Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations siphon

I have a 3 acre pond that I drained with a 4 inch siphon last year to work on. Now I want to permanently install the siphon. I just want to install it to start manually when I need it and only to remove a couple of feet of water to keep the water off the spillway when necessary. The way I built it was with a t fitting and ball valve at the high spot(middle) a ball valve at
the low point (outflow) and a check valve with a screen in the pond. My question is how do people who have siphons installed clean the
intake screen and (check valves if they use them) without going for a swim?

regarding the screen to filter your outlet (siphon) pipe these are my suggestions
1 no screen
2 bigger screen, such as 4x8 pipe reducer (expander in this case) with 8" inch pipe covered with your screen
3 install some hardware cloth or chicken wire on cyclone fencing to make a large pen to keep your fish out of the outlet.

to stop automatically, you can tee off your high point vent, keep a high vent and bring another pipe down near the water where you have a float operate a valve in your vent line, think of how your toilet works (but this is reverse), so as the water drops it opens a vent and no siphon. in fact we may get a toilet valve to work by turning it upside down? another way is to get a 12 volt solenoid valve, a level switch, but thats more expensive.

another idea would be to put a reducer on the low side to slow flow so it wont go down so fast while you are sleeping. or you can put a 90 or 45 on the bottom and a pipe to raise the outlet level and reduce the siphon pressure. i think it is fun to see the water exiting the siphon.

if you have water coming then it is probly better to let it go down more, cause the water is coming the pond will come back up. but if the level stops siphon automatically and siphon doesnt start then you are back to water going over the overflow. so then i am back to a reducer on the outlet to adjust flow and still having manual on/off control.

but what do i know, i go swimming to start my big one. but i do like siphons