I have a bit of a slope in my backyard I would like to do something with that involves a water pump and some running water. Perhaps a small pond, but at least a miniature waterfall and bird bath opportunity.
The key is to do this cheap. I want a good affordable pump that isn’t a pain to operate and expensive to power. Ideally, I’ll like to just leave this thing on to filter everything, but I live in the mid west so it’ll have to be mostly above ground and drained for winter.
I’ve been wandering around online for advice and there is stuff, but was hoping there where Dopers in the know that could save me some time, effort and heart break as I set out on a new type of project.
I’ve seen some inexpensive solar water pumps available. Very inexpensive, just search on “Solar Pond Pump”. No idea how well they work, but it certainly makes it an inexpensive option. These mostly are creating spraying fountains. Not sure how high they can pump water to create a water fall.
I built a fountain with a solar pump and it works great. It’s a much lower volume of water than you’re talking about (around 0.5 gpm) with a total head of 2 feet, but you can easily scale up the pump and maybe can do it with solar. Your challenges will be different, but here are a few considerations based on my experience that I think will be somewhat applicable to you:
Be sure to pay attention to the combination of flow rate (gallons per minute, or gpm) and the head (how much height you will be pumping it up). A pump that puts out 50 gpm with no head might only pump 10-15 gpm at 20 feet.
If you want a waterfall, I think solar panels will be prohibitively large and expensive. If it’s a lower-flow fountain, it’s worth looking at solar.
My first solar pump ran automatically whenever the sun was shining. This is fine if you want something for daylight hours. We wanted the fountain to run into the evening though, so I got a programmable one with a storage battery. I can set the hours it runs, and it uses the battery when the sun sets. Its operating hours are pretty short in the winter, but we’re not outside that much anyway.
Keeping the fountain clean requires constant maintenance. I’d expect this to be even more work with a stream or pool. You have to remove leaves and other gunk, and occasionally empty it and scrub it out.
It’s a large galvanized metal bucket, preferably well used but new would work. Filled with water and a cheap, ($14) floating solar pump. It sits on the edge of my small stone patio out my back door. Flowers in small pots circle it, and as the fountain splashes a little out, they are kept well watered. It also cools the patio space a titch. The birds adore it!
I can see out the garden when walking about my house and it makes for a lovely view; bubbling fountain, sprinkling water, flowers, birds, a bit of green lawn, a meadow (half my yard!) and a thick bank of very large trees. Not bad for the city core!
I may have been overselling the ‘waterfall’ I need. Mostly just want to keep water agitating so what I am building doesn’t turn into a Mosquito Nursery next to my outdoor chill spot.
I think before the landscaping begins I should settle on one and THEN figure out how to hide the ugly black panel. It’s not the cost in electricity so much as the desire mentally to know I am not wasting money running a loud pump at all hours to make a stream no one is currently enjoying.
You can put the panel some distance from the pump. I have my fountain near the base of an arbor, and the panel is on top of the arbor out of view. The cable that came with it is 16’. My panel is maybe 10"x8", so it’s not intrusive.
The deciding factor for me was not having to worry about running electrical lines.