As I stated yesterday, relief not just from the heat, but from the endless filter cleaning I've been doing lately. Yes, it was a pleasure to get up this morning, open the curtains, look out at the pond and see a fully functioning waterfall! And I owe it all to the Muck-Vac (http://www.muckvacdirect.com/).

As I've stated before (just a brief history), last year our pond went from 16 fish to over 30. (It's hard to get an accurate count when they're all constantly moving around.) While we were pretty proud and flattered that our pond was comfortable enough for our fish to let nature take it's course, this has obviously more than doubled the amount of fish waste in our 240-gallon pond. Not to mention that over the winter I spotted two more wee ones swimming on the shelf.

So, this spring, needless to say, there was a lot of "muck" (the common word for pond waste) on the bottom. I've read many pamplets, websites and blogs, and they all say, once you hook up your filter, let it do its job and it will clean up the pond in a couple weeks. Well, while the water has stayed very clear, the endless amount of muck caused the filter to clog daily and I've been cleaning it every morning for about three weeks.

The expert at my local pond store laughed at me and said, didn't you vacuum your pond yet? Of course, I'd seen the vacuums they had for sale (starting at $200) and hoped I could find a cheaper way, if you know what I mean. Afterall, last year we had caught all the fish, put them in our 20-gallon pond, emptied the pond and power-washed it, using a wet-vac to suction all the debris out.

But I didn't look forward to trying to catch all the new fish (they're a bit smaller, especially the two newbies from winter). Oh yes, they swim leisurely on a daily basis, but when you're chasing them with a net, it's amazing how fast they can go. There had to be a better way.
So I Googled "pond vacuums," and came upon the very reasonable muck-vac ($69.95 plus $10 shipping). After a little research I decided to order one. And I arrived Monday, about a week after ordering.

According to www.muckvacdirect.com: "The 'MUCK VAC' is another innovative product designed to aid the back yard pond keeper as well as fountain and water feature owners. The product vacuums out dirt and debris without causing turbidity so that fish and plants do not have to be removed during cleaning. It has no moving parts and works simply by harnessing the power of ordinary garden hose pressure. "Utilizing the laws of fluid dynamics and a standard garden hose, Muck Vac Cleaning System is an easy and versatile vacuum cleaner for ponds and spas, etc. "Muck Vac Cleaning System is easy to use and assemble. Operated by the existing water pressure in most residentail faucets (50 psi is usually standard), Muck Vac can suck up most muck and waste from the bottom of any pond or spa. In fact, higher water pressure can create more vacuum power. "Muck Vac Cleaning System will not cause turbidity in pond. No need to displace fish or plants. Muck and waste is vacuumed up the telescopic pole and discharged to waste right out the end of the discharge hose. You can allow it to go into a bucket or right on the lawn, garden or a deck drain. Muck Vac does not put any water into the pond or spa, the water from the garden hose is purely for creating the suction under water. However, some water will be displaced from the pond or spa along with the muck and waste."

And I'm here to say that it actually does work! I do recommend wearing your bathing suit, however, when using it. I got soaked! Due to the water pressure, the discharge hose did not stay in the 5-gallon bucket I wanted it to empty into ... it flailed all over the patio until I shut off the valve! (That was my fault) So I just positioned it in various places in the garden and used the water/waste to fertilizer the plants.

While I'm very pleased with my first-time results, I plan to go over it again on Saturday when the sun's high and I can actually see the bottom. Because, when I first started vacuuming, all the muck on the bottom got a little churned-up and I couldn't properly see what I was doing. But I'm happy to say that I didn't suck up any fish, just some smaller stones from the bottom.

I probably worked on it about 30-45 minutes. The water was pretty cloudy afterward, but I added some Accu-Clear and the following morning, the water was crystal clear again. I could actually see the pretty malibu-gold stones on the bottom of the pond! I can also see the fish a lot better, even the all-black ones show up now against the malibu-gold. But the best part by far is that now I can get back to just cleaning the filter once a week!

Thank you Muck-Vac!!!

Up next -- just when you thought it was over -- the Fall catalogs are arriving -- aaarrrrgghh!