Reducing water flow

[Jerseyjoan]

New to pond maintenance. The Pond is 4300G over 2 areas with a waterfall.
The pump died.
The internet pond people set me up with 2300 GPH pump and a 9w UV pond clarifier.
Now that i have the equipment i see the pumps smallest output is 1 1/2 “ and the clarifier is 1”.
Can i reduce the pump output to fit the clarifier. Will this hurt the pump?
And will the reduction cause it to take more than 2 hours to cycle through?
Thanks for help.

 

[GBBUDD]

You don't want to push that much water through a uv. First things first not many at this site believe us are a beneficial part of koi keeping.
Uv kills algea and or what ever enters the light tube. That in turn becomes food for the next generation of algae..
Anyways what i would do is to split the line send some of your water to the uv and some to the pond. You will also want to install ball valves in each so you can regulate how much water goes where

 

[CometKeith]

New to pond maintenance. The Pond is 4300G over 2 areas with a waterfall.
The pump died.
The internet pond people set me up with 2300 GPH pump and a 9w UV pond clarifier.
Now that i have the equipment i see the pumps smallest output is 1 1/2 “ and the clarifier is 1”.
Can i reduce the pump output to fit the clarifier. Will this hurt the pump?
And will the reduction cause it to take more than 2 hours to cycle through?
Thanks for help.

Hi and welcome! I agree with the above comments. You can always reduce a pump‘s output but not a great idea to reduce the input. When you reduce the output you are turning over less water in your pond. I’m a big believer in having a lot of pumps. I don’t feel the 2300 GPH pump is nearly sufficient. There is something called head and that is the calculation that reduces your water flow by calculating the length of your hoses, how many turns they have, and the distance and height the water needs to travel. Your head can be reducing the water flow by a lot. I would strongly consider getting another pump for your waterfall that is at least the size of your current pump or larger so you have a good backup and it will help circulate your water better or consider sticking this pump in your waterfall and get a new larger one for your filter.

 

[poconojoe]

Agree with GBBUDD. Split the output, add 2 ball valves. One to control each.

Idk...your pond is 4300 gallons and your pump output is 2300 gph. That sounds a bit small, am I wrong? My pond is 1700-1800 gallons and I'm running a 3600 gph pump. Maybe I'm oversized?

 

[GBBUDD]

Addy I'm sure would agree as would most long term ponders . When a pond is new the turn over rate needs to be more so o2 and your bacteria can grow and have a chance to establish its self. Anyone will tell you putting all the plants in the pond that you could fit still fall way short of the root mass you get with an older pond
"blessing and a curse" once the pond has matured i belive you can cut your gph way down. I am still running my original 12000 gph for my large project but I have almost doubled the original layout. Water is still crystal clear . My opinion is the smaller the pond the more turnover you'll need in the beging.

 

[Jerseyjoan]

Thanks every one.

First I didnt know uv might be a bad thing tx for telling me i was just trying to get rid of the green without putting any chemicals in

I will put the ball joints in.

More reading and i think the person helping me was using the equation that the pond had to turnover 1-2 hours so for 4300g pond >= 2150 gph pump woukd be ok. But i also see people using equation of 4300g pond needs 8600 gph pump. I guess i need a much bigger pump.

 

[GBBUDD]

doubling the gph is usualy do to they are feeding multiple areas. Such as one pump running a skimmer a bog a waterfall and circulation jets oh and possibly a main drain. When you start sitting the numbers drop fast

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks every one.

First I didnt know uv might be a bad thing tx for telling me i was just trying to get rid of the green without putting any chemicals in

I will put the ball joints in.

More reading and i think the person helping me was using the equation that the pond had to turnover 1-2 hours so for 4300g pond >= 2150 gph pump woukd be ok. But i also see people using equation of 4300g pond needs 8600 gph pump. I guess i need a much bigger pump.

Hi. Most people agree turning over your water every two hours is the bare minimum and it can't hurt to do more. In the summer when the pond water gets warmer the fish need more dissolved oxygen because the warmer water is less saturated with it. There are so many random factors like the presence of a waterfall, exposure to sun, the size and type of fish, etc it's impossible for someone else to tell you exactly what you may need. When you calculate your head I bet you are not turning over more than 1500 gph so your current pump is definitely undersized. I believe in redundancy and that it's good to have more than one pump in case another one fails. Buying a second pump is better than replacing the one you have. Good luck!

 

[addy1]

It all depends on your fish, fish load etc.

I turn over my water about once every 2 hours, do not have koi, do have one huge bog doing the filtering. Do have a load of shubunkins.