A great feature to include in your pond design is a fountain or a waterfall. Often, to get the best from these features you will have to use a stand-alone pond pump in the design.

Pond fountains

If you only have a relatively small pond then adding a fountain may well look out of place and the amount of potential water loss any have a detrimental effect on your pond wildlife. However, if you have a large enough pond, adding a fountain will give your pond a great aesthetic look and add the quiet sounds of moving water to your garden.

It is important not to install a high powered pump that will jettison all your pond water 20 feet into the air if your pond cannot cope with that amount of water loss. Fit your fountain around your current pond design, you will be the best person to estimate how high you want the fountain to reach and where it will look best in your pond.

It is important to remember that adding a fountain will lead to more water loss than you think due to splashing and evaporation.

There’s nothing like sitting by the garden pond, enjoying a nice relaxing drink while the fish splash around. The sound of moving water is enough to make you drift off asleep.

But in order to enjoy these moments, you need to put in some hard work to make sure that your pond can provide you with the relaxation and pleasure that it was intended for.

An important tool in creating the perfect pond, is the pond pump. Pond pumps can truly bring your pond to life. A pump helps to maintain the health of your pond by circulating and aerating the water. This means that the oxygen levels in the water will be kept high to keep your fish healthy.

But it’s not a case of picking any old pump. There are three different types to choose from with each offering a different advantage.

Feature pumps operate pebble pool fountains, ornaments or self contained features. They are not the best one to use for a garden pond though.

General purpose pumps can operate fountains, waterfalls and filters simultaneously. These can be used in most ponds and are great for fountains .

Solid handling pumps are designed to allow larger soft solids to pass through, making these pumps great for filtration. They are also perfect for waterfalls because they don’t clog up easily.

In the last article we discussed how easy it is for your pond pump intake to become blocked with leaves mud and other pond detritus. When you have cleaned the intake and the pump still does not work what do you do?

The filter in your pump might have become blocked, these can be replaced for a new filter on some models and if not it can be cleaned thoroughly. The next thing to look at is whether the spray holes have become blocked, this may be the case if you live in hard water area. Calcium build up can block the holes over time so you can clean the nozzle it a de-calcifying solution (commonly used to decalcify your kettle or shower head).

If this does not work and you have a lot of patience you could always use a pin or another sharp implement to further remove the build-up from the holes. Lastly, and this is the worst scenario, the internal workings of the pump or the pump motor may be faulty. In cases like this it is commonly easier and cheaper to buy a new pump than to get your old one repaired.

Having a water feature in your garden is a great way to introduce water into your garden without having a large garden pond. This might be a stand alone feature like a small fountain or even a bubble fountain where the water emerges from a rock or trickles over the surface of a stone. These are a great way to add visual appeal, and the soothing sound of the movement of water can not only be relaxing but also bring more wildlife into your garden.

But what happens if the pond pump stops working or the water has turned into a mere trickle. The first thing to do is not be overly concerned. This is a common problem with many pumps, the pump intake can get blocked quite regularly with leaves or mud or other pond detritus. All you need to do is to switch off the electricity supply to the pump and remove the pump and clean it. When you put it back into the pond or water feature make sure the intake is not directly on the floor of the pond, this will stop the silt and mud being collected and your pump getting blocked too quickly.

Other pond pump problems will be discussed in the next article.

A pump in your garden pond is an essential component that is needed to provide filtration, a waterfall, a fountain or just to move water around your pond. Depending on the function you need your pump to perform and the quantity of water you need to move there are many suitable pond pumps available on the market.

Feature pond pumps do what they say on the box. Basically they should only be used to move small quantities of water for a fountain or a waterfall. These pumps are great if all you want to achieve is a water feature in your pond and most come supplied with a fountain head or other attachment so they can be set up quickly and easily.

The now most common type of pump is the solid handling pump, these pumps can handle the debris that builds up on the pond floor and because of which are commonly used to power pond filters. They are generally more powerful than their feature counterparts and although powerful are not commonly used for features such as a fountain but can be used to power a waterfall.

When looking for a pond pump, you may only have one intended use for it. However, pumps are employed in ponds to perform a variety of functions. Often these functions can be performed simultaneously by one pump or frequently, and with good reasoning, a second pump can be installed in one pond so that different functions are performed by different pumps. This can have the advantage that functions can be controlled independently of others, particularly helpful if some features need 24 hour operation whilst others may be only required on a more sporadic basis.

The different functions that pumps perform revolve around powering water features, such as fountains or waterfalls, powering a pond filter or a UV clarifier and powering an aeration system. All of these functions will place very different demands on the pump system.

The feature that dictates reliability above all other requirements is the pond filter. As a pond filter uses natural bacteria that require oxygen to survive, the pump must run 24 hours a day, seven days a week to ensure that a continuous supply of oxygenated water is passed through the filter. It is also necessary for the entire volume of the pond water to be circulated through the filter every 90 minutes.

A fountain may only place quite modest demands on a pump depending on how ambitious you are feeling. However, it may be beneficial to have an independent pump powering this feature so that it can be turned off when not required. A waterfall will place a much larger demand on a pump, otherwise an impressive water course may prove very disappointing playing host to a paltry trickle.

There are many pumps on the market which all serve different purposes. It is very difficult to over specify a pump but conversely, very easy to under specify. Before committing, think carefully about what it needs to do and also what you may wish for it to do in the near future.