Sediment pump ideas needed

[kelLOGg]

I replaced the PVC plumbing that was blown out of the threaded hole and tested the pump to see if it would still pump water. Much to my surprise it worked very well so I reconnected it to the cistern plumbing. The threaded male end had shrunk and lost its grip and got blown out. Never heard of such a thing but all is well now. 

Now, back to the opening topic. I put the de-watering pump in the cistern and supported it as shown in the pics. I lowered the suction hose to the bottom, turned it on and crud began to come out. I would get clogged easily so I turned the power off to let the water (and crud) drain back in the cistern to clear the clod and repeated the process. Clogging was so frequent that the process was frustrating then it clogged so badly that I had to pull the de-watering pump up and found that pine needles had clogged the intake. Okay, this idea is not going to work. I have to have a more powerful pump. I am reluctant to hire someone to do this job because there is a lot of hardware in the cistern that I fear they can dislodge or damage: 1) foot valve, 2) aeration pipe to kill anerobic bacteria, 3) low level shut off switch and 4) a vertical steel rod on which I put mosquito dunks to kill mosquitos. It's back to the search for a bigger pump.



 

 

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, pretty tough moving organic sludge through a garden hose. I have a 120 GPM 1-1/2" pump that would likely pull all that and more (sticks are always a problem though.). I bet HF has something you could use or maybe a neighbor has one you can borrow?

[Hilltop366]

I think it is going to be hard to find a way to remove that much sludge with that little water without pumping it all out which is why I suggested stirring it up with a pressure washer (unless the tank and plumping won't handle a pressure washer. In that case use a garden hose) and pump it all out then finish up with a wet/dry shop vac and garden house.

If doing it that way your existing pump would probably do much better (not pumping from the bottom), A inlet strainer would help to.

The pool I refer to cleaning was 25000 gal and we would loose about half of the water trying to pump and clean at the same time. After trying all different kinds of ways we found it easier to pump out the pool then pressure wash it and finishing off with a shop vac.

Its a short 2 month pool season with a outdoor pool here so it sat idle a long time and being a painted cement pool it needed to be touched up every year and re-painted every few years too so pumping it out was the best way.

[kelLOGg]

Hilltop, you helped me put 2 and 2 together better. I said earlier that I didn't mind pumping it dry in the winter when we don't need water for the garden. I didn't think of stirring it up during pumping - I just planned on sucking the muck up off the bottom - which was too much for my de-watering pump. All I have to do is connect a hose to the cistern tap, turn on the water to stir up the bottom deposit and use the de-watering pump to suck up the suspended slurry - a lot more doable than what I tried today. Thanks for repeating your suggestion.