gets too cold. I am curious about your idea for an alternate pump. Where could I go to find out more about that?

 

[Lisak1]

Your pond is plumbed with a bottom filter., which is one way to handle pond plumbing. Many ponds utilize a submersible (or external) pump which is plumbed to the filter. Many ponds have a skimmer and the pump is housed in the skimmer. The pump draws the water into the skimmer and pumps it to the filter which then generally leads to some type of waterfall back into the pond. (Where is @Mmathis with one of her great drawings!)

You could drop a supplementary pump into your pond and run plumbing up to your filter and bypass your bottom drain all together. This could be a temporary solution to get you through the winter, or a more permanent solution if the ducks continue to cause problems with your bottom drain. (Not blaming the ducks - they're just being ducks, right?)

Having said that, I don't know exactly how to connect to your filter - I think we might need to see more pictures of your exact set up to figure that out.

 

[Lisak1]

Meant to add - I really hope the snake works as that will be the easiest solution of all. However, if it were me I would still worry about another clog up happening in the dead of winter when it would be difficult to impossible to deal with.

 

[DrCase]

With the line being so short you could make a jetter type of head for your garden hose
Use a 3/4" pvc threaded cap and drill small holes every 1/4" around it
You will need a threaded hose adapter. To fit the cap
Then slid it through and wash the walls