I've seen solar powered water pumps/fountains
before but today's catalog has a solar powered
air pump to 'encouraging consistently clear
and clean water'. It is $59.50. The catalog
is SolutionsCatalog.com I guess it would be
dollars to donuts, a solar powered fountain
or air pump for the health of the pond, don't
you think? Both lack running at night time
when plants switch from producing O2 to
consuming it.

I run an air pump in my deck pond, plugged
into the wall socket. Last year the deck pond
held a tropical lily. This year jan's lotus is
in there. The air pump has been taken out of the
pond and will be moved up to the deck soon.

kathy :-)

It should be called solar powered junk. Solar powered anything without
a battery backup bank is a waste of time. Figure in the price of a
battery for backup and sufficient solar grids to recharge the battery,
and you can have a couple of hundred bucks tied up in a heart beat and
still not have an efficient solar powered anything. Like you said,
what do you do at night, thats when its need most when plants take
what fish need...........and then cloudy overcast, or rainy
days.............Without battery backup for operation its a waste of
money, and odds are even with a battery back up and larger solar
panels etc it would still be overly expensive for what capacity it
has, as to be able to run on solar power alone there sure is not much
to that pump. Folks in great britain would be broke for sure if they
relied on solar power.

Perhaps for a fountain without any fish, and if it happened to work
one day fine and if not fine again no big deal nothing lost but the
water display......but not if it had fish in it.


On 8 Mar 2005 16:52:49 -0800, "kathy" wrote:

===I've seen solar powered water pumps/fountains
===before but today's catalog has a solar powered
===air pump to 'encouraging consistently clear
===and clean water'. It is $59.50. The catalog
===is SolutionsCatalog.com I guess it would be
===dollars to donuts, a solar powered fountain
===or air pump for the health of the pond, don't
===you think? Both lack running at night time
===when plants switch from producing O2 to
===consuming it.
===
===I run an air pump in my deck pond, plugged
===into the wall socket. Last year the deck pond
===held a tropical lily. This year jan's lotus is
===in there. The air pump has been taken out of the
===pond and will be moved up to the deck soon.
===
===kathy :-)


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!

"kathy" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've seen solar powered water pumps/fountains
before but today's catalog has a solar powered
air pump to 'encouraging consistently clear
and clean water'. It is $59.50. The catalog
is SolutionsCatalog.com I guess it would be
dollars to donuts, a solar powered fountain
or air pump for the health of the pond, don't
you think? Both lack running at night time
when plants switch from producing O2 to
consuming it.

I run an air pump in my deck pond, plugged
into the wall socket. Last year the deck pond
held a tropical lily. This year jan's lotus is
in there. The air pump has been taken out of the
pond and will be moved up to the deck soon.

kathy :-)


Run an 110v airpump pump on a timer, from sunset to sunrise, use the solar
powered one to circulate water at the far end of the pond, away from the
waterfall. Or use it as a freebe to improve circulate in the biofilter.
Having said that, my favorite line on that website is "Maintaining a balance
of oxygen in your pond can be tricky: there must be enough for fish and
microbes, but not too much to cause algae to thrive and take over."

Good thing nobody uses ozone to sterilize[1].

[1] Yes I know O3 different from O2

On 8 Mar 2005 16:52:49 -0800, "kathy" wrote:

I've seen solar powered water pumps/fountains
before but today's catalog has a solar powered
air pump to 'encouraging consistently clear
and clean water'. It is $59.50. The catalog
is SolutionsCatalog.com I guess it would be
dollars to donuts, a solar powered fountain
or air pump for the health of the pond, don't
you think? Both lack running at night time
when plants switch from producing O2 to
consuming it.

I run an air pump in my deck pond, plugged
into the wall socket. Last year the deck pond
held a tropical lily. This year jan's lotus is
in there. The air pump has been taken out of the
pond and will be moved up to the deck soon.

kathy :-)

FWIW: I rigged a solar panel to one of those small battery powered air
pumps. Put the airstone in a whisky barrel water garden I have. It
just had azola and duckweed in it but got quite stinky. The small
amount of air and water circulation this added just running a few
hours during peak sunlight cleaned the water in barrel up beautifully.
The cheap air pump did not last long, though.

Steve J. Noll | Ventura California (USDA Zone 10)
| The Glass Block Koi Pond/Fountain:
| http://www.kissingfrogs.tv

~Roy~ wrote:


It should be called solar powered junk.

Probably - I haven't seen many of these toys with a big enough PV panel to
be worthwhile

Solar powered anything without
a battery backup bank is a waste of time.

Not quite true. I live off-grid, and do have a huge array of batteries.
But I also have a heat-exchange unit mounted on my south wall, powered by a
PV without battery backup. When the sun warms the air in the unit, it
pumps air through the exchanger. When there's no sun, no power - but no
heat gain, anyway.

Perhaps for a fountain without any fish, and if it happened to work
one day fine and if not fine again no big deal nothing lost but the
water display......but not if it had fish in it.

Even with fish, provided that it's purely ornamental and you don't need it
to keep the fish healthy.
--
derek

I had a weak moment last year and bought a solar
powered decorative light. Very pretty, crack light
bulb.
But I had DH mount the solar panel in a place where
I can't reach it. It is dust covered and our state is really
rain poor right now. The light has dimmed. Moving the
panel in on the long list of honey-do-s this spring.

kathy