Our pond pump broke last week. Well, to be fair, I think it broke last month, but I discovered it last Saturday while waiting for a friend to take me to the OU/TCU game. Our first instinct was to just bag it until next Spring when we intend to install a liner so we can have fish. But then we realized just how much we enjoyed the waterfall during the autumn months. These can be some of the most pleasant in Oklahoma, and we like to sit out back with the dogs, chiminea fire, and a few beers--listening to music and the gentle waterfall.
So yesterday, SOF and I hit the road to beautiful and scenic (it was nice) Shawnee, Oklahoma. Turns out they have one of the largest outdoor (or indoor, for that matter) pond stores in the nation. A very nice man spent several hours with us showing various approaches to ponds and discussing what might work for us. Turns out that one of the impediments for having fish is adequate biological filtration. Putting fish in there, along with a lot of decaying oragnic material can lead to toxic levels of amonia (and other things I can't remember). If we decide to move forward next spring, we will have to decide on how to manage that.
But in the meantime, we learned more about using pond pumps. Turns out I handled my previous pump exactly wrong, though intuitively correct for me. I reduced the flow going into the pump, where that model wants the flow reduction on the outgoing side to increase head pressure. I thought that would make the pump work harder, but counter intuitively, it actually would have worked better and with less electrical current. Who knew? Perhaps my old pump would be more than a dead weight now. Or not.
We ended up purchasing a used magnetic drive pump (no, I don't know what that means) to get us working again for the fall. And it works beautifully. Check it out here:
As you see, Abbie approves. It is nice to have it back.
2 comments:
Can't get the video to work. ("No longer available.") Any ideas?
Should work now. Sorry about that.
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