Should I use a Fountain Pump to Run my Filter?

A common question we’re often asked is, ‘which fountain pump should I go for?’ It used to be fairly standard in a normal pond set up that your fountain pump would not only power a decorative fountain within your pond, but it would also supply water to your pond’s filtration system.

The above diagram is taken from some old Blagdon literature showing the benefits of a fountain pump as part of a pond’s set up. However, it didn’t really translate like that in use. Installing a fountain pump on a pond’s floor will inevitably lead to the pick up of pond sludge and debris (which it needs to do to create a healthy pond) however, to stop the fountain heads getting clogged up, the holes on the cage of the pump need to only let in debris that won’t block up the fountain head.

Not a huge pain I guess, but in the middle of the summer, I can assure you I don’t want to have to rinse clean my pond pump every day! You can add other problems to this too - with the 24-7 running of a fountain pump, it may be possible it could blow over in the wind which could result in a substantial water loss, could you rely on it when you’re on holiday for instance?

We are certainly not saying you can’t stick with older methods, however we would now advise using a Filter Pump to keep the pond in order and a Fountain Pump separately to be turned on when required to create an awesome feature.

As you can see from the above picture the cage holes are very small on the pumps.

Problems with a Fountain pump running a filter

• Blocks up quickly
• Normally has to be raised from the bottom of the pond
• Could fall over in high winds
• Wind can blow all over your pond which can actually create water loss
• Small connection hose sizes