I received a very nice email from a lady by the name of Marjory Harris who lives in California in the USA.
Marjory was looking for some advice regarding which pond keeping equipment she should buy for her ponds.
"Sean, I bought the pond book (The Complete Pond Solver) from you and greatly value your advice. I am unsure what to buy for my two ponds, both of which have goldfish, some bullfrog tadpoles, and lots of plants.
I live in Southern California, it gets hot, but with low humidity. My concern is quality equipment and ease of cleaning and servicing.
For my 530-gallon pond ("large pond"), I have heard that Fishmate Gravity Filters + UV are a good choice. Which pump would work with it?
Currently there is no pump or waterfall in this pond, just lots of plants and goldfish (the photo is from some months ago before 4 water lilies and other plants were added).
The small pond has a pump and a small waterfall coming out of a cowbell at the top of a big rock. There is no place to put an external filter so I need something to submerse in the pond. The small pond is less than half the size of the large pond , probably around 175 gallons.
Would you agree that Fishmate Gravity Filters are a good choice and have you any ideas on what to purchase? It should be easy to take care of and last a long time.
Many thanks!
Marjory Harris"
"Hi Marjory,
Hope you are well and thanks for your email and for buying the book. Your choice of biofilter is a very good one. Fishmate Gravity Filters come as standard with Fishmate Supra pond filter media. The best in my opinion.
Choice of Pond Pump...
The first thing to look for when choosing a pump is the gph (gallons per hour) and the electricity consumption.
A pump needs to turn the volume of the pond over at once every 2 hours so in your case you would need a pump that has a gallon per hour throughput of 260gph - 270gph.
So if you see a pump that says 400gph then it has been designed for use in a pond that is approx 800 gallons in volume.
The initial price of the pump falls into insignificance if you choose a pump that costs a lot to run. Remember that a pond pump needs to run 24/7/365 days so that the bacteria living in your pond filter convert ammonia and nitrite into harmless nitrate. These bacteria need lots of oxygen to do there job properly.
Personally however I would go for a slightly more powerful pump because then you have some power in reserve should you want to power water up to a waterfall or fountain etc.
I would recommend that you buy a Laguna Powerjet 600 GPH 32 Watt Submersible Fountain Pump.
Another good pump is the Oase Nautilus Pump. These pumps are more powerful and have been designed to power water to the top of a waterfall. They have higher running costs but come with an excellent 5 year warranty. They do a 400gph model.
Choice of Pond Filter for Small Pond ...
The choice of biofilter model is not as important as the choice of biofilter media. A small filter with a great pond filter media such as Fishmate Supra Pond Filter Media media will easily out perform a larger filter using plastic coils as the pond filter media.
Without trying to get to technical it is all about the Specific Surface Area (SSA) i.e. the amount of space for nitrifying bacteria to live on that determines how effective the filter will be.
The Danner Pondmaster 190 Submersible Pond Filter Kit is probably the best choice. It includes a pump along with a biological filter and mechanical filter.
Regards
Sean"
Read the full article at...
http://www.garden-pond-filters.com/Newsletters/pondequiment_marjory.htm
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