day 24
I took the day off work and spent a lot of the day working on the pond. I woke up at 5am dreaming about pipe fittings and couldn't get back to sleep. I started filling the pond, but I really need the air diffuser before I can do that. I started the pipe boot for the TPR (the hose clamp got put on my parts list). It took about an hour and a half to connect the 4" pipe from the bottom drain to the vortex due to the pipe coming into the vortex pit about 2 inches higher than the input on the vortex barrel. Connecting the vortex and the drain barrel together was another problem but I made a temporary connection until I get the 2" PVC flex pipe. I laid out the pump pit and dug it out. I think I will lay concrete blocks in it for now rather than pour a pad. If it floods, I think the water will soak better into the ground and the pit is deeper. Finally, I connected the inlet pipe to the skippy from the vortex pit. It turns out the skippy was not leaking as I thought. After I filled it from the drain barrel, I left the hose in the skippy (under the water) and it must have siphoned back out of the skippy, even though I have a check valve between.
