Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - No Rain, Need other options

I recently had Mike Otto consult to give me the best/most dependable option on maintaining the water levels on my pond.

His recommendation was a well. Like most in my area, we don't have enough rain to keep our ponds full.

I've verified I'm not losing any water other than what is consumed by evaporation and soil absorption.

I need a 50 GPM (Minimum) shallow well pump to provide a consistent water level.

We have high mineral content in our water table so it will need to be durable.

The water table is less than 20 feet anywhere on my property, several places have artesian springs.

I don't have electricity yet so I'm considering solar.

Any advice on a pump as well as solar set up would be appreciated. I plan on running the water over a rock feature with pond liner under it as a pathway to the pond.

Look up Grundfos solar pumps. 50gpm is a lot of water for a solar pump. Not saying it cant be done becuase im not sure. Years ago i sold domestic well pumps and Grundfos made solar pumps but they were meant for livestock but im certain the technology is much better today.
If i were you i would pursue Grundfos, find a local dealer and have them design a system also go tankless using a cycle stop valve or something similar. Good thing is your water table is shallow

I can tell you our situation about digging a well and maybe it will help. Our pond is roughly 3 acres in size.

We do have electricity, but instead of running wire all the way to the pond(~100 yards) we saved money by digging a long trench just below the well output. The trench empties into a tiny pond after 25 yards before traveling the rest of the way. This is time consuming and I'm sure we lose a little water along the way initially but it was way cheaper and it also allows the water to make some exchanges with the ground/atmosphere before dumping straight into the 3 acre pond.

Our measurements have us at 28 gallons per minute. We would have liked to have more but didn't want to fork out the extra money. 28 gallons per minute is still a lot of water. So far so good. We haven't experienced a hot summer yet so who knows what that will look like.

Yep on the confusion. I thought you cleaned up the water holes but they still existed.

You can DIY a shallow well, but I think you need a larger diameter casing to pump the amounts of water you will need.

I have done one shallow sand point well at a buddy's remote cabin. It was easy, but we just installed a hand pump for drinking water. I think we did a 1-1/2" point.

l assume you have done the math on your pond's water requirements. If not, here are some basics.

1 acre-foot is 326,000 gallons of water. In peak summer, if you were losing 1/2" per day that would be 27,167 gallons. (326,000 gallons/acre foot divided by 12 inches/foot divided by 2 (for a 1/2") times 2 surface acres)

That is 1,132 gallons per hour, or 19 gallons per minute.

19 gpm sounds reasonable for a small pump, but that is for continuous pumping. You will need a much bigger pump for a ten hour solar day during the summer, or a much larger solar array so you can charge a large battery pack and pump through the night.

Also, 19 gpm is only for summer maintenance. Even if you doubled your pump rate, then you would only be raising your pond level by 1/2" per day when it is very low due to a drought.

I hope that gives you some numbers to start your calculations. I would also call your local water well driller and ask him to give you a rough estimate to drill and case a 25' well. That will at least give you a dollar cost for comparison to DIY options.

These are all options that I have considered for our own farm, so I certainly wish you the best of luck on this project!