pond siphon

[eteagle]

If I'm not in appropriate forum forgive me.

I want to make an over dam siphon out of 6" pvc pipe. It will be about 60' long.

How to I empty air from the pipe after I sink to inlet into the pond? Can I use an inexpensive vacuum system? Can I cap the outlet and fill the pipe with water via hose and then take cap off?

Thanks

Ernie

 

[GaryM]

If you had a fitting at the high point that fit a garden hose, and a valve between the hose and the syphon...

And you put a cap on each end of the 6" pipe, not glued, just kind of slipped on....

Fill the pipe from the hose, take off the cap that's on the pond side, then the cap on the outlet.

Once flow starts, close the valve on the garden hose fitting and it should work. Come to think of it, you'd need a way to allow air to escape as the garden hose fills the pipe, maybe two fittings at the top? Or a vent at the top and a garden hose connection at the output cap?

 

[Glenn9643]

I'll start with "I've never done this", but I've read some discussions and I believe the method described was to make up your pipe or hose and lay it out so that you can "roll" it over into the pond. Let the pipe fill with water. You'll probably have to work with it to get the air out. You'll need some weight or something to keep the end in the pond from coming out of the water while pulling. After it's full put a "cap" on the downstream end and attach a rope or some other means of pulling it. Pull by the capped end until that end is low enough to siphon and remove the cap. If your joints hold and the pipe stays under the water in the pond you should be in business. Good luck. I think I saw something related at this site http://www.mdwfp.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=5

 

[Taylortractornut]

I had to siphon down a levee type pond to weld on the spillway gate. I made a 6 inch PVC pipe arrangement that went over the levee road and down past the water level i wanted to work in. I ran the siphon end down the back of the levee a good ways adn put a clean out fitting on that end. I bored the cleanout plug on the lathe to put in another adapter to a 3/4 inch flex line to a 55gallon drum. I screwed in a 2inch fiiting into the bung of the barrel to hook to a shop vac.
I hooked my welders 110 outlet to the vacuum then it built up enough pull in the barrel to fill the 6inch pipe long enough for me to unscrew the cleanout. 3hours later the levell was lowenough to repair the flood gates, and aerators.

 

[gmol]

The simplest way to fill the tube or get the siphon primed is to pump water up the pipe . Once it has blown the air out and you tap it off it will hold pressure and siphon forever at will. I have done many pond projects and spring installations with this system and it never fails.

 

[leaddog]

In 1970 I drained a 7 acre lake using a siphon made out of 4 in. plastic. It was in 10 ft lenghts and I wanted to save the pipe so i used elec. tape and taped all the joints. I had 140 ft of pipe and at first I used 2, 70 ft lengths and after It got down about 1/2 way I connected it all into one.
It was easy to get it started the first time as the water was only a ft from the top. I put a cap on the low end and my dad held it there while I held the other end just higher so the water wouldn't run out and I filled it with a water hose. when It was full I yelled to take the end off and I put my end In the water and It took right off.
Six weeks later the lake was almost empty and I just had a openface sumppump draining the last. I had a long extention cord running out to the pump. Durring the nite we had a 100 year rain and I got up and I had 5 ft of water in the lake. The pump was still running and the cord plugs were under water and it was still running. Of course when I pulled the plug I couldn't start it up again.
So I had to start the syphon up again and now I had to lift it up 7 ft over the dam. My dad held the plug on the bottem side and I went into the water and held a plug in that side ( water was about 40 degrees) I had put a hole on the top side and my wife filled the pipe and then taped the hole shut. I yelled and we both pulled the plugs at the same time and it started up but just then a turtle swam by and got sucked up to the pipe and stopped the flow and made it stop so we had to do it over again. I was about froze and by the time we filled the 140 ft of 4in pipe again I could hardly move but it took that time. I got out and sat in the tub of hot water and I never thought I would ever get warm. It was the coldest I have ever been and I raced sled dogs In 35 degree below cold before and that was a piece of cake compared to that.
So yes a siphon will work if you have enough fall and be prepare for a large stream of water. I had a 20ft drop and the water shot out over 6ft.
After I got it drained we took out over 5000rd of black dirt, dug it deeper in spots, cleaned out trees and shrubs and hauled out over 300 yds of rock that was in a fence row that ran through it. Made a very nice lake out of it
Oh yes bevery carfull near the inlet as the succion is VERY strong and if you get your hand near it could suck it into the pipe and you might get stuck.

 

[GaryM]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I yelled and we both pulled the plugs at the same time and it started up but just then a turtle swam by and got sucked up to the pipe and stopped the flow and made it stop so we had to do it over again. )</font>

I never heard of using a turtle as a stopper! That's pretty good.

