How to Determine the Size of a Fountain for a Pond

Fountains are rated in gallons per hour.

When you go to the home and garden center to select the correct sized fountain for your backyard pond, you need to select a fountain with the correct sized pump for the size of the pond. Otherwise, if you select a fountain that moves too little water, the pond could stagnate. If you select a fountain that moves too much water, you will have excessive water movement, which could cause the water to spill out of the pond.

Things You'll Need

• Tape measure
• Pen and paper
• Calculator

Instructions

1. Measure the length, width and depth of the pond. Often ponds are not square and they do not have flat bottoms. Therefore, you must estimate the size. Multiply all three numbers together to obtain the volume of your pond. As an example, if your pond measures 10-feet long by 5-feet wide by 3 feet deep, it has a volume of 150-cubic feet.

2. Multiply the cubic feet by 7 ½-gallons to obtain the total gallons of your pond.

3. Divide the total gallons in half. A fountain should move half the water in the pond per hour. For example, if you have a 750-gallon pond, you need to move 375-gallons per hour. If you plan to raise Koi, your pump must cycle all of the water in the pond per hour.

4. Inspect the packaging on the fountain for the GPH value, which stands for gallons per hour. Select a fountain that can meet the requirements obtained in step three.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have a pre-formed pond, you can usually refer to the owner's manual that came with the pond for the actual gallons.

References

• Pond: Pond Pump