How To Choose a Garden Pond Fountain Pump

Fish in garden ponds love fountains. Fountains add dissolved oxygen to the pond water and this provides a better living environment for the koi or goldfish especially in summer when oxygen depletion worsens.

Pond owners also love fountains because they add sound and stunning visual possibilities to any pond

Fountain display are created by the type of nozzle attached to a fountain pump. Fountains like the one in the picture are normally referred to as 1-tier, 2-tier, 3-tier fountains and so on ... the tiers represent fountains within fountains and are created by parallel sets of holes on the fountain pump nozzle head.

If you look closely at the picture you'll notice that this pond, which is quite a big one, has both a waterfall and a fountain and this is an excellent arrangement for aesthetic and fish keeping purposes.

Here's a quick tip ... as much as most pond pumps have a 2 way flow capability it is in many practical cases almost impossible to set the flows so that you have an impressive waterfall and an impressive fountain. Even if you get it right today you'll need to tweak tomorrow because the pressure drops in the 2 different systems will change and this will change the flows going to the 2 separate devices.

You'll almost always see the impact in a lower fountain height (nozzles get blocked with algae). This website is about removing all hassles to do with choosing and using pumps in garden environments so it would be remiss of me not to point this out.

If you want a waterfall and a fountain then get 2 pumps ... one pump for the waterfall and one pump for the fountain. Read here how 2 pumps actually save money in most fish ponds If you just want a fountain then read on.

Ponds come in different depths and this is an important factor to realize in choosing a fountain pump. If the pond is 3 feet deep and the fountain stem is 2 feet then then you'll need to put something on the pond base to allow the fountain head to protrude from the pond surface. Most fountain pumps contain a telescopic pipe to allow you to vary the height within reason.

Pond Fountains and Lighting Effects

The picture speaks for itself. These days many fountains come fully equipped with special lighting effects and these add a significantly new dimension to gardening pleasure. The use of different coloured lenses add even more possibilities. Hozelock, Oase and Heissner all provide such fountain pump opportunities.

Choosing the Right Fountain Pump

There is no simple formula to help you here. But whatever you do avoid fountain pumps with sponges in the suction. These sponges or foams block up very rapidly and reduce flow dramatically through the fountain nozzle. So instead of an impressive feature your fountain becomes a damp squid or maybe a feeble spray is a better choice of words.

The answer to this dilemma is choose the pump from a reputable manufacturer and make sure it comes with a variety of spay nozzles that will work adequately with that pump. Each supplier of fountain pumps have their own names for the fountain effects but these can be classified in general as ...

Cascade or tier sprays
Bubble (like an umbrella) effects
Tulip (inverted bubble) effects
Foam ... white gushing powerful jets. The whiteness come from massive amounts of entrained air bubble.

Don't get a pump with such power that when you place the fountain pump in the middle of the pond the wind blows the spray onto the land.

I have created 12 different pond calculators and these are available free at my other site Perfect Pond Keeping One of the calculators allows you to accurately specify any pond pump even taking pipe friction losses into account. I would suggest you get these Excel calculators and play around with them.

Pond Keeping Units

Now we've started to talk litres you might find this table below useful. It helps to translate one set of units to another quite easily.

Unit	Imp Galls/min	cu ft/min	Litres/min	cu m/min
Imp. Gallons	1	0.16	4.55	0.005
Cu.Feet	6.23	1	28.32	0.028
Litres	0.22	.04	1	.001
Cu. Metres	220	35.32	1,000	1

Example ... 1 cu.m per minute is the same as 1,000 litres per minute or 35.32 cu.ft per min or 220 imperial gallons per minute.

Factors to be aware of with all pumps. This is a good page to read before you buy any pump.