What kind of pump to get?

[Peanutsweet]

I'm getting ready to purchase a pump for my pond. Some of them are called 'mag drives'. How is that different from pumps that are not mag drives? LOL I don't know anything about this stuff. So much for DIY huh,
Also I am wondering if I need a pump that will pump solids? I do understand that I should get a pump that will do double my gallons per hour. So if my pond is about 500 gallons, I need a pond that will do 1000 gph. So how does the lift factor into that? I will be lifting the water about 7 ft from the bottom of the pond to my filter box at the back, which will empty back into the pond as a waterfall about 18" tall.
Also I seen that some pumps have a pre-screen filter. How often to clean that? And just how do I go about getting it out of the bottom of the pond, as I am sure they are quite heavy and will be 3 ft under LOL
Is there anything you wish you knew about pumps when you bought yours?
Thanks for any help!

 

[joeski]

I bought a Laguna pump those pumps don't consume allot of electricity and they are able to pump some solids my pond is 2700 to 3000 gl so I am using a 2900gl per hr pump and it is more than enough you realy don't need a pump that will do double the gallons in your pond when you are shopping around for a pump they will have a chart on the box calculating the lift.

 

[avatar]

Well, there is a brand called Supreme Mag-Drive and a style of pump that is called mag drive. Magnetic drive pumps are usually used for flow applications with low pressure and low flow, anything under say 2-3k gph or so. They are also significantly cheaper than a direct-drive pump. Direct drive pumps have the ability to move a lot of water, but they are typically more expensive, and much larger, and external-type pumps.

When you calculate head, you don't need to go from the bottom of the pond, you calculate from the surface. So, if the top of the waterfall is 18" over the pond surface, you have 18" of static head.

As far as cleaning the prefilter, you do it as often as necessary to keep flow from getting reduced. I try to get a large enough prefilter that it only needs cleaning once a week or so. A lot of that will depend on stocking levels in the pond, and how much crap falls into it (grass clippings, leaves, bugs, etc etc).