# Filters for pond pump



## jacobchavarria (9 mo ago)

Does anyone have some recommendations on filters for this pvc pipe? The sprinkler filter screen I'm running keeps getting clogged with debris.


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## 440mag (Jan 29, 2018)

How far out into the water does the intake / suction pipe go?

If you can get the actual intake opening out past the shoreline muck and into deeper water (where not enough light for muck to grow) - but off the bottom of the pond - you *may* not need a filter.

At least, that is what I learned in retrofitting my situation …

Attached are a link: https://www.amazon.com/Superior-Pump-91601-2-Inch-Screen/dp/B000X09HTM/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2BYP392CJTDK1&keywords=lake+pump+filter&qid=1656043536&sprefix=Lake+pump+filter%2Caps%2C149&sr=8-2

- and a photo to the one I bought ahead of pulling my intake out of our lake for the first time since 2014 (if not longer - we bought the house in '14 but understand the irrigation system was put in in 2009-10 or thereabouts).

The filter in the link and photo is 2" as our pvc intake (suction) pipe is 1-1 /2" schedule 40 pvc …

But, I wound up not using it. Our pump was losing prime and I assumed some freshwater mussels or similar had gotten inside the check valve / back flow preventer mounted on the very end of the intake pipe where I ASSumed I would find a filter.

Attached filters show what I found: check valve and NO FILTER!

Perplexed I reached out to a couple local landscapers and they said if one gets the intake out FAR ENOUGH (deep enough where all that junk you see on the shoreline doesn't have light etc enough to grow) *and* gets it up (at least 12", preferably 16" -18") OFF the lake bed a filter is rarely necessary.

They must be right as we've never had clogs of any kind …

The same filter I linked also showed up in a YouTube a guy in FL did but as you can see from the attached photo, he has his filter pointing down - right into the bottom of the canal running behind his house. That struck me as just plain odd …

*How far out into the water does you suction pipe go?*


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## 440mag (Jan 29, 2018)

Almost forgot; this 3-1/2 foot dude (dudette?) cruised by me as I was getting started, about 11am …. same banded water snake we shooed off our dock back in March and he (she?) has more than quadrupled in size since then … I guess a 24/7/365 buffet of fish and every other tidbit imaginable is faring him (her?) well and will do that, haha!


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## 440mag (Jan 29, 2018)

I should add: Turns out the losing prime was due to hairline cracks in the pvc fittings because the original installers ran rigid pvc pipe down a steep embankment so the pipe was bowed ridiculously and after baking in the uv light for over a decade the integrity of the fittings started to disintegrate.

I replaced ("relaxed") the first 20' of rigid pipe with Abbott Rubber Co. 1-1/2" flexible irrigation ("water transfer") hose from Tractor Supply, for less than $40 …


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

I would consider using the same type of flexible line you have and rigging a floating pickup 12-24" below the surface. Eliminate the hardline in the water. Anchor it in the lake bed or tie it off between the dock piers if possible. Keeps it off the bottom, and away from surface crud, regardless of the water level. The only thing on the end of the line should be a very coarse (1/4"-1/2" openings) strainer and a foot valve. Do any finer filtration on the pressure side of the pump.

Painting PVC can do much to extend it's UV resistance.

ETA: Our golf-course irrigation system had a similar floating pickup. It was a 6" suction line about 30ft long that was lashed to two 30 gallon poly-drums ratchet strapped together. This all floated out in the middle of the creek. Hung a small electric submersible pump out there as well connected to a standard garden hose. This was for priming the system as inevitably the foot valve would allow the suction line to drain over the course of a couple days. Open the vent over the main pump, plug in the submersible, when water flowed out the vent, close it and hit the contactor for the main pump. Yee haw. :lol: :bandit:


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