Water pumps ... you will hear terms like maximum head, maximum flow and pressure drop when people talk of water pumps selection for ponds and water features. We help you out here

• Water pumps and two really important requirements when water pumps are used in conjunction with water features. In any pond, fountain or water feature it is generally necessary to install water pumps to achieve the following ...

• Water pumps provide oxygen to fish ... water pumps in circulating the water over a waterfall or through a spray or a drop from one level to another allow oxygen to become dissolved in the circulating water. The fish extract this oxygen as part of their normal metabolism

• Water pumps provide oxygen to biofilter bacteria. The water pumps used in fish ponds must run 24 hours per day otherwise those beneficial bacteria in your biofilter will die from oxygen starvation.

Water pumps ... selection introduction

The points briefly discussed here are considered in far greater detail by following the pond water pumps links on this page. Here then is a brief summary of what you need to look for and learn a bit about ... your dealer may not know much more than you so beware

Water pumps of the type we will discuss are used extensively in all types of water features are referred to as centrifugal water pumps ... quite simply this means they are pumps that spin around and use centrifugal force to deliver water. They are low in cost to manufacture and hard to damage because even if the outlet from the pump becomes blocked no damage occurs. In this way flow control is made easy by restricting the outlet pipe using a valve or even by clamping the pipe partly shut.

Water pumps in ponds are also normally submersible water pumps ... ie they lie at the bottom of the pond, completely submersed. Because they are submersed the height water pumps need to pump against is measured from the water surface and not from the bottom of the pond. This height is normally referred to as "head" in water pumps jargon.

Think of water pumps as being able to provide a fixed amount of energy to circulating water. Think of this constant energy as being shared out in 2 ways .... water pumps energy in part 1 is used to pump volume and the other part 2 is used to lift that volume.

Here's a simple analogy .. you would need the same energy if you carried one bucket of water up a flight of stairs 20 feet high as you would if you carried 2 buckets of water up a flight of stairs 10 feet high. Water pumps are just like this ... if you want to pump more higher then get a bigger pump. One size cannot fit all situations for the simple reason the energy from the pump motor is constant in most cases.

You will now understand that to specify and buy water pumps that will do a good job it is necessary to know how much water is to be pumped and how high that volume of water must be pumped. Without both bits of information you cannot specify water pumps.

Now if you want to really explore this further follow the water pumps links on this page.