POND & LAKE EQUIPMENT SERVICES

Having over 40 years of professional aquatic experience means we’ve established a strong clientele consisting of commercial properties with water features. From ponds and streams, to pools, lakes, reservoirs, and more handling 300 gallon ponds to 3,000,000 gallon lakes is what we specialize in. Our founding member Jay Harlen Glenn has designed many large water features throughout the west coast, in return we’ve been hired to maintain and repair these water features over the last 4 decades.

There are various types of pond and waterfall pumps. From submersible (underwater) pumps, to external pool pumps, each type of pump has its own pro and con. Smaller 500 – 1500 gallon ponds can utilize a pump such as a submersible pump assuming heavy filtration is not needed. If your pond is saturated with koi fish and turtles, you might expect to need a larger external pump capable of pushing water through that of a bio-filter or pressure filter. Waterfalls can be powered by smaller submersible pumps (usually setup separately) on their own line but can also be integrated with the primary pump if needed.

Pond and waterfall filtration can range from a simple skimmer-basket, to a more complex pressure filter or bio-filtration with a variety of media meant to filter out heavy and fine particulate. Waterfalls without wildlife such as turtles, koi fish, or even aquatic plants, should do fine without any heavy filtration constructed. 

If you own a pond with or without a waterfall, we suggest adding a custom filter, pump, and UV-light, to your system to increase your chances of having a clear and clean pond. Without the appropriate filtration, you can expect to spend more time than usual cleaning and maintaining your water features which is not ideal. 

When it comes to UV-lights, or “ultra violet lights” two words should come to mind – “slow flow,” meaning the slower the water flows through the UV-light, the better. UV-lights are great for killing all bacteria, while your filtration will keep the pond and waterfall flourishing with “good bacteria” your UV light will kill any excess good and bad bacteria flowing through the water feature.

UV-lights should be customized to fit your water features accordingly. Typically the “cookie-cutter” pond filtration kits with the UV-lights attached, do not allow the proper flow-rate and therefore don’t work as effectively as advertised.

Biological filtration has been around for thousands of years. To keep it simple, this style of filtration can be setup very easily by creating a sump (a pit or hollow in which liquid collects) and adding different levels of filtration media, such as fine-sand, gravel, and other filtration media. When setup correctly Biological filtration will assist in the breaking down dangerous ammonia, converting them to nitrites, and then the nitrites to the less toxic nitrates, acting as a sort of natural filtration cycle (similar to what nature does to ground-water) except this is applied to your pond or waterfall.

Ultra-violet lights (UV-lights) are lights specifically meant for ponds and water features and are able to kill single-celled, free-flowing algae within your pond water. The water is exposed to these high levels of ultraviolet light and the light destroys the DNA of harmful algae and can help keep your water features and wildlife healthy.

Submersible pumps are meant to stay under water and are usually meant for moving water vs filtering it. Although these are advertised more often as the best method of filtration for ponds and waterfalls, that may not be the case for your water features.

We typically see better results with centrifugal pumps which are capable of pushing large volumes of water through multiple layers of filtration media. Submersible pumps are typically not powerful enough to do the job, but do work well to power small fountains and waterfalls.

Pressure filters are similar to that of a pool filter. Which is enclosed and uses the pressure from a high-head pump such as a centrifugal pump (external pool pump).

We suggest having your backwash connected to your home-drain, or landscape plumbing, which can lead to the street or city waste. 

There is a service we offer which is connecting your backwash system to your backyard plants or garden which can serve as a method for adding nutrients to the plants. 

Irrigation pumps are used to pump water from a lower to a higher level from which the water then flows through channels to the fields requiring irrigation (lift operation) or to raise it to the required pressure head so that it can be sprayed on the fields via piping systems (sprinkling).

A water well pump is a pump that is used in extracting water from a water well.

They include different kinds of pumps, most of them submersible pumps:

• Hand pump, manually operated
• Injector, a jet-driven pump
• Mechanical or rotary lobe pump requiring mechanical parts to pump water
• Solar-powered water pump
• Pump driven by air as used by the Amish
• Pump driven by air as used in the Australian outback
• Manual pumpless or hand pump wells requiring a human operator

Yes we work with one of the leading pump vault manufacturers in Southern California and can have a pump vault installed on your property. Perfect for new apartment complexes, HOA’s, and more – these vaults will keep your aquatic equipment out of site and in good shape when stored away from the elements. In addition to keeping your stormwater basin well-managed. 

Surface skimmers are floating filtration. Some are fixed, others float around the pond and suck up any heavy surface particulate like leaves, and other floating items. Similar to that of a pool skimmer, pond and lake skimmers work very well when paired up with additional filtration.