In an ideal scenario, every pond needs certain degree of water movement. Imagine a river; a first flowing river is always clean, clear and have less sediment deposit. Water is rich in oxygen which in turn allows for every wildlife to successively thrive.
On the other hand, a slow flowing river isn’t clean and clear, has less oxygen distribution and will always have sediment deposition.
Now apply this observation to a pond; a pond with good current flow and filter will always be clean and clear. Good current distribution will also always provide better oxygenation which is what all wildlife needs to thrive.
Having this knowledge, it is evident that one of the key attributes to having good pond water quality is to select the right size pump and filter. There is various pump in the market with different specification. Pumps can be classified into two major class:
- Filtration pumps also known as Dirty water pumps and
- Non filtration pumps – water feature pumps are in this class of pumps.
Some pumps also come in the low voltage option.
Filtration Pumps
There are a lot of different brands of filtration pumps in the market. Brands like Oase, Pondmax, Aquascape, Atlantic etc. All these pumps are called dirty water pumps because their impellers are designed to allow for particles of 4mm in size to go through. This usually allows for sludge sized particles to quickly leave the pond environment and the frequency of this movement through the filter increases the change of this particles getting trapped in time.
Non-Filtration Pumps
These are pumps that are best suited to just recirculate the water in pond. If filtration is not the main focus to keep the water quality of the pond good, then non filtration pumps are your options. Water feature pumps like the
Pondone brands,
Pondmax Evo pumps, Oase aquarius pumps etc. Like I said there are so many brands out there.
Now how do we actually select your pump?
For pump selection in terms of filtration we look at the following parameters:
- Volume of the pond
- Position of the filter and type of filter (how far away is the filter from the pond)
- Head height of the pumpand the position of the outlet of the pump. Head Height of pump refers to the distance the pump can pump above the water surface in order for it to carry out a task
From the above chart. You can see that at zero level (water level) the pump has got less work to do so its flow rate is almost the same as its manufacturing specification but as the pumps higher, it needs to do more work against gravity which in turns affects its flow and you can see that the flow reduces as the height increases.
Pumping distance also affects pumping power of pumps because of resistance.
- Wattage of Pump – Knowing the wattage of pump allows you to understand how much a pump can withstand in terms of resistance. There are now lots of energy efficient pump out there in the market because we now realise that if a pump doesn’t need to do lots of work in order to move water around, its doesn’t need to consume lots of energy thus you have a 17,000 litre/hr pump that consumes just 170watt but previous such pump would have consumed 600 watt of energy. Energy efficient pump saves on electric bill.
Other parameters you might use to select your pump are:
- Price – Most pump is made in China nowadays but there are lots of good Chinese brands out there. Price is a big selling point for any pump
- Warranty – For me one of the major selling points for a pump is the warranty, most good reliable pumps will come with 2 to 3 years warranty and premium pumps would come with more than 3 years.
Water Flow
So now, how much flow does a pump really need to perform efficiently in terms of filtration? Here at Sydney Pond Services, we would always recommend that a pump should be turning over 2.5 to 3.5 times the volume of your pond in an hour in order to provide adequate flow.
For example:
If a pond is 2,000 litres, then in order to turn the volume over 2.5 to 3.5 times, we need our pump to be pumping between 5,000litres and 7,000 litres an hour to be properly efficient. Please chat with us so we can help recommend the right pump that suits your particular pond.
Non-Filtration or Water feature pumps
Selecting non-filtration is less complicated compared to selecting filtration pumps. You basically want to focus on the litres an hour the pump will be pumping and the effect you looking for (with your water feature).
Various water feature pumps like the popular Pondmax evo pumps, Oase aquarius pumps, Pondone etc are all excellent brands. Most good brands will provide consumers with 2 years of warranty and the premium brands will provide 3 or more years of warranty.
Contact us before making decisions on your pump choice.