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Fountain Questions (1) My pump is too powerful what can I do? The easiest way to reduce the flow of a pump is to turn its outlet down, most pumps have an integral "flow adjuster" but if not you can buy an inline flow adjuster, or you can make a small hole in the pipe leading from the pump to the feature, a small hole can easily be made bigger, a big hole can not be made smaller. _____________________________ Can I reduce the speed of a pump? If it has an asynchronous motor (the bigger EFN pumps have, as do the N series Pumps) then it is possible to electronically reduce the speed, it is also how our musical fountains are operated, by varying the speed. If it has not got an asynchronous motor then no, you can not reduce the speed. _____________________________ What's wrong with using "cheap lights" Nothing, but as with anything you do get what you pay for, most "off the shelf" lights are only 5 watts, they are often made of thin plastic, yes ours are plastic but its thicker and can take bumps and knocks without damage, the lamps start at 20 watts. We would also like to point out that for an experiment we tried some "well known name" pond lights (They were brought because ultimately they would be destroyed but they only lasted a few weeks in 2 feet of water as they soon sprang leaks letting water in, perhaps they should have been labelled as "flood lights") _____________________________ What should I make my pool from ? Ideally the pools should be made from fibre glass, (due to transport costs we can no longer supply these) this is because a glass fibre pool can usually be installed in minutes and it will last a lifetime. Concrete needs to have a mould made takes at least 7 days to dry properly, and must then be waterproofed. But it is ideal for commercial fountains. A pond liner can be used for water features, but is best covered with a decorative material to hide / protect it _____________________________ What size should my sump be? A fountain or water feature sump should be big enough to hold enough water, so that when the pump is running the water being pumped out does not drain the sump before the water returns. (The bigger the better) How ever one thing that you must consider is that of the water catchment area, a sump can be "small" but it must have a catchment area big enough so that it literally catches all the water that is being pumped out in order to return it to the sump. Please see the JW Rule for more information _____________________________ Some fountains have blue water, why? and how is it done?
It is usually food colouring and it is just to make the fountain look different, but it also stops you from seeing the workings of the fountain (it also means you can not have coloured lights in your fountain), we do not recommend it for the average fountain because it can stain its surroundings _____________________________ Green water ? Click here _____________________________ Can I have colour changing lights in my fountain? Yes you can, but a true colour changing light was very expensive, even most commercial fountains do not have true colour changing lights because of the expense, L.E.D. lights are coming down in price, but to "dim" them (in order to get 16 million colours) is the main cost. We suggest that if you want colour changing lights you have 3 separate lights (R,G & B) and dim these, we can supply suitable lights and controls to do this but it is expensive, but not as expensive as colour changing led lights. An alternative is to have coloured lights switched, so changing the colour of your fountain. Since this was initially written, the cost of true RGB led lights has come way down, from thousands to hundreds each. See our parts site _____________________________ Fountain hygiene Domestic water features and fountains should be emptied out and cleaned regularly (as and when required) This prevents any build up of fungal growths / algae etc. A "rinse" with bleach will also kill any bacteria. DO NOT do this if it is a pond, as ponds have livestock and or plants. Commercial fountains should have automatic chemical dosing systems an alternative is "chlorine" or "bromine" tablets but you need to check water quality frequently. (Sorry we no longer supply these, but you should get assistance from swimming pool supply companies) Questions Page 2 If you have a fountain question please do not hesitate to send it in |
