Nightrider,
The $75 from Lowes got me three 4" PVC - 10' long, 1-Tee, 2 -elbows, 2 couplings. I had a couple more couplings and some additional 10' sections that I made up. I have the pipe coming around one end of the levee with my discharge deeper than my suction. The Tee is on the suction side, I covered it with 1/4" square plastic I bought from Lowes. I used zip ties and covered both tee ends with the plastic netting, put a few old pool poles making an X across the the 4" pipe to secure it to the pond bottom. Works well for for a 4 acre watershed unless the tee end plugs up.
I bought a 2" gas pump from Tractor supply and it was just over $200. For my issue at the time, I wanted to get the water level dropped as quickly as possible before the next heavy rain came in so I had the 4" pipe draining and I was sucking 158 gpm out of it with the pump. It served my emergency purpose......ground was saturated from all the previous rain so I knew the water shed was going to let it come right into the pond.
As Teehjaeh57 states above, follow Rex's advice....I just wanted to offer my experience and my resolution......no other experience with draining the pond down or with siphons.....
Coupe
