Pump Over Kill

[clemsonguy1125]

Is it possible to have a over kill pond pump. I am getting a 150-250 gallon pond. I plan to put about 8-12 small comet goldfish in the pond. I plan to get my pump from harbor freight. I have the choice between a 258 gph pump for 15 bucks or a 1208gph or a 1528gph each for 30. I was thinking I would get the biggest. Ive read for fish you want the water cycled at leat 3 times per hour. I plan to use a 10 gallon container filled with poultry netting at the filter so I assume this with restrict the circulation some.
Thanks

 

[DrCase]

If you do go big you don't have to run all the water through the filter
You could use some of it for a circulation or a water fall
To much to fast through the filter is not so good

 

[clemsonguy1125]

Okay, its a 15 dollar price increase for 5 times the flow and it has great reviews. So it sounds like a good idea and I can have a waterfall, thanks.

 

[Pondmaster]

Is it possible to have a over kill pond pump. I am getting a 150-250 gallon pond. I plan to put about 8-12 small comet goldfish in the pond. I plan to get my pump from harbor freight. I have the choice between a 258 gph pump for 15 bucks or a 1208gph or a 1528gph each for 30. I was thinking I would get the biggest. Ive read for fish you want the water cycled at leat 3 times per hour. I plan to use a 10 gallon container filled with poultry netting at the filter so I assume this with restrict the circulation some.
Thanks

You won't regret getting the bigger pump, it is always useful to have that extra power. If you need to you can use a PVC quarter turn valve to throttle it back. It will not hurt the pump at all no different than if you had - say 10 foot of head to overcome.

 

[carolinaguy]

you actually can over pump your pond, and that is controlled by valving the outflow of the pump as pondmaster mentioned. you want about one turnover an hour with the pond size you mentioned. the main pump problem is caused by driving too much water through your filter and driving off the biological media. the maximum flow is 3 feet per second through a crossection of the filter, but don't worry about that number. just keep your flow through the filter such that your turnover is once an hour. i don't know what reference you read that talked about a 20 minute turnover rate for a teleost pond. my references talk about a range from one to two hours depending on the pond size. maybe with a pond below 1000 gallons, that higher rule applies but it isn't necessary for goldfish and koi filtration to the best of my knowledge.

just as a point of reference, we had a club member who put a 10000 gph pump in a 7000 gallon pond, and the flow flushed every bit of waste out of the filter and back into the pond. he valved it down, and everything worked correctly.

later when you build your larger pond, and we all do it, you will have a pump that can handle the new flow.

 

[Steve knight]

do you really want to get a harbor freight pump? your fish's life may depend on it. if you can spend about 50 you can get a name brand mag drive pump.
ebay has pumps on the cheap that are mag drive.
I have a 580gph pump on my 160 gal pond and it is hard to direct all that water. my filter is rated for 300gph and the rest adds some current to the pond.

 

[bsr8129]

harbour fright pumps are actaully pretty good.

 

[RSFish1]

I had 3 HF pumps of 3 different sizes fail in 3 months last year. Then I had 2 more of the 258 GPH fail this summer. I knew when each of those failed pretty easily. The lights in my kitchen flickered and the circuit breaker blew. No fried fish. But it really scared me how when they went, they took the circuit breaker with them.
My experiences may not be normal. But I wanted to pass on my experiences...

 

[carolinaguy]

are we talking about harbor freight pumps that are specifically built as submersible pumps that are fish safe? i'm not familiar with their products.

if we are talking about submersibles, just remember that the typical life expectancy of a good quality submersible is one to three years as opposed to an external that can run for 12 to 15 years at least. when thinking about the cost don't forget life cycle and energy costs. then there is the problem of shorting and electrocuting fish when the pump dies, so don't forget the gfi breaker.

its always something, isn't it?

 

[RSFish1]

Mine are the submersibles right from their website. They list them as "Fountain" pumps. I only use them now for smaller water features and my emergency tanks.

I use a lot of bigger Sunterra pumps. I had to laugh last year when I read the box it came in. It read something like this-Sunterra 4300 gallon Pond Pump-Not safe for use in water with amphibious or aquatic life due to possible electical hazard.

Sorry to take the thread off topic.

I have never found I can have too big of a pump. As long as they make hose splitters and 50 million different sizes of hose, I can adjust the GPH to the filters and run the rest to somewhere else to move more water and splash more oxygen in to the water.

 

[koiguy1969]

Laguna and tetrapond pumps come with 3 and 4 year warranties. My 1200 gph tetrapond has 7 years on it and runs strong! This is my 3rd year with it and my freind had 4 or 5 years on it when he gave me it!!....My other 2 Tetraponds have 3 years on them and still perform as new !! one is a 1000 gph and the other is 425 gph.

 

[koisRus]

Let me mention that you will not actually see the rated gph under normal use. For example, I use a pondmaster 515 gph pump to fill my aquarium, from 30 feet away through the recommended size hose it takes 8 minutes to fill 16 gallons of water (or 120 gph) when I do a 15% water change.

I also have the Harbor Freight 3200 gph pond pump (I paid $50.00 for this pump and $10.00 for the extended warranty), before I put it in my pond I tested it with 3 feet of 1-1/4" hose going from a wheel barrel to a 5 gallon on the ground. It took 10 seconds to fill the bucket. That is 30 gallons per minute or 1800 ghp.

I would say go with the larger pump, you can always slow the output down, or run multiple devices.

 

[clemsonguy1125]

Ok thanks guys, I may try the harbor freight, I understand it may break but its 30 bucks and worth a shot, it has generally good reviews. Also where can I find tetrapond pumps?
Edit-I found this.http://www.amazon.com/Tetra-Water-G...8S3G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1286999136&sr=8-3
Will it work? Only issue is tetrapond did not have the greatest reviews and very few reviews at all.

 

[koiguy1969]

Lowes carries tetrapond... I have nothing to say on the hydro pacific pumps at harbor freoght...never used one!

 

[clemsonguy1125]

Thanks, I found one on amazon for like half the price of Lowes pumps. Thanks though, do you have any other pump recomendations.