Pond Pump 101

Everyone has different reasons for building a new pond in their garden or patio. Some simply want a garden water feature with or without a fountain effect, others want to keep fish from simple goldfish to beautiful koi carp.

Pond pumps do what they say on the box. It pumps the pond water which circulates or turns it. The pump you choose will depend on the pond effects you want, the purpose of the pond and its size. A pond pump may not be necessary for example if you are creating a wildlife pond you can use specific plants to help keep the water clear. However a Koi pond requries that the water is turned every 1-2 hours and other ponds should be turned every 3-4 hours

One thing to consider when choosing a pond pump is that it must be capable of pumping the volume of water in the pond. Here is a rough guide:

Work out how many litres of water you have in your pond:Width (m) x Depth (m) x Length (m) = x Litres. E.g:

• 2m wide x 1m deep x 1m long = 2000 litres
• 3m wide x 1m deep x 2m long = 6000 litres

Now you have your pond volume you can work out the required pond pump output litres per hour) bearing in mind the purpose (fish/no fish) as mentioned earlier

• A 2000 litre pond requires a pump with at least 1000 LPH output to circulate the water every 2 hours
• A 6000 litre pond requires a pump with at least 3000 LPH output to circulate the water every 2 hours

Got it?

Pond pumps aren’t cheap and you don’t want to make a costly mistake as the bigger the pond the more expensive the pump will be! So you should ask at the pond pumps store for advice just to be on the safe side.

It is always better to get a larger pump than you need, this is simply because once you have reached the limit of a smaller pump it can’t be turned up, but larger pumps can be turned down. If you have a pond holding 2000 litres of water, opt for a pump that can operate at a higher output than 1000 LPH.

You might want a lovely fountain or waterfall effect or need a filter to keep the pond clear of blanket weed or small debris such as leaves. Both of these will require a bigger pump because you are asking them to work harder. However there are many fountain and filter pump combination pumps on the market today.

Finally, Most pumps have the actual output in the name such as the Hozelock Titan Filter Pond Pumps or Bermuda Atom Fountain Pond Pumps. You don’t require two sets of calculations for combination pumps such as these. If you bought them separately you would first need to calculate the output required based on the volume PLUS the output required to also power the fountain, waterfall or filter.