Voltage is usually high here, normal is considered anything between 110 and 130 and it is usually closer to 130. There's that. Plus the Little Giant pumps are no good but that was all I could find at first, I've now found a source for other Chinese pumps with brands i've never heard of but they look more like pond pumps. Plus I'm stupid and I knew it was going out as it would turn on and off but I thought it would just keep doing that until I could get the replacement part for the other pump that broke. Well, I had found the part that broke but I had not found an adaptor that would make that fit the tubing I have so I hadn't put it in yet. Of course, when this happened and I desperately needed a pump I went and bought smaller tubing, shoulda, couldda, woulda... but I didn't do it earlier. I still have no way to run the filter or the circulation with the new size tubing though. I'm just using it to push water through some batting overnight.
Let me tell you about hardware stores here, outside of Home Depot which doesn't have much in the way of PVC fittings, they are the kind where you sit at a counter and ask for what you want. No searching through the bins looking for something that might work. Add in the language issue, my Spanish is getting better in this area from necessity but I hardly know the names of these things in English much less Spanish. Plus, you are dependent on how much time and energy the wait person wants to expend for you. I took a number and waited an hour today and then spent about a half hour trying to get the parts that would make this all work and in the end they only had one piece I could use and my bill was less than 6 pesos - which is about 45 cents. So, I can see why the guy at the counter got less enthusiastic as time wore on and the number of people waiting backed up.
I will have the laborer dig out all the rock from my bog filter tomorrow and that will expose the tubing I have. I had thought that one of them had cavitated (is that a word?) anyway so I may use the new, smaller tubing and run it inside the old corrugated stuff. It's just going to be a big deal, and mainly I hope that the fish live and that the lilies live. I can't tell you how hard (and expensive) it was for me to get those. I will have to get in the pond and scrub down the sides to get as much oil off as I can, replace the rock with new rock, and hope for the best I guess.
I ordered a Pondmaster pump and Mimi will bring it when she comes back from Calif in mid Jan. I just have to get this all working until then. Now, I'm thinking I should have gotten two of them but we aren't really sure how the airlines will take to a pump in her baggage, especially after this last incident. If she got two on the plane, MX would probably charge a big duty on at least one of them. I have friends coming down at various times this winter though and I may see about getting another pump if this one comes in smoothly.
