African_Fever Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 I'm going to be building a pond in the back yard this spring. It's going to be about 5000 gallons, placed between my house and garage (detached). The pond is going to be right outside my fishroom, and I was thinking about getting a pump so that when I do water water changes I'd just pump the water from the fish tanks inside into the pond. I know, just transferring bad water from one place to another. But, what I'm wondering is if it's possible to hook the pond pump (probably somewhere around 5000 gph) up to my underground sprinklers to water the lawn using the pond water (and the free fish fertilizer). Seeing as I'm planning to use PVC for all the plumbing of the pond, I thought I could maybe T it off between the pump and filter, having one side going to the sprinklers with one side going to the filters, and valves on both sides so that I could turn it on and off at will. Does anyone know if this would be possible (will the pond pump be strong enough to work the sprinklers), or would I be just as good running a hose and soaking the lawn with the pond water? My reason for this is that rather than just watering the lawn with 'clean' water, I could get the benefits of regular water changes on the pond and the pond water being better for the lawn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalgaryFan Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 Hmm, it's a very clever idea actually. I'm not sure if it would be enough to actually work in the sprinkler, my only concern would be the pressure, but I'm not 100% sure on it, you probably know more about it than I do.. All I really wanted to say was that I think it's a very clever way to cut down on water bills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABwildrose Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 Maybe try asking someone in the underground sprinkler industry. I bet they would be intrigued and look into it and give you some advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOSStile Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 I see one major problem with your idea, the diverting of water on an intermittent basis (underground sprinkler) and not blowing out your filters when you are not watering the lawn. I did a similar thing with a 2000 gph pump. I deverted a half inch line to my miniature water wheel (flour mill) using a valve on the main line after the diversion. I could then control the amount of water that actually goes to the mill and the filter. Your problem is at 5000 gph, I can almost guarantee you will overwhelm your filters when the water is only going to the barrels. What you can do is put a diversion in the line going to the sprinkler which you could open to divert the water back to the pond when you are not using the sprinkler. You could probably get a solonoid controlled valve working opposite to the one going to the sprinkler, in other words the one valve would open when the other valve closed. Again I think using 1.5 inch pvc will not provide enough volume of flow using that large of a pump. You could probably do the same thing with a pump half that size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qattarra Posted March 9, 2007 Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 I would forgo putting the used water through the sprinklers. Any debris would potentially clogg the works. I do think it's a great idea to use the water for your lawn and flowerbeds too. Sue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodogg02 Posted March 9, 2007 Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 good idea,but what about winter you would hav to blow ouy the lines or would you hav them above ground and just unhook and plug supply line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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