Well water for pond help.

[juanprieto]

I am thinking of putting in a well to supply continuous cool clean water to my pond. For those of you that are on continuous wells for your pond how do handle the outgoing water? Do you pump it to another well? It would be too much water for my small yard to handle so it needs to go out somewhere. My pond is about 1800 gallons and I am in Miami so wells run about 25-30 feet deep.

 

[Mgessert]

I’m in north Florida, so it may be different for you, but the shallow wells used for irrigation here are a bit brackish. If you haven’t already, you might want to check the water quality in a well like that to make sure it would be suitable. As for flow, I would just use it to top off the pond rather than have a constant flow. Just a thought.

 

[juanprieto]

We have good water quality here. Our drinking water comes from wells the county operates.

 

[j.w]

I would think it would cost a lot of electricity to run it constant or is it just free flowing using no power?

 

[juanprieto]

I’m thinking running it a few times a day for a few minutes.

 

[GBBUDD]

Do you know what your well waters parameters are the pH, kh , nitrate and phosphates? That's the first bit of info you'll need. You don't want a steady or even semi steady flow if your water is acidic. But in Florida with all the calcium from corals I'd bet its on the soft side.
If I was to do anything like your talking it would be a trickle. Like no more than 5 gallons an hour or something . But again it greatly depends on your water a constant flow of mineral rich water may end up an algae forest/

 

[juanprieto]

The well water is spot on what I get out of the tap minus the chlorine of course.

 

[Lisak1]

A municipal water supply from a well is still treated - you can assume your well water will be the same.

Have you investigated the cost of a well? Digging a well that deep here would run into the thousands... seems like overkill to keep a pond topped off.

 

[juanprieto]

Yes the municipal water is treated. But I would not be using municipal water. I would dig my own well in my yard. What I mean is that our municipal drinking water comes from the same aquifer used by the county so the parameters are very close. We have water at 10 feet here in Miami. I would probably go to about 16 or so to assure clean and constant water.

 

[GBBUDD]

you can assume your well water will be the same.

Did you pull a Gbbudd and miss The. 't in Can't ... while the water from the same source can be similar very few municipal water companies have water so pure they don't add something . Like phosphorus for instance this is a great plant fertilizer but it is added to mo st municipal waters because it helps keep metallic pipes from rotting out

 

[j.w]

Yes the municipal water is treated. But I would not be using municipal water. I would dig my own well in my yard. What I mean is that our municipal drinking water comes from the same aquifer used by the county so the parameters are very close. We have water at 10 feet here in Miami. I would probably go to about 16 or so to assure clean and constant water.

You will have to know for sure beforehand what that well water will be like. All this seems like too much work and money! If you are just going out there to start digging and see what you come up w/then I guess it is only your back that might suffer tho and not your pocket book. I suppose you could just dig a straight down tube kind of a hole at first to see just what kind of water is down there. If you do it keep us informed as it will be very interesting to see if you can work it out. Lots of photos as you do it will be fun to watch

 

[Lisak1]

@GBBUDD - good catch! Yes - you CANNOT ASSUME.

@j.w can you imagine digging 16 feet straight down? Me either!

 

[GBBUDD]

Only the absolute largest of e cavators can dig down 16 feet but the operator better be damn good because you only get one shot at an area you'll never get there again without building a ramp. Lots of work. And if it has boulders you'll need a Crane

 

[j.w]

Only the absolute largest of e cavators can dig down 16 feet but the operator better be damn good because you only get one shot at an area you'll never get there again without building a ramp. Lots of work. And if it has boulders you'll need a Crane

Heck, you mean there is no giant man drill 16' long that you can just stick in the ground while up in a tall tree.............wait it would have to be longer depending on how high up one climbs right................and then you just turn it on and away it drills down till it hits water. They you climb down from the tall tree and stick a long 16' straw in there right up close next to the drilled hole and just suck up a mouth full and voila you run in and test that water and all is good right?

 

[WaterGardener]

Could you not just use a hose with a timer attached?

In this area, digging a well these days is over $10,000, so not feasible.

Maybe the first step would be to get some estimates on digging that well.