For years, I have had a homemade floating fountain in my ½-acre pond to reduce the algae that blooms in the heat of the summer. I made it of a sump pump and a raft of PVC pipe. The first pump succumbed to a gasket coming loose and sticking in the impeller and the second pump (from Harbor Freight) has been working OK. Here is my problem, my proposed solution and my question. The pump will occasionally pick up some debris, which will clog the spray nozzle requiring I pull the pump to shore, clean it out and re-launch it. I think I would like to build a sump at the edge of the pond, install the pump in it and run the output pipe out into the pond to a much smaller raft where the spray nozzle will be. I thought I could cut a plastic 55-gallon barrel in half, cut or drill intake holes around the base, install the pump in the barrel and then plumb the output to the spray nozzle. Here is my question: I need to add some sort of filter to the barrel to at least decrease the flotsam that will get in and clog the nozzle. My first attempt was a Cut-To-Fit filter made for air conditioners and while it worked, it disintegrated in short order because (I assume) it was not made to be immersed in water. I have looked at commercial pond filters and they are too small and way out of my budget.
Can anyone suggest a material I can use to filter the big chunks from getting to the pump?