Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Product sources Deskuzzer?

HI,
I searched using the PB search tool but came up empty. Has there been discussion on PondBoss in the past about the pros/cons of the deskuzzer?

http://www.deskuzzer.com/

I'm interested in anyone with personal experience good/bad, and also perhaps some critique on pros/cons of the design or how it could be modified or improved?

I was considering making a larger version, parhaps one that could be towed from one end to the other of my pond with my garden tractor, or I could use to take one pass around the perimeter by hand.

I'm considering PVC construction, how to weight the bottom, and what type of materials would make the best netting. I'm thinking I'd go with a finer mesh netting to grab the duckweek, most any mesh will grab the globs of FA, but need something very durable. Do they make a small PVC mesh maybe?

Here is a side experience of mine that kind of pertains. In using a rake around the edges of the pond to get algae out, I have used various normal rakes. The finer the teeth(to just a blade), the more the algae just flushes out to the side because the water flow don't go thru the teeth but around the them and thus goes the algae with it. Perhaps if you want to capture just fine stuff, a fine mesh would work., but bigger stuff might plug it off completely too quickly. How about an interchangeable screen? Go around with the coarse mesh, then with a fine? just ideas.......

Great advice! I was doing my pond edges with my new toy (i had a lot of washouts this spring with the rain and I knew I would be spreading and leveling dirt) a 36" landscapers rake. I use this in the pond because it has a long handle. You are correct, the teeth are closely spaced, are strong and wider than the typical dirt or bow rake. It grabs sticks and weeds better but the algae can flow around the sides if you pull too quickly.

I'll have to experiment with bigger mesh. That reminds me of the same principal used on the cheap gutter covers you can get at big box stores. They are plastic mesh that clip on to your gutters and come in 3' sections. Some just have a wider plastic mesh, very durable, but for those of us who have maple seed helicopters and pine needles they have some where they add a second layer of plastic screen door screen over the mesh. I might be able to make a deskuzzer filter that is predominately the larger mesh size and maybe the top, bottom has finer mesh, middle has larger mesh to let water through?

I might be able to buy 4 sections of the gutter shield with wider mesh, at 3' each is 6'long contraption. Do a row of 2 pieces connected horizontally at top and 2 horizontally at bottom of the mesh plus screen, and then in the middle in between those two rows add a third row of wider mesh. Then let the individual panels hinge at the horizontal joints (join with cable ties) so it flexes and ballons back in the water to capture FA?

Examples of large and small mesh. I think the small mesh can easily be pulled off if you wanted to buy all from the same place and have some large mesh and some small.

large mesh





fine mesh

Did you do a google search for "prickly rope pond boss forum"?

Yes, I did read those threads and my son and I are planning to build one. However I was thinking it was a 2 person job with a 200' prickly rope and then have to roll up and store when not in use. A prickly rope would be ideal for this fall when I have tons of fallen leaves and want to skim them off quickly and effectively. But if I wanted to spot treat various clumps of FA I might want a smaller hand thrown device as well.

Also the prickly rope may lose grip on large clumps or weeds or sticks as it depends on cable ties to grip and hold, having netting to capture things sounds intriguing so we might build both.