Pump recommendations

[ErinH]

Hey there! New to back yard ponds. We have dug a 3 ft deep pond, 17 feet by 13 feet. Does anyone have any pump recommendations for that size?
looking for a submersible with a vault.
thanks for the help

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

I only use external pumps, so no help for you. Look up sequence, laguna submersibles, both are good pumps.

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

Not to sound dumb, but what do you mean by “with a vault”?

There are many on here who can give good advice about pumps, but unfortunately, I’m not one of them..... Some more information might br helpful. For example, are you planning to have fish? Will you have a waterfall? How important is energy efficiency? What kind of filtration will you have?

Most ponders want their pumps to turn over about 1 1/2 times the water volume every hour. There are ways to figure the volume of a pond. Yours looks to be about 5000 US gallons. That’s a good place to start

 

[ErinH]

Thanks. I am really just looking for all info I can get. Hey do plan on a few fish, no waterfall though. We have a fountain in the garden already...
By vault I mean a box to go in ground to hide the filter. I have read this is a good option.

 

[mrsclem]

Do you have a filter? If so what type? A lot of members here use a bog to filter their ponds. Its a separate section filled with pea gravel and planted. You pump water into the bottom of it , water flows thru and plants filter the water. Lots of info on here. I use Laguna pumps in my pond.

 

[combatwombat]

I would guess that for a 5k gallon pond, you'd want to aim for about a 5k gph pump as long as fish load remains low. No harm going bigger. Pumps work best in the middle of their curve, so calculate your total dynamic head (height the pump has to overcome + friction loss from length of piping) and look for a pump that will provide 5k GPH in the middle area of the curve for that calculation.

If you need help calculating head loss, just let us know. Need to know uphill height from water level to wherever the filter is + length of pipe needed to get from one to the other.

If no waterfall, you'll need another way to aerate the pond. A small air pump would do the trick.

 

[ErinH]

Great this helps a lot. We have not purchased a pump yet. The pond is currently empty and didn’t want to do so without some advice.

 

[j.w]

@ErinH
I like the Laguna submersible's. They are long lasting and not bad on power consumption. I have a Laguna 4280 for my 2400 gal pond. I took the cage off tho so I could hook it up to a prefilter. But if I had to do this all over again I would have built a bog instead as they are such good filters and no fuss, no muss! Alas I did not tho so I sit and suffer every time I have to drag out my filters to clean them.

 

[ErinH]

We definitely are going the big route. Thanks so much! My pond is actually just under 2000gal (I miss measured, using my liner measurements ). So this sounds like it might be a good option!

 

[ErinH]

View attachment 138067@ErinH
I like the Laguna submersible's. They are long lasting and not bad on power consumption. I have a Laguna 4280 for my 2400 gal pond. I took the cage off tho so I could hook it up to a prefilter. But if I had to do this all over again I would have built a bog instead as they are such good filters and no fuss, no muss! Alas I did not tho so I sit and suffer every time I have to drag out my filters to clean them.

View attachment 138067@ErinH
I like the Laguna submersible's. They are long lasting and not bad on power consumption. I have a Laguna 4280 for my 2400 gal pond. I took the cage off tho so I could hook it up to a prefilter. But if I had to do this all over again I would have built a bog instead as they are such good filters and no fuss, no muss! Alas I did not tho so I sit and suffer every time I have to drag out my filters to clean them.

 

[GBBUDD]

Pump size is almost irrelevant. What are you doing for a filter or are you planning on no filter at all? Once you figure out what your doing for a filter then you can figure what to do for a pump

I am not a fan of no filters but i know @addy1 has at least one if not more small ponds without a filter.

 

[addy1]

@addy1 has at least one if not more small ponds without a filter.

The three ponds (I call them loop ponds) get dirty water from the big pond, bypassing the bog. They get water via a garden hose and a y valve. The 1000 gallon pond gets dirty water from the big pond, a slow feed from the big pond before the bog.
The deck ponds and stream ponds get dirty water from the big pond.
The hot tub pond has a small planter box, bog type filter.

They all have so many plants they stay in good shape. Some fish, as eggs, fry wander in via the pump. Mainly in the loop ponds. I find surprise fish.