Forgot to say this flows up to a bio-falls (home-made version) as it always has.

Shelly, how big is your pond and what's the gph of the pump? some plants, such as lilies, don't like to be splashed, but your marginals and most other plants wouldn't care how much flow your w/f has if they're not in the direct fall of water.

Your water is getting properly filtered now which is why there's no algae. As a general rule, you need to move a MINIMUM of 1/2 of your pond water through a biofilter every hour for it to be filtered properly. That's minimum, more is better. Of course, the size of the filter needs to increase when there's a greater flow. The water needs to be in contact with the bio media for long enough for the bacteria to do it's job.

As for waterfall flow... another general rule of thumb is at least 1500 gph for every foot wide your waterfall is. So if your waterfalls are 2 feet wide, you want 3000GPH coming across them, so you'll need somewhere around 5000gph to account for the head loss of your height and length of pipe.

Good Luck,
Derreck

Hi Derreck,

I have about a 250 "pond" ;), 14" waterfall, with a 3500gph pump with 2" hose to connect. I do have lilys and some marginals, but nothing is below the waterfall.

Here's what it looks like:

{{gwi:226499}}

cant help you on the flow, but very cute lil pond, and the falls look very nice also,,good job

Hi, I just put in a 3900 gal pond. The Pond Man sold me a 7000 gph pump, I listened and I took it home and my husband put it together and attached it to my bio filter falls, it had a 3 inch hose which I thought was HUGE but I didn't say anything, but when he started it I was horrified, itlooked like a darned fire hose coming down the hill of my waterfall into the pond.....it foamed up and it was awful, the plants were going crazy. I wanted a waterfall but this was rediculous, we returned it for a smaller pump which still has PLENTY of flow for me.. So I guess there is such a thing as too much as far as I am concerned. Don't always listen to the Pond PLace to sell you the correct equipment. Learned that in OHIO

If the flow is too much you can always add a ball valve after the pump to control the flow. You could also connect a y to it and divert the water to another area of the pond.

Yes, but if the pump is REALLY overpowered, it might be better to simply get a smaller pump than throttle a large pump down. That is hard on a pump as well.

efficient.

I also heard about a ball valve but I was told it was hard on the pump to restrict the flow so I opted to get another smaller pump and I am much more happy. I still think it is a little too much flow but we haven't put in the sterlizer yet and finished the waterfall, it's 15 - 18 ft. long, I think it will be ok, if not I will divert it too.

I have two external pumps with 6-7 ball valves in use. They are used to change the volume of water going to one or another water feature and thus the volume and appearance that I prefer at any one time. The pumps just hum along no matter how I adjust. It is restricting flow into the pump, not out from the pump, that is bad. Always been the conventional wisdom.

Yes, you can have too much water, like when the neighbors have to yell to each other, when extreme flow causes the loss of water in the streams under rocks and liner, or sometimes when you just want to have a different, more mellow look.

In my opinion, it is better to have more water that you can regulate, turn down, than not.
Mike

1sst,

Perhaps not all pumps, but any time you restrict flow you are causing more load on the pump.

Imagine blowing air through a straw. Now put a ballon on the end. It takes more energy to fill the balloon. Now imagine putting a ball valve on the straw, and cutting your flow 50% (or even 25%). Now blow up the balloon.
It is very hard on a pump if you are just cutting the output without reducing the ACTUAL output of the water.

If your pump is designed to pump 100GPH and you plug up the output valve so it now only flows 50GPH, you are going to be LESS efficient, and also burn out your pump.

Best to get a 50GPH pump.

Thats what I meant.

My thinking has always been like Mikes.
I have an external and a submersible pump and I have numerous ball valves for different purposes on the out put side of the pump. You should never restrict on the input side of the pump as it will burn up the pump.
Here is a link discussing ball valves. The last several posts are what I am referring to.
An amp meter was used to measure amps at different flows regulated by a ball valve on the output side of the pump.
I remember when the experiment took place a couple of years ago.

Here is a link that might be useful: Regulating flow

Well, I'm not going to pretend that I am an electrician or a pump expert.

I don't think there is harm in some amount of restriction of pump flow.

But I also don't see the need in buying a large pump, then throttling the flow.

I have worked in water treatment for the past 33 years we run everything from very small metering pumps to pumps that pump 40 million gallons a day.

throttling the discharge valve of a pump will not hurt the pump. Starving a pump either by closing a valve or plugging the intake, cavitation, or abrasives in the water can and will damage a pump.
throttling the discharge is not efficient in you are still using the full amount of power of the pump to pump less water. The same thing occurs by increasing the head pressure of the pump, reducing line size, or by having a lot of elbows valves and other restrictions in the line.

the best way to over come a pump which is too large for the application in my mind is to either bypass some of the water to someplace else. I have a 4800gph pump which feeds 2 - 1 1/4" lines, one feeds my filter and the other line runs to a fountain. Or Put a discharge valve on the pump and adjust the water flow to your liking. if you are over powering your waterfalls I would put a "T" on the pump and perhaps a valve so you can regulate the flow to a second line, even if it did nothing more circulated in the pond, or went to a fountain.

