Pond Pump Advice

[Cher]

First time posting, please be kind :banana:

When we bought our house it came with a neglected above-ground waterlily pond. Over the year I have fixed it up and now it is cute and lovely. It is approximately 300 gallons (about a 6' x 8' triangle) and only about 18" deep.

Unfortunately last weekend, the Flotec 3000 gph submersible pump froze up on us after I had unplugged it to clear the algae out of our PondFiltration UV filter. I don't have any idea how old the pump was, and Flotec won't even respond to my emails. Now I'm looking into getting a new pump.

It looks like the EcoPlus submersible pumps would work best for us; magnetic driven and even optional replacement parts. Has anyone used these pumps before, and have any advice if they are reliable or not?

Also I am not sure we need a full 3000 gph rated pump. The pond does have a waterfall attached to it on the opposite end of the pump. The water has to go up the pump hosing, into the out-of-water filter, up a slight incline the 8' length to the waterfall, and then into the waterfall about 2' higher that the surface of the water. If we went with a 1500 gph pump, would that significantly decrease the flow of the waterfall?

Thank you

 

[BBK]

A 1500 would cut the water flow in half. Have you thought about an external pump?

 

[Cher]

Unfortunately there's not much room for external things. The original pond builders put the pond up against the fence between our house and the neighbors, so there is only a small strip of land (maybe 6" wide) between the edge of the pond and the fence. The PondFiltration filter takes up what edge room there is on one side of the pond, and the waterfall rocks + tall grasses on the other side. The pond is pretty much in full-sun all day.

I'll have to post some pictures later today. The whole thing could use a good re-do now that the neglectful house owners are gone and more responsible ones have moved in :banana: I believe the pond was built prior to the neglectees.

 

[Cher]

Here is my pond when the waterfall was actually working. You can see the hose that goes to the PondFiltration filter in the lower-left corner. It isn't very big at all, and there isn't a whole lot of room on the side to add a space for a pump, nor is there much in the way of cover. So a submersible is the best in our situation.

The water is actually clearer now than it has when the pump was running, although I bet it has to do with how still the water is now that there isn't anything moving it about.

If we ended up getting a pump that is 4000 gph (to prepare for any possible future expansion), is there a way to decrease the flow of water? I fear that much power might be too much for the waterfall. When I use to thoroughly clean out the sediment bag inside the filter of algae, the waterfall will leak and overflow until the algae starts to clog it up again, and I'll loose a few inches of water for a day or so.

 

[BBK]

You can put a valve on it but its not good for the pump. Some say you can restrict flow and some say to avoid it. You can run your flexible tube to a hard pvc section with a ball valve.

 

[koikeepr]

I would not risk pinching back the gph on a submerible. You can to this on an external with a ball valve, however, as BBK says. You do it on the outflow side of the pump and NOT on the inflow side.

If you are interested in expanding, and have the room to do that--then you should have the room for a small external. You can put it in a hole in the ground or one of the corners I see in your pic. Even an inline pump would work for you. Can go inside or outside of the water....

 

[Cher]

Thanks you two; that is good information to know for the future.

If we eventually expand, we have to dismantle the pond and remove the pavers they built the pond on top of. Now that I look at it, the picture kind of looks like it is an in-ground pond, but it is not. It's built on top of a concrete patio with outer walls of concrete blocks. Not much room for digging at the moment, I'm afraid.

Thank you for the advice. I think I'll forgo the higher gph pump at the moment since we don't have a timeline for expansion at the moment.

While I have you (heh) do you happen to have any suggestions as to why I have a lot of waterlily leaves, but absolutely no waterlily flowers? :coolgleema:

 

[koikeepr]

LOL! I'm in the same boat with my waterlily's these days. I had two glorious flowers last week and this week nothing. The koi just don't leave 'em alone. And the all the crazy rain hasn't helped either. I aways throw in a plant tab and then they perk up again....but I've forgottent to it. Then again, I guess I recognize that the algae loves those plant tabs too!

Be patient. You could have a later flowering lily. Some flower early, some later....

 

[Otter]

Did you try cleaning the pump? There may be just enough gunk around the impeller to keep it from starting. Be sure it's unplugged first!

3000 gph is a lot for such a small pond. Ponds usually turn over in 30 min. to 2 hours. But the turnover of your lily pond with the old pump was in the typical range for aquariums, so it's not completely insane. You could definitely use a smaller pump if you don't mind the decreased flow through your waterfall, though.

Your pond is clearer now because the fine debris that was clouding it has settled on the bottom. If you could find a place to hide a settlement chamber, you could use this to your advantage. However, with a small pond, it's easy enough to vacuum the bottom with a shop vac once a week. If you want the big pump for the waterfall, I suppose you could shut the pump off for an hour or so to let the pond settle and then vacuum it.

Unless your expansion will go over 2500 gallons, you needn't worry about getting a larger pump than your old one. I say 2500 gallons rather than 3000 because, with the resistance of pipes and filters and the vertical head, most pumps rated for 3000 gph will pump (very roughly) 2500 gph in a typical pond, and turning the pond over once an hour should be enough for a pond that size.

If you do decide to go with a larger pump and want to throttle it down, you might use a bypass valve instead of a restricting valve. This routes some of the water back to the intake of the pump, bypassing the waterfall and pond. If you need to take a big bite out of the flow rate, a bypass will be easier on the pump than making it fight against a large restriction.

However, in this case, it will probably be cheaper to buy a small pump now, and replace it with a larger one when you get around to expanding. Why? Electricity isn't free. Unless you have definite plants to expand soon, you'll probably wind up spending more on the extra electricity in a year or two than you'd spend to get a new pump.

 

[Cher]

Thanks Yes, I dismantled the pump casing to see if there were any debris clogging the propeller but there was not. The entire motor is in another casting, and we can't figure out how to take that apart, so it is not likely that something actually got into the motor itself. It was working perfectly fine until I plugged it back in, and then it refused to run anymore. It just makes a quiet humming sound as though something inside the motor got fried. They built the pond with an extension cord running from the garage to the pond, and I fear plugging that out and in may have caused a short. :icon_confused:

Koikeeper, this is the first year the waterlilies have been able to spread out. They were originally in gravel placed in 1-gallon pots (which smelled so very foul!) until I repotted them into water-baskets and water soil. Now they've got more than 3 leaves each and are happier, but still no flowers. Maybe I'll get them next year. :banana:

Thank you all for your advice