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Joined: Dec 2011
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My pond is fed by diverted creek water, flowing through a 6" PVC pipe. About half above grade and half slightly below. It has only a slight amount of fall, with a meandering route through a forest. I just repaired a broken section from a fallen tree. The inside of the broken section had a slight amount of mud, but not enough to suspect it could cause a restriction.

In years past, it could always could transport a full load of water, about 300 gpm. But, we have had four years of drought with little water. Now, when we finally have ample water, the flow is greatly reduced, but I don't know why. I have less than normal water going in and coming out the other end.

There is plenty of available water at the 6" PVC inlet. The inlet is submerged, and well screened to keep out debris.

With 1/4 mile of pipe and no cleanouts, I'm trying to figure out how to approach this problem. The only other factors are that about 100 feet from the inlet, I can hear "tinkling" water inside the pipe at a 45 degree coupling butted up to a tree. I don't "hear" water anywhere else. And I'm wondering if tree roots might have raised the pipe somewhere along the way causing uphill flow?

Any ideas about how to troubleshoot this?

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That is a tough one to tackle. My only idea right now is to dig to the pipe, cut it, and install some cleanouts. Once you have access, you can use any number of methods to inspect or clean it out.

An off chance is the bubbles represent a high area in the pipe with trapped air, lessening the flow. Get the air out, and it may help? Pull a strong siphon by attaching more pipe on the end and downhill somewhere, and it may flush whatever is blocking you.

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Why not open some up as open ditch/stream? You could leave the current protection on the inlet end. I would think that 1/4 mile of 6" pipe will continue to cause clogging problems. The open water will also add habitat for animals.

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If the head is not too great between the inlet and discharge of the pipe, you might try hooking a trash pump up to the discharge and back flush the pipe. If there are no air leaks in the pipe, this should also purge the air from the pipe and possibly restart the siphon once the trash pump is removed. If there are air leaks, this also might help you find them by walking the line looking for water seeping from the pipe while the pump is running.

Last edited by Bill D.; 05/22/17 06:53 AM.

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i agree with the trash pump idea. i would try it from both ends. also, plumbers or drain cleaning companies (roto rooter) have cameras they can shoot thru a pipe, i am not sure bout how far they can go. they are very reasonable to hire. installing cleanouts should be cheap and easy.


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We filter this water after the creek diversion since we use it downstream for sprinklers. If we opened it up to ditch, that exposes it to debris which would plug the sprinklers.

I'm guessing each cleanout, if added, at about $200 each not counting labor. 6" repair couplings, pipe, and fittings are pricey.

I do have a trash pump. It puts out 160gpm and I don't think I can regulate its output pressure. I don't want to blow up my pipe or cause more problems. So maybe I need to consider how to plumb in a trash pump that also has some pressure relief valve included?

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If you install a tee and a valve to dump water, then you could gradually close the valve and increase pressure. If you add a pressure gauge, that might get you there. I used just such a setup for irrigation adjusted the throttle until the valve could be closed. Our disc filter also had pressure relief valves.

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I sawed the pipe in half just upstream from the tinkling sound. This was not exactly where the restriction was, but it was close.

I was able to use two joined sections of 3/4 pvc pipe to ramrod the obstruction. A lot of muddy water flowed out, for a long period, before it cleared. Repaired the cut section with a 6" rubber coupling and things are better. Flow in this section at least doubled.

I still don't have proper flow at the very end of the pipe. I will need to search for and find more obstructions down the pipe.

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Trapped air can hold back the water flow in a sealed pipe, I have had this happen. I would use a trash pump to try to suck water through from the outlet. Forcing water through from the inlet side will work if its air, but if it's debris it could become completely plugged. If you find that it was a high spot in the pipe with trapped air, it may come back. I had this problem of reoccurring trapped air. If the pipe is gravity fed you can put a breather line in the pipe at the high spot which will allow the air out. The breather just needs to be higher than the outlet so water does not come out the breather. This solved my problem. If the pipe is a siphon obviously you can't do that.

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The pipe is gravity fed. Trapped air, residual mud, and high spots in the pipe are all suspicions.

Yesterday I found a high spot in the pipe caused by a root from a growing tree. I was able to dig to the side and slide the pipe slightly to the side and down into a new "trench" that I had dug. I'm sure it helped but I couldn't observe much difference.

I probably have more high spots since the pipe is only on a shallow gradient. Would a construction level (or laser level?) be the best to evaluate and find high spots?

I don't think I can suck water using the trash pump, as only about 1/4 of the six inch pipe has water at the outlet. But its full and submerged at the inlet.

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I'm betting that if you pushed muddy water/debris with the 3/4" pipe, the 6" pipe is cracked and tree roots started growing inside in search of water during the dry spell. I'd look at that area again......


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I would try the back flush method. A 2 inch trash pump won't create much pressure in a six inch pipe with low gradients.

Yes, a construction level will work well if you limit shots to about 100 to 150 feet.

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Originally Posted By: John F
I would try the back flush method. A 2 inch trash pump won't create much pressure in a six inch pipe with low gradients.


Ditto


They have the rubber reducers that hold on to the pipe with a hose clamp. I'll bet you could regulate the pressure that the pipe can hold by how tight you make the hose clamp. Too much pressure and the reducer blows off the pipe.....

I'd feel better about having a pressure gauge on it somewhere though.

I'd take the well screen off of the other end of the pipe before back flushing.


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Two problems have been found. The good news is that volume has increased.

I located several high spots in the pipeline using a self leveling laser level. Air release vents were added to these locations. Just a screw in fitting with hose barb, connected to some clear tubing so we could see how high the water column would rise in the tube before stopping. When drilling at each location, a constant whoosh of air came out for quite a while before any water came out. Trapped air was definitely a problem.

One drilling location was on a bind from being raised by a root, and the pipe cracked in half on drilling. Before repairing it, we ramrodded the inside of the pipe up through some 45 deg elbows and more muddy water came out.

Flow is now double from before. I have found two more "high spots" that need to be drilled to release air. I believe even more water volume is possible.

btw I still may try a trash pump. I checked and mine is rated at slightly less than 50 psi. I will probably add a pressure gauge but probably don't even need it?


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