Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Water pump distance limitations

First off sorry if this is not in the right place to ask this quesiton. I just recently purchased some land on a river and there is a pond around a 1/4 of an acre right now. I want to pump water from the river to the pond but, the river is about 250 - 300 yards away and is around 30 ft below the pond elevation. I was hoping someone could provide some guidance on how I could go about accomplishing this.

I was thinking of burying PVC pipe from the river to the pond so it's always there and can be filled if needed. If anyone could help I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you,

Welcome to the forum! When you are looking at a pump, specifically look at the flow rate chart for that pump. Concentrate on gallons at a certain "head" height. In your instance, you have 30' of "head".

Pumps are much more effecient at pushing than sucking, so take that into consideration when looking at placement of the pump.

The pump can be placed down at the river so you don't see an issue pushing that far to the pond? Also how about the sizing of the PVC would say a 3" pump going down to a 1" or 3/4" pvc be ok?

Thanks again!

I wouldn't choke a 3" pump down that far - more wear and tear on the pump. I used mine last (3" semi-trash pump) to pump water out of a pond. The pump had to suck water up 5'-6' and then push it up another 10'. Used 110' of 3" discharge hose and it still came out of the end of the hose by about 3'. That's a LOT of water volume to squeeze thru a smaller hose.

Distance to push for a pump (within reason) doesn't matter, it's the head pressure that you have to watch.

Look at Northern Tool website for pumps, then do more research into the specs of each pump.

Awesome thank you esshup

Could there be an issue (legally) with filling from a river? Just be carefull, don't want to see anybody in trouble.

Hi Cartrydge, welcome to the Pond Boss forum and congratulations on your new pond acquisition.

Have you sampled the fishery of your pond yet? I encourage you to do so, and let us know what you find. You should establish an understanding of your current fishery prior to making any other moves. Netting or extensive angling can provide a summary of your fishery condition - including the species present, their body condition [weight, etc.] and populations of each species. Fishing with a 1/32 oz jighead and a crawler nub should provide pretty quick results for your panfish survey [BG, RES, ect.], and a minnow will likely indicate predator species present [LMB, CP, etc]. Measure and weigh the fish and keep records of all sampled and let us know. We can then help you extrapolate data necessary to summarize the condition of your fishery and make recommendations on goals/strategy moving forward. IE: Too many skinny LMB, too many skinny BG, etc. Understanding the current condition of your fishery is vital to taking the next step.

Another thing to consider - pumping water from any "foreign" water source presents some issues of which to be aware. You can introduce invasive plant and fish species which can ruin your pond. Some guys use screened boxes on either end of the pump, but fish fry and plants could still conceivably transfer and end up in your pond. Just something to be aware of prior to moving forward.

Hope some of this is helpful! Again, welcome to the forum.

I highly doubt there are any fish in it at the moment it was never stocked and is only a couple years old formed from rain water. As far as getting water from the river I'll check but, we have never had ran into any trouble doing this filling our impoundments.

Good Advice from TJ. Nature has a way of filling in voids when we aren't looking/prepared, and usually not to our liking......