pond vacuums

[oldgeezer]

Can anybody recommend a pond vacuum that will remove bottom debris (sludge), pass it through a filter of some sort, and discharge the filtered water back into the pond? Mine is a small 800 gal pond with 100-150 sq ft of bottom area.

[bulldog]

yes oase pond vac 3 works very well i think I got mine from webbs on line for 299.00

[Camper Man]

I have never heard of a vacuum that filtered sludge-laden water well enough to discharge back into the pond.  The stuff that my Matala "Muck Vac" collects is so dirty that it must be discharged into flower beds or any other location well away from the pond.
 
http://www.matalausa.com/cat66.html
 

[Otter]

I recently tried putting the muck bag for my pondovac 3 in a filter box with two layers of quilt batting.  I wouldn't call it a 100% success, but it did trap quite a bit of the fines that got through the bag.

[ghall]

yes oase pond vac 3 works very well i think I got mine from webbs on line for 299.00

I ordered one and it just came in yesterday, what  is the white filter bag with the draw string? Is that the muck bag ? Is it placed over the discharge to filter what might go back into the pond if you were discharging into the pond?
I used the vac last night without the bag and discharged the pond water onto near by rose bushes. I ran a garden hose into the pond to refill as i vaccum. This vac worked great, i was using a shop fac and emptying it every few seconds 

[Otter]

I ordered one and it just came in yesterday, what  is the white filter bag with the draw string? Is that the muck bag ?

Yes.   Wrap the drawstring around the hose and secure it with a half hitch or two, or the bag tend to come off.

Is it placed over the discharge to filter what might go back into the pond if you were discharging into the pond?

Yes, though fines will go through it.  Oase intends that the muck bag be kept on dry land.  I put the bag in the pond in one spot, vac the rest of the pond, and then take the discharge out of the pond and vac the spot where the bag was.  Recently, I've been experimenting with using quilt batting to trap more of the fines, but I haven't found a good configuration yet.

I used the vac last night without the bag and discharged the pond water onto near by rose bushes.

If you don't mind the pile of muck that builds up at the discharge, that's teh way to do it.

I ran a garden hose into the pond to refill as i vaccum.

If you want to do a water change, wait until you're done vacuuming to refill.  This will give you the greatest reduction in pollutants.  If the water level in my pond gets too low while I'm using the vac, I just turn the pump off until I'm done.