How Do You Choose the Right Pond Pump?

Creating a pond is one of the best ways to enhance your back garden. If you already have a pond in your garden, you might want to update it or just replace your pump with something more to your liking. When summer starts to approach, many people want to enhance the use of their gardens for entertaining guests, spending time with family members, and holding business meetings. The garden is ideal for this because of its obvious proximity to your house, the utility of keeping events near your home, and the ease of finding space. That’s not to mention how much cheaper it is to hold an event at your home than to rent some kind of space. You can dress up your garden however you want so that it fits the theme and mood of any event. Or maybe you’re not even planning to have an event and you just want somewhere to have a nice cup of tea.

A pond is a great way to create that kind of spot. Animals such as birds are often drawn to a pond, watching fish swimming around in cool clear water is very relaxing, and the sound of water is known to be therapeutic. If you’ve ever sat next to a well-maintained pond that bubbles with fresh water, you know the feeling. However, if you’ve ever sat next to a stagnant pond that is not well maintained, you know that feeling as well.

Poorly maintained ponds tend to be smelly, ugly, and teeming with bugs. Insects such as mosquitoes and flies are drawn to stagnant water, the smell of decay, and mouldy settings. Anaerobic fermentation is occurring in these ponds; this is decay that happens without the presence of oxygen, creating a tepid and smelly concoction. This is the same thing that happens to rubbish that has been sitting out for too long. A poorly maintained pond can become a nuisance and an eyesore instead of a great garden spot.

Poorly maintained ponds

So, how do you create a healthy and attractive pond instead of a gross one? Picking the right pond pumps is the first step in creating a great garden experience. Pumps move the water, filter it, and even create the fountain effect. Moving water attracts birds and repels pests, as well as limiting the amount of decay. Here are some features of pumps that you should consider.

Operating Temperature

Depending on where you live, it might get very cold during the winter. If you have a pond that is strictly for entertaining, you might be tempted to drain your pond in the winter. That, however, is not totally necessary; if you pick a pump with a very low functional temperature, you can keep your pond going year round.

Operating Temperature

If you live in a cold area and you are searching for an outdoor pump, you should look for one that is safe to at least 20 degrees Celsius. That should keep your pond functional throughout the entire winter. Some pumps even have frost-proofing technology which helps prevent frost from damaging your pond and your pump.

Energy Usage

Keeping energy use low is one of the main concerns people have when they’re choosing their home additions. You don’t want your pond to cost you more money in electrical costs than it’s actually worth. That’s why you should look for a pump that uses as little energy as possible while still delivering the kind of quality you need.

Energy Usage

For example, some smaller pumps that pump about 400 litres of water per hour tend to use about five watts per hour. Some of the massive pumps that are capable of pumping 40,000 litres per hour tend to use about 10,000 watts. You shouldn’t buy a pump that is bigger than you need because you’ll end up spending money you don’t need to be spending. You should measure your pond and buy the pump that fits your pond’s volume.

Fountain

Fountain pumps are, as the name suggests, pumps that also create fountains. These are typically judged on two categories: height and spread. The height is how high the jet of water reaches above the surface of the water, and the spread is how wide of a stream the pump sprays. Fountains serve the vital function of pumping water, but also of introducing much-needed oxygen and circulation to the water.

Fountain pumps are

If you have fish in your pond, oxygen is absolutely critical. Contrary to popular misconception, fish actually breathe oxygen; they simply do so by extracting it from the water. A fountain shoots the water above the surface so that it can collect oxygen before it splashes back down. This reduces the rate of anaerobic decomposition, which was discussed earlier, as well as helping your fish grow.

A fountain’s most notable feature is obviously the aesthetics. You should consider how high and how wide you want your fountain to be. For example, if you have an indoor pond, you obviously don’t want the fountain to shoot so high that it hits the ceiling or that the splashing causes water to bounce all over the indoor area. The same goes for the spread of your fountain; you don’t want it to be so wide that it threatens to splash inside.

If you have an outdoor fountain, though, you might want a high spray that creates an impressive aesthetic.

If you have an outdoor

Choosing a pump for your pond is one of the most crucial decisions you will make when decorating your garden pond. You have to make sure you find one that is big enough to frequently recycle the water in your pond, but not so big that you end up wasting money on electrical costs. Also, you need to decide if you want a fountain or not; if you do decide on a fountain, you have to figure out how high you want your jet to be. All these choices depend on aesthetic needs and spatial considerations; what’s most important is that you look through all available choices and pick the right one for you.


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Matthew Okafor