i am kinda starting the process to install a pump for my pond. i have been using a gas pump on and off, but that is too much trouble. i hope to be able to make a ford across my larger stream soon, and incorporate some type of catch basin for the pump pickup. i need about 15 gallons a minute for the pond to hold its own, but i would like closer to 30 to 40 gallons a minute. the pump will have to lift about 8ft and push water uphill about 35ft. a well drilling friend of mine said the grit it will pickup in the stream could cause a problem for the pump. anyone have any experience with project like this?

Two things I have done when pumping from my stream.

1. Don't pump after a big rain until the water has cleared to one ft visibility or better.
2. Make a fine filter screen for the pump intake. Mine is made of fine metal window screening and has a large surface area to reduce suction pressure on the screen.

I have put many many hours on the gas pump with no problems. The inside, as far as I can see, looks very good still. There is no difference between a gas centrifugal pump and an electric one except for the prime mover.

i have a 5 gallon bucket of gas connected to my pump now. it will run 15 hours or so on 5 gallons. in this drought i am losing about a half an inch a day. with the pump running i can gain almost 1" a day. most of these electric pumps i see dont seem to have as much out put as the gas pumps.

Wow, that is a lot of water loss. With my pump running for 15 hours, I would gain almost ten inches of water in my pond. I get about 60 gallons/minute at the outlet at the pond. I need about 2.5 to 3 gallons a minute to hold its own.

No experience with a project like that but what you will need is a trash type pump or semi-trash type pump rather than a clear water pump. Trash pumps are centrifugal type pumps with internal clearances such that some sand and grit will not particularly hurt them. Clear water pumps can be made closer tolerances so they pump more efficiently but abrasive materials will significantly shorten life and rocks or gravel may totally destroy them.

John a half inch of water loss in a day is not really that much. Between the trees and evaporation I know I lose that every day easy.... in the summer. In a weeks time my pond will drop about 6 inches or so right now. Not near as bas once it starts to cool down though...

RC

This is the pump that I use and I have two of them in our pond. IT is a brushless pump and we have had one that runs our water fall running for four years now and I have not even pulled it from the pond or touched it in the four years.

Both pumps are set up with a milk crate around them to stop the big trash the screen on the pump is good enough for anything more like minnows or anything like that.

I have a sump plump float set on the one in the creek that we fill our pond with. The float is set so when the water in the creek is gone mid summer the pump will turn off. I have this milk crate set inside a laundry tub with 1.5" holes drilled in the sides. This acts like a pit. When I do it again I will just use a cement well casing.

The pump and milk crate is set in the pit on top of a flat rock. When sediment comes down stream it will settle below the rock and my pick up of the pump. This pump is hooked into a 2" flexible hose into a 2" hard plastic that is buried in the ground. Come October I will let the pump run full blast all winter long and extra water will run out the over flow.

I do not run a foot valve or check valve. We pump about 15 feet in elevation so when the pump shuts off the water in the 2" line runs back to our pit in the creek. I have had way to much trouble with foot valves and check valves sticking shut or slowly freezing they are not worth using.

These 2 pumps are about $15 a month to run and we pay 25 cents per KW delivered taxes in.

Same as above I will loose about 6"s a week in evaporation and ground absorption. This pump will put that 6"s back in our pond in now time. These pumps with out brushes pump way more than what they are rated for.

Cheers Don.