Alien Invasion - I want my pond back !

txdon · May 21, 2015

SPYDERLK said:
I thot you had to be done by 2006.

That's where the time warp thingy from the aliens comes into play.

MossRoad · May 21, 2015

Shove the whole pipe into the pond letting it fill with water. Plug the downhill side. Pull the plugged end with a tractor to the drainage area. Open the plug. Watch it for 10 minutes, then you'll have to go to the bathroom yourself.

Depmandog · May 21, 2015

Put a valve on the discharge end, close. At the high point install a clean out. Use a small gas powered pump to fill the discharge pipe. Cap and seal the clean out. Make sue your intake pipe is in the water, walk down hill and open valve. Presto. The discharging water creates a vacuum in the pipe that will pull water up out of the pond and over the hill and you have a fully operational and functioning siphon.

texasjohn · May 21, 2015

MossRoad said:
Shove the whole pipe into the pond letting it fill with water. Plug the downhill side. Pull the plugged end with a tractor to the drainage area. Open the plug. Watch it for 10 minutes, then you'll have to go to the bathroom yourself.

:scubadiver::number1:My favorite. It uses a TRACTOR, after all!!!

4570Man · May 21, 2015

texasjohn said:
:scubadiver::number1:My favorite. It uses a TRACTOR, after all!!!

The first post on page 3 also uses a tractor.

alchemysa · May 22, 2015

Eric Salop said:
The filter

All set to go, except for one bit of detail. How do you prime a siphon that's over 200 yards in length ?

Somehow I think he already has an answer .... to be divulged in the next installment.

wngsprd · May 22, 2015

Does a pallet come to play in this?

Kyle_in_Tex · May 22, 2015

MossRoad said:
Shove the whole pipe into the pond letting it fill with water. Plug the downhill side. Pull the plugged end with a tractor to the drainage area. Open the plug. Watch it for 10 minutes, then you'll have to go to the bathroom yourself.

Just caught on to this thread. Mossroad has it IMO. Maybe not considering the length and mass and amount of manpower available.

I will stay tuned in for sure.

On a side note, I googled Shropshire on the map and noticed it was close to Birmingham(just east of Shropshire). When I was young, I used to listen to a heavy metal band from Birmingham. I just missed them playing a concert last Thursday near Austin.

Eric Salop · May 22, 2015

Prime Time
I really wish I had found TBN back in 2006. We could have gone through all those priming suggestions together (well, at least the sensible ones. Dave1949's tractor was too far away to borrow and try some of the others) and figured out the best solution. Most of the people I talked to at the time thought I was nuts to try sucking a pond dry with a siphon. They would almost fall asleep when I talked of the various options. I was becoming a sad siphon geek.

Two possible solutions stood out at the time. Being a simple person, I tend to like simple solutions.

Gravity Prime
One option was to fit a valve on the pipe coming out of the filter, making sure the valve could be operated while under water in the sump, plus a second valve at the discharge end. Close both valves. Cut the pipe at the highest point and put in a T with a valve on. Fit a bowl on above the T and keep pouring water in until the pipe is full. Close the valve on the T, open the valve in the sump first, then the valve on the outlet. Only drawback would be carting water to the high point.
It also needed 3 valves and I was a cheapskate.

Pump Prime
Sounds easy, just use a pump to fill the pipe, then disconnect the pump.

alchemysa said:
Fill the pipe with water by pumping water into the outlet end.

If you want to try this at home, this is the way to go. Simplest of all. Why didn't it occur to me to try that ? Possibly because at times I am quite stupid and possibly because there was no water at that end. At the time I didn't have anything portable that would hold more than 50 gallons and filling a 2" pipe takes a lot of water.

I decided to have a go at pumping from the pond side. It would need a fair size pump to keep the pipe full until the syphon got going. If not, the pipe going down the hill to the outlet would have air in. My pump wasn't big enough, but fortunately I was able to borrow a bigger one. Once the siphon was running I would need to take the pump away, so some kind of joint was needed. A T was the obvious choice.

Shut valve to filter, open valve to pump. When water comes out of the outlet, open valve to filter then close off pump valve.

If this was to be used often valves would be a good way to go, but as a cheapskate trying to do this for free, I opted to make a push fit on the end of the pipe.

All ready to start pumping.

texasjohn · May 22, 2015

pumpus interruptus.... agonizing.....please continue!!

MossRoad · May 22, 2015

I did a bunch of science fair experiments with siphons when I was a kid. I still use siphons about every other week to drain our pool cover of rainwater. Also transferring gasoline from a vehicle to a can. Simplest method is as I mentioned above. Only requires one valve if the pipe is larger than your palm. No valve if you can cover the pipe with your palm. Watch this video. Its the closest I can find to what I do. Siphoning begins at 30 seconds. Guy starts 20 siphons in a couple minutes. No pumps. No valves. Don't over-complicate things.

MossRoad · May 22, 2015

Here's another one. Guy just uses his thumb. Open it when shoving the pipe into the water. Cover it when drawing it out. Open in. Cover out. Your thumb is the check valve. Works great for gasoline, too. Exact same principle with larger pipes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j1FoLDcwZk

txdon · May 22, 2015

Moss, What is the longest pipe that method would work with?

SPYDERLK · May 22, 2015

txdon said:
Moss, What is the longest pipe that method would work with?

Approx zero in relation to 200 yds of 2".

MossRoad · May 22, 2015

txdon said:
Moss, What is the longest pipe that method would work with?

Length isn't an issue for the most part. Lift height is, however, an issue. It has something to do with the barometric pressure of the liquid and gas in the liquid. For water, its something like 30'. Any more than that, and the air bubbles will be sucked out of the water, creating an air pocket at the highest point in the siphon and stopping it or something like that. It's been a while. Anyhow, there's a whole massive formula to figure it out.
Siphon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

texasjohn · May 22, 2015

SPYDERLK said:
Approx zero in relation to 200 yds of 2".

Interesting....and the reason would be...? Or are you going to allow future thread revelations to enlighten us?

Redneck in training · May 23, 2015

Good reading.

dstig1 · May 23, 2015

I think his point is obvious. Can you lift and work with 200' of 2" like in that short video? No, of course not. Thus it will require some other method of priming. Like the pump noted by the OP. But yes, this is an interesting TBN drama... Subscribed!

Coyote machine · May 23, 2015

I actually turned OFF the TV to read this!

I'm an avid multi tasker... and I was going to go to bed early, 'cause I'm whipped tired from tractoring all day, but here I am, and no closer to who the aliens are. Is there a DVD or something to skip a chapter ahead?

MossRoad · May 23, 2015

dstig1 said:
I think his point is obvious. Can you lift and work with 200' of 2" like in that short video? No, of course not. Thus it will require some other method of priming. Like the pump noted by the OP. But yes, this is an interesting TBN drama... Subscribed!

I'd loop the hose half way down the hill and keep both open ends by the pond. Then I'd just work a short loop into the pond, dipping it full and lifting, dipping and lifting, until the hose had enough water to get over the hump. Then I'd plop one end into the pond and drag the empty half down the hill. It will fill on its own by the time you get the end extended. Piece of cake! :thumbsup: