Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations pumping water into my pond

we are having extremely dry weather and i am losing some water to seepage. hopefully some of that will be corrected soon with the soilfloc from teejah..

ok, here we go. pond is about 1.75 acres. losing about 1/2" per day.
to keep it topped off i would need a pump that would do about 35 gallons a minute. i would like to be able to pump a little more volume than that so i could raise the level instead of just keeping up with loss. thats just in case i dont run it for a few days.

i have 2 different places to pull electricity from. one is about 600ft from supply to pump, the other is about 950ft. i would really like to use the supply that is 950 ft away from pump. i wouldnt ruin near as much of my yard trenching.

what type pump should i use? also would it be better to have a pump to move large volumes of water for a short period of time or one that runs longer but produces less volume?

How do you know it's seepage and not evaporation? On a hot day I loose a 1/4" easy. I use a gasoline pump but it's 600' away down in a stream bed.

I would also guess you water loss is from evaporation. My pond is 700 feet from my house and i used to use a gasoline pump to pump water from my field that was ditched to my pond but lower then my pond because the pond is bermed. In the long run I would be up all night when I had water to pump and refilling the pump with gas. That soon got old so now I just let the pond seek it's own level.

I use two red lion sump pumps plumbed into a 2" line to the pond. These two pumps will pump 4200 gallons per hour each for a total of 8400 gallons per hour. Our 1 acre pond will raise 2-3"s in a 24 hour time period.

I have them set up in an old laundry tub that is dug into the creek bed. They have floats on them so if there is no water in the creek they shut off. I have a float in a 5 gallon bucket in the pond that is a reverse float for a cistern to keep a cistern full. If the pond is calling for water the power then turns on the pumps if there is water in the creek to float the floats.

Just to keep up with evaporation I need about 10,000 gallons per day is a good estimate.

In the winter months I run both pumps all winter long. They pump in over my water fall. The water fall with freeze solid on the front but the water is still running under the ice. I let the water then run out the over flow. The pond in the spring is much cleaner than the year I did not run the pumps all winter.

The only problem I have had with the pumps is that they will in time fill with water in the seal oil and pop the GFCI. When this starts to happen I just change out the oil in the pump with 5w-30 and put her back in service.

I went with the red lion because of their 5 year warranty. I have had one pump bearing fail but was quality problem. I have one pump that is three years old and pumps water like a fire truck.

Cheers Don.

I have a large area behind my dam that is standing in water. on the other end there is damp spot. I am losing a 1/2" per day and i also have a small stream supplying my pond that runs year round. Its not running much now because it has been really dry.

i have a 2" trash pump that is rated for 150 gallons a minute. im sure im not getting that much due to about 6-8ft of lift and then another 25ft or so of uphill head pressure. But with that pump i can raise my pond about 1 inch in 24 hours.

DonoBBD How many ft away are your pumps away from your power supply?

i doubt i could use a sump pump. the creek that i am pumping from gets a lot of water during a rain. i have seen it rise 3ft or so. It has about 6ft tall banks so it never gets out of the banks.

I use a 2" semi trash pump that is rated at 10,000 gph. I have 6' of lift and about 55' of head preasure and 600' of pipe. My pump has a 10 hour gas tank at full throttle and I figure im getting 5-6,000 gph with all the lift.

My pond is one acre and it takes about 25,000 gallons to raise it one inch. The only time I pump is when it has rained so I don't pump the stream dry. With one short half hour cloud burst I can pump for about 12 hours. Ive almost got it down to a science.

The stream flows from left to right in the photo, I have carved out a small pool beside the stream bed with my back hoe.

I've used sump pumps to drain my 1/10 acre hatchery ponds up to 9 feet deep all the way from the bottom. I now use a trash pump though. I've used them rated from 20 gpm to 70 gpm. Of course that's with zero head.

I mount either the sump pumps or the intake end of my trash pump inside a five gallon bucket. I tie them in with poly rope that are fed in via holes driled in the side of bucket. Rope is also attached to the end of the bucket to move it around from shore.

The bucket keep me from sucking in bottom debris and weeds.

I've also floated both using gallon jugs.

Most of you probably already know this, but I found a way to move water quite a ways, and cheaper than buying more of the blue discharge hose for my trash pump.

I ground down the metal post on the end of the 2 inch blue discharge hose, and can then slide it several feet into 3 inch black corrugated plastic drainage pipe -- you can get at any big box store pretty cheap. To keep it from pushing out you can run it through a cinder block just before it enters the drainage pipe.

toddm. that is what i am using also. i have rigged a five gallon bucket to mine so i am getting about 18 hours run time out of mine. i am just tired of hauling gas to it. i am ready to flip a switch. hopefully someone will chime in with an electric pump solution for me soon.

I am 250 feet to a spa panel at the dock then another 75 - 100 feet to the pumps. They are in a deep ditch just like yours and they will be under 6 feet of water in the spring and fall. I have them on their own GFCI as well as the whole line going to the pond from our house is on its own ground fault.

Cheers Don.

EDIT: These GFCI's are the breaker style. Not a plug style.