DIY Air Lift Koi Pond Vacuum

I've been looking for a good vacuum for the Koi Pond that we installed in out front yard last year and I can't find one that I feel I would be happy with for a reasonable price.

So, here is the first step in the makings of the air lift pond vacuum.  It operates off of the same principle of an air lift pump however the goal is to not only move water but also move debris into a collector.

I will be posting a new video soon, of this pond vacuum in action.

I made this Pond Vacuum for less than $20.00 with parts that I purchased from Lows.  I have not yet perfected, as this is the first trial run.  I believe that once I have this perfected I will be able to air lift nearly all of the debris from the bottom of my Koi Pond and catch it in a filter bag, returning the water back into my pond, and removing the waste in a bag for composting.

This is a DIY pond vacuum that anybody can quickly build as a day project as this first air lift vacuum took me less than 1 hour to put together from start to finish.

It works very similar to how an air lift pond pump works however it's portable, easily mobile, and quite easy to use.  :)

Currently this is set up to run at a low pressure and high volume however I'm thinking that I may get much better performance with a high pressure (lower volume) nozzle at the lower end of the pond vacuum.  To do this I will need to spend some time at Lows piecing some things together and/or modifying some parts to fit/work.

Greg Jones Air Lift Aquarium Vacuum - http://youtu.be/R5yYY3l-tzQ

I'm also going to thoroughly read through this Theses project (Performance Characteristics of Airlift Pumps with Vortex Induced by Tangential Fluid Injection) before I build/rebuild this vacuum again as I think this will help me to cut my experimentation time down quite a bit.  http://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=honors_theses