The water pump for your garden pond ... basics
The most important part of any water garden feature. The water pump
is your pond's Heart. It supplies life-giving oxygen to all the garden
pond's inhabitants large and small
Not all makes of water pump are the same ...
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Koi ponds, fish ponds, and most normal garden ponds all need a water
pump. The only probably exception is for the pure water garden ... ie a
pond with lots of aquatic plants and few if any fish. However even in
this garden pond situation is still a good idea to have a reliable water
pump gently circulating water.
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A good water pump for a fish pond is robust and reliable, yet small
and very power efficient. Most types of pond water pump are submersible
which means the water pump is submerged into the pond and placed on a
brick or something similar slightly off the bottom of the pond. The
reason for this is to minimize the amount of sunken debris that might be
sucked into the water pump itself.
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Once you have bought a water pump for your pond it should last
you for years. Your water pump should minimize your power consumption
yet do its duty day in and day out because a water pump in a fish pond
must run 24 hrs per day. It's like I said ... its the pond's heart after
all.
What's all that information on the water pump box mean?
Select your fish pond pump to save money and worry and to do a
pre-determined duty. In simplest terms the specification for your water
pump is based upon what volume of water can be pumped against a specific
head (or pressure or height) which is normally measured in feet or
metres.
 The manufacturer's information on the water pump packaging should be
helpful but in so many cases it is utterly confusing and more often than
not presented in such a way that comparison between different pond pump
models and makes is difficult
The first good clue as to whether you are looking at a pond pump or
fountain pump is to look at the box size. Small boxes are used for
indoor and small outdoor or patio water fountains. This type of water
pump often come with a short cable of between 3 and 5 feet and the body
of the water pump is small so everything can fit neatly into a small box
(most pumps of this type fit into the palm of your hand). You will
generally need two hands to hold a pond pump and the cable is normally
much longer.
This
is a picture showing typical type and size of small water pump
sold for use in a fountain. You can see it is quite small. The same kind
of pump is often used in aquariums. By the way this water pump is made
in Italy by Newa (model MC 450) and is exceptionally good when used in
the right application
Warning: This type of fountain water pump
is not suitable for outdoor fish ponds since it does not have the robust
design to withstand the garden pond environment that is subject to wind
blowing all sorts of debris for example into the fish pond.
All fish pond pumps are NOT created equal. It should plainly state on
the box that the water pump is indeed outdoor suitable for use in fish or garden
ponds; totally suitable and guaranteed as fish pond pumps ... see below.
Don't get bamboozled by retailers. Know how to choose your water
pump correctly.
Many retailers do not understand a water pump's specification
requirements well enough to give money saving advice consistent with
correct water pump performance. Selecting a simple water fountain pump
is easier than selecting waterfall or pond pumps. For a pond you will
generally want to select a submersible
pump
Pond pump guarantee
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It is when something goes wrong with
your water pump that you need a supplier that will give you
immediate attention. To my mind this means the supplier will fix the
water pump very quickly or loan you an alternative until the problem
water pump has been fixed.
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Remember the pond bio filter cannot
wait a week while someone checks out what is wrong with your water
pump.
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Make sure that the retailer who sells
you the water pump carries spares and understands that pond pumps
need to run all the time if you keep fish and run a pond filter.
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Insist that fish pond pumps are
checked in your presence and do not be put off by any other story.
The following selection criteria must be understood to select the
optimum water pump for your koi pond, fish pond or water garden.You must
know how to:
Calculate the volume of water in your pond system (unless you
measured it when you first filled your garden pond)
Calculate correct pond pump head. This depends upon waterfall
characteristics mainly. If no waterfall exists pond volume and contents
of the garden pond determine specifications for most water or pond
pumps.
Calculate correct water pump flow rate. This is a function of the
waterfall situation and other factors ... some people run a filter
separately to the waterfall for example
Then specify to a retailer exactly what you want bearing in mind
purchase and running costs of the water pump selected. A good way to
compare cost differences between pumps is to work out the cost of the
water pump power consumption over 3 years and add this to the purchase
price of the water pump. Assuming all else is about equal (service,
cable length, water pump guarantee etc) then whichever water pump costs
least IN TOTAL is the best buy.
Recognize the pitfalls associated with certain types of so called
pond or water pumps.
Sump pumps and pool pumps are the main culprits here. These 2 types
of water pump are used in many pond situations for wrong reasons which
are covered elsewhere on tis web site. You often see sump pumps
advertised as waterfall pmps ... in fact they are a very poor substitute
water pump in terms of cost and reliability for most waterfalls in a
garden setting.
For an understanding of the most common pond pump situations to suit
most garden or backyard environments please follow the links on this
page. In these pages you will find all the tables, diagrams and pictures
to allow you to become as knowledgeable as you need to be on pumps.
Normally consider a submersible water pump with a minimum 2 year
guarantee as being suitable for a pond or waterfall situation. Choose
low cost reliable supplier on-line
I suggest you look a both suppliers and compare prices and shipping
costs ... take note that both suppliers offer specials at times and
these often appear in right hand border of this website.
These suppliers do sell other makes of pumps also of high quality and
performance which you might want to investigate and you can search the
websites for the model you want ...
Florida based
supplier specializing in very wide range of garden fish pond equipment
including pond pumps filters and UV lights ... just click the link
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