Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Wife keeps talking about a fountain...

As said in the title, wife is talking about a fountain... I have no problem with them except the fact the boys really enjoy swimming in the new pond... Not real sure I want electricity in the pond..

Already have both wind mill and electric powered diffusers... Need to pull them sometime to figure out exactly what Is there..

I know if done properly it should never be a problem,BUT!!!

What's your guys/gals thoughts?

Too expensive for my blood. Also doesn't do squat for the fish.

Talk to Sue Cruz on the 20th.

The good ones are very high $$$$$, I'm like you my kids are always in the ponds I'd be iffy too of 220 volt lines running in WATER where my KIDS swim..

Tell your wife she needs one of these!

Musical Fountain

Totally renovated this year with state of the art controls.

I was supposed to do all the programming for this gig, but one of our competitors snuck in the back door and offered it for FREE! That's gonna put a feather in their cap, if they pull it off in time for tonight's show.

Our guys did all the wiring and were just finishing up the new LED Lights last night. Not much time for a trial run and debug

Glad I ain't beating my head against the wall this morning

Okay, been doing a little reading... I have been working with a local company trying to get a quote on lawn irrigation.. After doing some research on pond pumps for irrigation there are options to run a valve above the pump to run a fire hose...

My thoughts are using that valve to plumb back to the pond to run a fountain... The irrigation pump filters also draw from the bottom of the pond so it would be circulating water from the bottom as well as adding O2?

Do these thought sound feasible?

Like normal probably over thinking the electrify in the water thing, but that option would eliminate it...

Sounds like I good idea, I'm interested in what you find out..

Not sure what you have in your mind as a fountain, but if you are just looking to shoot water in the air you could do it with a powerful air bubbler and some pvc to make an air lift pump. The only lines you would be running into the water is air lines.


brian

Brian,

Are you sure there is enough water pressure in a "bubbler" to "shoot water in the air?"

I was just about to suggest what you mention a few posts up Outdoor - we put in a 'redneck' fountain in a buddy's pond via an electric water pump (in an enclosure on the shore) and some PVC pipe. Drove a piece of oil pipe down into the pond bottom to secure the outlet to, so the upturn on the PVC ended a foot or so below the surface. It shot up maybe 3 feet or so.

Of course then his wife wanted it to 'spray' so we had to raise the PVC up and add a crosshatch cap to the pipe end to break up the stream.

I can tell you one thing that it seemed to do though - it seemed to really increase the evaporation.

I did the same 'redneck' fountain only using my well-water. My well pumps 25-30 gpm so instead of feeding the pond from the shoreline, I ran 1 1/4" poly tubing to 1 1/4" PVC.



Under $50 for tubing and PVC it's a VERY cheap fountain

Cecil,

I am not sure how high it can go tbh. The power of an air lift pump comes from the depth of the water in relation to the height you are pumping so i dont have a lot of areas where i can play with them in my aquaponics systems... They are a much more energy efficient choice to a water pump in situations where they work. And they have less moving parts than a water pump.


I know people use air lift pumps to bring well water up. The well's water needs to be about twice as deep as you are trying to raise the water.

Here's a proof of concept http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVyZhUjwKXk

The drawbacks are that since air bubbles are used to move the water it wont be a constant stream.. more of a gyser effect.. That may be desirable or undesirable... And it may not sound good... it may sound like it's gurgling... lol.

But for a pond i dont think you need a heavy duty air compressor like the guy in the video. I think a decent lpm pond aerator would be sufficient.


brian

Now you guys have me thinking about replumbing the pond well to make one...

Have not had to use the well yet this year because of all the rain we have had...My pond is just now getting to a level that I would consider normal...

Hmmmm, now what can I come up with?...

I made a ~1 minute video showing what a air lift water fountain might look like. Of you are able to go 8 or 10 feet deep instead of 3 you could get more height. There's lots of ways to improve my crude design. An air stone might improve lift as small bubbles are supposed to work better. I'd be curios if you could improve performance by starting a little wider at the bottom and narrowing the pvc diameter in the middle. I am also unsure how sprinkler heads would perform.

food for thought.



brian