Pond Vacuums

What is a pond vacuum?

A pond vacuum is like a household vacuum cleaner that can suck up sludge and debris from the bottom of your pond.  Unlike a filter, it is not hooked up to the pond all the time, just ferreted out of the garage whenever you need to give your pond a spring clean.  It stands at the side of the pond and you use the suction hose and attachments to slurp up any waste from the bottom of the pond.  Sludge is sucked into the vacuum body then empties out through a waste pipe at the back, which you can aim onto a flower bed to make use of the free fertiliser!

Do they hurt fish or wildlife?

Usually fish and frogs are very good at getting out of the way when you do any maintenance, but if you did happen to suck something up they usually come out unharmed from the other end (assuming they are small enough to fit up the pipe and don't get wedged in the nozzle!).  The Pontec and Oase vacs we sell are designed so the water bypasses the motor, so nothing goes through rotor blades.  Some other brands are designed with in-built chopping blades to shred waste as it comes through, which is ideal for composting but pretty grim for frogs and newts!  Any smaller aquatic wildlife (shrimp, beetles, tadpoles etc) come out unharmed but you should be considerate about checking/sieving the waste water and returning them to the pond so they don't dry out in the flower beds.

Which one should you choose?

There are different models for different jobs.  If you just have a small garden pond and want to vac-out some leaves once a year, the Pontec PondoVac Start or  OASE PondoVac Classic will do nicely - they are small but powerful vacuums with a range of tool attachments.  The single-chamber design means they suck constantly until the chamber is full and then automatically stop sucking for about 30 seconds while the chamber empties out.  This means your cleaning job is a start-stop-start-stop operation, which is ideal for small ponds where a couple of cycles gets the job done, but could get tedious on a bigger pond project.

If you have a larger pond (more than 3m) then we would recommend upgrading to one of the larger PondoVac models that have dual chambers and can deliver constant suction.  They also have stronger suction and larger inlets/outlets so they are less prone to clogging up when you tackle chunky leaves and debris.