Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions hydraulic ram pumps

Does anyone have any experience setting up a hydraulic ram pump? I have a stream on my property that is a heavy flowing, never dry stream. It sits 90 feet below my house in the valley, I would like to pump water up from the stream using a ram pump because they are low maintenance and do not require electricity. Plus the idea of cool stream water makes me think with a 5 GPM flow I could do some trout in a tank with roof for shade. I'm taking water temps now just to see what is possible but the real question is the pump.

PaPond,
There are several Ram Pump schematics available on the interweb. I like the ones done in PVC. They last a long time and do a great job. 90 feet elevation change is a lot, but doable.

Check out Rife Ram Pumps for the best available. They are made right here in PA. They have an excellent website which helps you determine the right pump for your application. Definitely pricey compared to plastic pumps, though.

Thanks for the replies,

I built the 1" pump last year from this website and it worked very well and was relatively cheap to make. I'm thinking I could easily scale it up.

http://www.inthefieldministries.org/jscalhou/Home%20Built%20Hydraulic%20Ram%20Pumps.pdf

The application for this pump was simply to take water flowing out of my pond and pump a percentage up to a small trickle fall and stream flowing through a wildflower garden. Flow was not really important I wasn't looking to support anything but moss but I was pleased with a 1/2 g.p.m. output, but to pump 5 g.p.m. up from the stream will test the design to the max. The rife site says it is do able, I was hoping someone was doing something similar and could comment.

You knowledge may be advanced beyond this you-tube video, but I'm throwing it up here in case it helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4y_WWxWdn5A

Thanks,

Engineer775 has a great You Tube collection of ram pump installs and spring development.