Urgent - Pond pump crashed!

rainbowcharmer

rainbowcharmer

AC Members
Jul 30, 2007
1,683
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East Coast, USA
Guys,

I came home to find my pond pump out of commission. It's dead. Well not completely, when I plug it in, it does flip the circuit breaker of whatever outlet it's plugged into... but that's all it does. It actually had somehow managed to NOT flip it's own circuit breaker but flip the ones that half the house was on??? No idea how that happens...

Anyway, We plugged it into a couple other (working) outlets and it tripped those too. So obviously something is wrong. I unplugged it and pulled it out of the pond. First question - how long will the fish/tadpoles/fry be OK in the pond without the pump running? Second - are there any temporary solutions that might work until I can get another one? I'm going to try to get down to Harbor Freight (where I bought this one at) and exchange it, but not sure if i'll make it before they close tonight. It may have to wait till the weekend as it's an hour drive. Any thoughts/suggestions??

So worried about my minnows right now!! I know there's PLENTY of room for them in there and odds are minimal that the few minnows in there will build up any amount of ammonia that the plants won't take care of, since the ratio of plants to fish is pretty heavily towards the plant side. And a dozen or so full grown minnows plus however many minnow fry in a 1700 gallon pond is probably not going to build up anything significant for a good amount of time. But I also don't like the pond sitting stagnant like that either. :(
 
Not that anyone cares (apparently), but we did swap the pump out tonight at harbor freight - had to get a slightly less powerful one (they did not have the one we got prior in stock, and this was the closest), so hopefully it will be OK. Probably not going to try to put it in tonight as it's already dark out, so hopefully the fish will be OK until tomorrow afternoon when I can get back in the pond.
 
Sorry no one has answered you. :( I really don't know either. If you have a lightly stocked pond and the temperature is not overly warm, everyone should be ok, even if the pump is out for a couple days. Are the fish hanging at the surface?
 
So far nobody but the fry is hanging at the surface, but they always hang at the surface, so that is not new behavior. I'm hoping to get the new pump in this afternoon. Hopefully it will work OK for us.
 
I personally never trust anything from Harbor Freight when I need to count on it to last. You get what you pay for.
 
sorry I didn't see this when first posted. Would have told you then to relax, although of course now after the fact this is a bit less than helpful. :)

but fwiw, I have a pond much smaller than yours (maybe 300g? when not filled with leaves since last fall? ) that has 10 years worth of self-maintaining goldfish. I shut the pump down when (1) fall comes or (2) the pump dies because it is a cheap piece of junk I got off eBay. And come spring there are 1-4 times as many fish as there were when the pump went off.

think about it: fish evolved in, and now live in, still /stangant ponds all over the world. We put pumps in most of the time for esthetic effects, fountains or waterfalls, because it looks better to our eyes. The fish don't really give a hoot.

glad everything went well in any event. :)
 
Thanks. :)

I'm hopeful that this one works well. And at this point, if it only works for 6 months like its predecessor, it only cost me $5 (paid for the 1 yr warranty, the pump itself was an even trade since I had paid that $5 fee for the first one for the 1 yr warranty). I'll take it back and swap it out for another $5, and keep up that pattern. Still a heck of a lot cheaper than most of the pond pumps I've seen out there. I'll take my chances. :)
 
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