Shelley, good looking pond and falls. Where did you get the heron? Love it and would like to obtain one. Thanks
Dale

IMO the pump is too much for a 250 gallon pond but you try a diverter valve. I had the same issue with a 2400 gph pump with a 900 gallon pond using 1.5" pipe when there was only one outlet for the outflow (a top fountain). The fountain was more like Old Faithful! I cannot imagine you will ever be satisfied with that combination when your complaint is too much turbulence.

I bought a 3-way diverter valve and can control what feature gets what portion of pump outflow without slamming down the outflow of the big pump. I figure what is the point of running a big pump if you don't use it's power to do something? In my pond, the filters/fountain got the most, followed by some to a spitter and some to a UV and it was still pretty busy with water movement. I adjusted until I got the best combination that I could live with (or got used to). The purpose of a pond is to have something you enjoy and if Niagra Falls is not doing it for you I would switch out the pump to a more suitable size or build a second pond and run both from it and use diversion as well.

Right now I don't have that prior set up and just have it going through two underwater filters (one of the filters has a small skimmer on it), and one outlet is connected to nothing and water exits sideways underwater for circulation. No UV or spitter for several summers now. I didn't even attach the fountain this year but that top outlet still pushes the water upwards and it breaks through to the surface more gently. You can see the water moving around but it is not gushing creating massive turbulence.

Initially I thought my pond looked more like a hot tub than a pond:-) Without diversion my pump shoots a column of water straight up at least 20 feet high. Now that's a fountain but not in my small pond. It could empty my pond in short order.

Unless you can divert it to your satisfaction level so you are happy with the results I would consider getting a lower volume pump and keep the other one for future use. If you are like most people it won't be long before a 250 gallon pond is not big enough:-)

CT, That was a good post with sensible advice.
The pump that Shelly has is away to big for her present situation, as you say.
"Horton"

"Is there such thing as too much flow from your pump?"

That's what my "friend" asked me at her last pond party. It's a fine line that determines "too much."

{{gwi:226500}}

Brenda

Brenda, looks like your friend could use some activated charcoal in there to take that brown colour out of the water.
Was this in Ireland?
I see a bunch of the "Little People" having a wee look see.
Lets hope they are not leaping leprechauns!
"Horton"

Brenda - LOL! You captured my pond pump the first time I turned it on. The animals ran away in all directions:-)

Brenda. that's just the look I am trying to achieve. Time to open my ball valves. What plants do you recommend for a pond like that?
Mike

I would recommend giant water calla, Mike. The bigger, the better. Make sure to save your receipt.

And don't allow vertically- (or horizontally-, in the case of beer drinkers) challenged people or animals near the headwaters, per previous reports.

Brenda

I am new to this site, but I needed to know how big and what kind of pump would be the best to achieve a very nice water fall. we have 2 submersible right now totalling 9,000 gph, and the rise is approx. 12ft straight up or the entire incline of the stream would be at least 30ft. its coming out nicely at the biofalls, but once it hits the stream and drops to the pool below there is not enough force to move it across to make a water fall. its more of a trickle. HElP

Brenda ... Thank you for the photo, that was entirely too funny :)
Still laughing,
Lioness

Kimgooch,
You say you have nice flow over the biofalls but not down stream. Th question has to be how wide is the biofall weir and the drops on the stream. But I would guess that you have most of the water flowing under the drop rocks rather than going over them. It would also help to have the brand and model number of the pumps along with the size and length of the piping from the pumps to the biofalls.
Mike

I like the fast water also. I have a 500 gal pound with the Aquascape Biofalls. I have the filter media and 14lbs of lava rock in the falls. I was told that I might be pushing the water through the falls to fast to filter it properly. I am use the Aquascape 3000 pro. Any opinions?

Hi shelley! It is an interesting question isn't it. What I would do is to split the flow like comettose posted. Your bio falls will need a certain amount of dwell time (from my understanding) for the bio action so you could split off to a spitter or somthing just to bring it down a titch. If you valve both lines, you can adjust it just to you rliking

Hahah that photo from 2009 is too funny. I just installed my 1200 gph gusher into my 700 gal pond. The rushing water sound has all the subtlety and charm of a toilet refilling endlessly. Obviously I have to tone it down but how. I do want the rapid turn over of water for the health of the fish and pond.

Instead of a waterfall, I want it to have more of a spring like effect - gurgling water coming out of the rocks and trickling in multiple places. If I run a tube up behind the rocks and from there split it into say 4 or 5 smaller streams will this have the desired effect of quieting and slowing the flow? Its a submersible pump - is there a way I can leave the tubing in place behind the rocks when I need to remove the pump from the pond? Some kind of hardware or connector I can use to be able to easily detach the tubing from the pump?

Im really excited about finishing this - its been about 5 years since I started the planning and digging. It will have a large shallow area for watercress and its gonna be really cool!