Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations My Reusable Siphons

Here are a few pictures and a simple video of how I use my siphons. This one is a 6" PVC that I'm using to drain a 3+ acre lake that I will be dredging out next week. It's pulled the water down over 5' in about 3 days with a little water comming into the pond. I use the rubber connectors with the hose clamps to fasten each pipe together. the intake end has a one way water valve, the fill cap is on the top and the bottom end has a simple screw cap to stop the water while it's being filled. Then I simply remove the end cap once the pipe is full and let gravity do it's work. A lot better than a 6" pump!

Here some pics and the video

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=8lXl7tdJ7iY






And all the nasty muck that I'll be digging out

That will be a huge shovel job.

Dave, that's what my wife said on our wedding day.


Cool pics, Dirtman. Do you ever have problems with the intake clogging?

Awesome thread, DM07. Please keep us updated with spec's and pics as the project progresses. This has the earmarks of an archive-worthy pondumentary.

Looks like a great project to follow.

Any idea what the plants/shrubs are along the right bank in the 1st picture?

Very cool.

I may have to make one of those for my next pond if I don't go with a bottom drain. How much money do you think you have in that thing?

Also, great videos. I like this one.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=seJXSybJF4A

Dirtman2007.

Great post! I have to drain a .62 acre pond and this would be better than filling up the gas tank every three hours for 10 days! No noise for the neighbors either. I knew of this concept and even tried a version of it, but didn't have the best of luck with a flexible pipe and trying to cap it on the end and fill it.

I'm thinking one could use a cheaper flexible tile corrugated pipe and tie in your fill section with PVC? That is if the PVC would fit inside the flexible piping.

You should contact Bob Lusk and see if he'd like you to do a small piece for the magazine.

dirtman2007,

Are these the kind of one way valves you used? Green one is 6 inch and the other 3 are 4 inch.






The six inch:





The four inch:

For a small pond like that i would suggest a smaller siphon such as a 2" or 3" pipe. this will keep your material coast down as the bigger the pipe, the more $$$$ you'll be spending. Those one way water valves are expensive when you get into the large size pipe. Plus the smaller pipe is easier to handel and put together. those 6" x20' long PVC pipes are a real pain to assemble on a steep, wet pond dam! you really need two people to do it.

next week I'll also be putting my 3" siphin in this same pond to keep it at a constant level as were doing the dreding. the 6" just pulls the water out too fast and cuts itself off after a day or so.

I can get some pics if you would like me too?

Thanks

I guess I already have the valves above and just the other day was scratching my head wondering what I bought them for.

Any idea how much water you were moving i.e. gph gpd?

If I can use a flexible 6 inch pipe I have a place for it when not in use. I have an open ditch that I use to run overflow from my trout pond, but it gets plugged with willow tree roots which have to be periodically cut off. Was planning on laying pipe in that section to stop that. When done with the draining I can simply lay it in the ditch.

those work the same I guess but mine look totally different that those. The one for the 6" siphon is almost 12" in diameter and has a big screw cap that you can take off to get to the one way flap on the inside.

It's hard to say how much money I have in the thing. I've got 100's of feet of pipe at the shop from years and years of pond dredging jobs. I've had some pipe for 10 years or more! I have not priced any of the materials lately but I do now the rubber couplers for the 6" are about $30.00 each

Yes, a huge snapping turtle that has been sucked up into the valve and left out in the sun for a few days on a hot summer day is just one of the things that have clogged it up. After that horrible experience of removing a rotton turtle piece by piece I designed a special screen and cover that it top secret! Because it works so good!!

Thanks, I'll be taking plenty of pictures. I'll be bringing in (2) 50,000 LBS Excavators and My high Floatation mud mats to dig this pond out. It's only about 1500 yards of mud to be moved but I'm having to transfer a good ways. The mud will be put on the side of a cove in the pond to extened the shoreline out.

I used a sunken fish cage to keep fish out of my intake of my trash pump.

Thanks Dirtman!

I'm curious if the system would still function without the one way valve.

From my experience it's tough to get a regular siphon going well. And I've gotten them started only to have them stop on me for various reasons. I do know without a one way value you need two people to get the timing right and I've never been that pleased with the results.

The one big advantage I see with the one way valve is you can fill the entire pipe up to get some real pressure going before you open up the downside end. It also looks like it's a one man operation vs. two man.

I'm gong to give this a go but see if I can slip in some PVC sections for each end and the fill hole into a flexible pipe. Hopefully one can get the PVC to slip into the flexible pipe.

Thank you Dirtman2007!

Yes this is the one man deal to get going.

Before we had the one way valve it took two people to get it going. The siphon had two screw caps, one on each end. This meant that one unlucky sole had to go down into the water to remove the cap once the pipe was full.

Well I'll tell why we stop using that style. It was the dead of winter and we had a 5 or 6 acre pond to drain down to do work on. Well it was a very steep dam and it required alot of pipe and had plenty of fall. My grandpa was out in the pond in his waders breaking a light ice crust on the water surface. When the two caps were removed the high suction grabbed ahold of his waders and tried to suck him into the pipe. Now you might not think a 6 inch pipe can have alot of suction but with almost 40' of fall behind the dam it just about had enough suction to pull him under the water. He was able to break loose, but it sure was a eye opener on how you could have been hurt.

I guess that's the advantage of being a poor swimmer, I get to stay on solid ground!!

Dirtman is right. His siphon system is also like the ones we have installed on the ponds. Never use one with a front (water side) cap. Stay away from the business end of a siphon. Your grandpa is lucky he survived. I have seen an 8 inch siphon break a 500 lb rated Kevlar wire. A back-flow preventer (name of the device above) is the way to go. There are several good siphon topics here.

The siphon subject is very interesting to me. I drank some leaded gasoline getting a small one going a few times.

Siphoning water out of Bremer Pond won't work given normal conditions.

Did you know Dwight studies have show those who ingest leaded gasoline have delusions of growing 10 lb. bass? It's a very common symptom.

Here's how day one of pond excavating went...




Took over 3 hours to get it out with my other excavator. I've got more recovery pics if you like. This is what happens when you dig out ponds for living