Pond Vac Rentals

[dirrtybirdy]

anyone know of a spot in socal where i can rent one? or if maybe a member will let me rent one off them?? i really need it!!! TIA

[CarolinaGirl]

Personally, I would not loan out any pond equipment, nor would I rent someone else's equipment unless I was darn sure it was sterilized before and after use. You could potentially bring diseases or parasites to your pond on other people's equipment. If you need a vacuum, just buy one because you really need to vacuum quite often if you do not have bottom drains. Pond bottoms should never be allowed to get an accumilation of gunk on them.

[dOHd]

For the most part, I agree with Carolina. Unless you know that they practice safe vac, you dont want their problems.

When we get a rental back, the attachments get soaked in a vat with bleach, and the vac, the Oase 3 runs for about 15-20 minutes non stop. That cleans the inside of the vac, then we do the outside as well. Then it is ready to rent again after being rinsed and dried.

Unless you know that the rental place or pond store does the same, buy one. In the long run, it will be cheaper than killing your fish, or introducing problems into your pond.

d

[aquitori]

Contact your local koi club, which there are many in SoCal...

[mstrseed]

Try this if you have a shop vac........................

Floyd's Pond Vacuum

[dirrtybirdy]

Interesting. thanks for the input guys!

ive looked on ebay for pond vacs and they are pretty pricey. i didnt know about bottom drains when i first started to build my pond. if i would have known it would be easier and better than the liner i would have done it that way. but its too late to change my pond. i dont have time nor the money to fix my problems. i noticed that the pond is getting really dirty at the bottom and its been like this since the year started. would you guys suggest to take out half of the water volume in the pond every month and adding new water?

the shop vac is a good idea i might try.

[gspotmc]

Quote: Originally Posted by dirrtybirdy Interesting. thanks for the input guys! ive looked on ebay for pond vacs and they are pretty pricey. i didnt know about bottom drains when i first started to build my pond. if i would have known it would be easier and better than the liner i would have done it that way. but its too late to change my pond. i dont have time nor the money to fix my problems. i noticed that the pond is getting really dirty at the bottom and its been like this since the year started. would you guys suggest to take out half of the water volume in the pond every month and adding new water? the shop vac is a good idea i might try.

TIA,
JUST BUY ONE OF THOSE OASE POND VAC. iT WILL PAY FOR ITSELF IN THE LONG RUN.
mICHAEL

[MikeM]

I do not like the idea of a 50% water change once per month. Too much fluctuation of conditions is likely. In rare circumstances, it may be fine, but I think such circumstances would be truly rare given how we stock koi ponds. IMO, the weekly (or more frequent) water change should be as much as is needed to have nitrate under the desired limit of nitrate for the entire period between water changes. (Nitrate is relatively easy to measure and thus convenient to test. The other pollutants removed by water changes are not readily tested, but are of concern.) Or, to have alkalinity remain above the desired minimum level at all times. In soft water areas, the alkalinity test will be key. In areas with hard water, the nitrate level will be the more important on which to focus. However, the amount of water change should be no more than what can be done without the pH and hardness differential between the pond water before the water change and the pond water after the water change being materially different. Folks will differ on what they consider 'material'. I cosider a pH shift of .5 to be too great; and a hardness shift of 20 ppm to be too great. If the shift is material, then the water changes should be more frequent so that the pond water more nearly matches the source water (whether the 'source' is direct from the tap, or water that has been pre-treated in some fashion [such as use of a softener, RO unit, purifier, etc.]. I generally recommend trying a weekly water change of around 20% to those hobbyists who do not monitor their water conditions and are not familiar with the behavior of their water through experience. Larger water changes may well be possible, but one should understand their water or test carefully before changing larger volumes. I typically change 30-35%, and with my prior smaller pond I typically did 50% per week.

Every pond differs, so simple recommendations are not necessarily appropriate.

[dOHd]

I agree with Mike. In our area, we are blessed with great water. So massive water changes on a regular basis are good. and cheap.

But in many other areas, the source water sucks.

Now, if you dont change your water for quite some time, your source water will differ from what is in your pond quite a bit. Any differences will stress your fish. Temps, KH, PH etc etc. All those parameters should match up pretty close to what you are putting in. If you instead do 10% a week, instead of 50% per month, the water changes will be more subtle, and not stress the fish as much.

So rather than massive water changes, do smaller ones more often, The fish will love you for it.

As for buying one of the Oase 3, not all ponders can afford to have that type of expensive equipment around to only use it once or twice a year. Or even 4 times a year. It is a very large outlay in resources. We rent ours out for $35 a day, and have 2 that we sell off each year to local customers that want the used ones. Have a waiting list two years out for the used vacs.

d