 

[MossRoad]

Put a cap on each end and a cleanout in the middle at the highest point. Use the cleanout to fill the pipe with a garden hose. When it is full, cap the cleanout, pull the cap in the pond end while it is under water. The pipe will stay filled. Then pull the lower cap on the drain end. It should start up. And listen to the comment about staying away from the suction end. If your arm, leg, clothes, hair get in there, you could drown. It is best to stay away from that end. You could stake a wire mesh cage around it to avoid possible plugs drifting into the pipe. If you need to stop the siphon, just pull the cleanout plug. It is safer that way, as you're not under water. Good luck, and take pictures if possible.

 

[eteagle]

So glad I asked the question. Thanks to all. I'm off to fill the pipe or play with shop vac.

 

[DavidJ]

Another way to do it without a water hose is to get a pitcher pump and a valve, put it on the cleanout and cap the outside end of the pipe and pump away using some pond water to lube/seal the pump and after you have the pipe full just close the cleanout valve and remove the outer cap and let it flow. Or use it to fill the siphon pipe following the water hose routine.

 

[JRP]

So you are telling us that in three hours you emptied a pond with a shop vac and put the water into a 55 gallon drum. Are you sure?

 

[Taylortractornut]

No I just used the 55gallon drum as a vacuum tank to pull the pond water up the siphon piping. When the drum started taking water i knew to unscrew the end of the siphon piping to make the 6 inch flow. I could have used just the plain shop vac on the end of the 6inch siphon but It brought about 2 unknowns. Did it have enough pull to bring it straight up the pipe or did it need to build like a vacuum actuator? The second unknown was how safe a 20 dollar Chinese no name shopvac was around water. The way it rushed in the barrel was faster and more volume than my vacuum could take.
I do the welding maintenance for a friends catfish pond especially all the overflow gates and aerators. I just drain 2 to 3 feet out of the ponds to get them down below the metal flood gates so i can weld on them.

 

[Sprocket1]

Instead of the shop vac, next time try taking a vacuum hose off somewhere on your pickup. We used to do that all the time at a coal mine I worked at. An engine will have enough vacuum at idle to do the job. Be sure and use something like the barrel though to keep water out of the engine. The old truck we used we didn't care about but you might yours.

 

[Taylortractornut]

I thought of that but some of the lower ends of the siphons were easier to reach with the shop vac. Alhough iused to have a 250 straight six Ford engine on a stand with a single barrel carb hooked to a sealed box to Vacuum form hot plexiglass for some helicotper view ports i made once.

 

[jymbee]

We did this using pretty much the technique described here by others. Cap the lower end, fill the pipe with water at the highest point shown in the attached images, then remove the cap. With the two 4 inch pipes it was pretty impressive how fast the pond drained.

[EDIT: WOW-- didn't notice how OLD this thread was!]

If I'm not in appropriate forum forgive me.

I want to make an over dam siphon out of 6" pvc pipe. It will be about 60' long.

How to I empty air from the pipe after I sink to inlet into the pond? Can I use an inexpensive vacuum system? Can I cap the outlet and fill the pipe with water via hose and then take cap off?

Thanks

Ernie

 

[OldMcDonald]

jymbee, Thanks for posting. I would never have seen the thread if you had not.

It is a long-term project. I have shallow well with my main irrigation pump attached to it. Without topping up the well I can irrigate most of the time for 3 to 4 hours. I usually top up (from a river that often becomes too shallow before I am finished irrigating for the season) so I can irrigate for 8 or 9 hours a day. The well fills again overnight - again only until about the same time as the river flow drops.

I am increasing my requirements for irrigation so will need more "top up" water. I have a borehole that will provide some (an unknown amount) with a submersible pump that I plan to install before next season, but I have an area of a bit more than 1000sq yds that is a depression and holds water at a higher level than the well. I am considering making this into water storage. Land drains and natural flow go into this depression at present. I had thought of siphoning over the spillway - it flows that way now through a conduit under the adjoining entrance road. This water is all wasted because it just goes into a stream a short distance from the river.

The spillway will be raised to help with the water storage depth, and some digging will be done too. I have not calculated how much I need to store. It will depend partly on how much I can pump from the borehole. I can easily run a 100m coil of irrigation pipe to the well from the pond. A small diameter will do the job. No calculations done at this stage as to flow rate of different diameters.

Would a tap at the well (such as I already use on risers from my underground irrigation system) be a satisfactory way of turning the siphon on and off? The siphon pipe will remain full so my gut feeling is tthat it will. The fall from the present depression to the well is about 30 feet.

 

[davesl708]

We did this using pretty much the technique described here by others. Cap the lower end, fill the pipe with water at the highest point shown in the attached images, then remove the cap. With the two 4 inch pipes it was pretty impressive how fast the pond drained.

[EDIT: WOW-- didn't notice how OLD this thread was!]

View attachment 447081

View attachment 447082

I used 4 4" flex pipe to lower a 15 acre lake/pond 36" to do repairs. Worked great. Took about six days to get it down.