Bubble fountain thingy!

Flinster

hi, I’d like to have a little fountain bubbling over a container of stones type of thing, for the sound/birds. Can anyone recommend one please, preferably a solar one ..garden gets full sun all day so should be ok. Thanks.

Fire

This one is pretty great. You can get in various colours - the terracotta looks just like clay but much more sturdy. You can get a little solar pump cheaply. Kinsman have various other types too.

Flinster

That’s goooooorrrrgggeous!!! I want one just like that but cheaper sadly. So I need a solar pump I guess and a container as I have the pebbles left over from the pond. Are the solar pumps much the same or is there a brand that is quite reliable? Thanks Fire

WonkyWomble

I'm doing research on the same thing for future project, also on budget! Try Primrose, they have a great solar pump and fountain thing for £34ish 😊

Flinster

Thank you, will check them out!

WonkyWomble

Good luck, it has good feed back, it's the one I'm planning on getting but they have a range of them 😊

Flinster

Great! The garden is on south facing slope and gets so hot in summer, we’ve put in a pond but want some trickling water sounds near the house to fool my brain into thinking it’s cooler lol!

WonkyWomble

 Great idea! Mine is to cover the sound of our noisy neighbors, we hear them above our heads indoors and outside they have the Windows open so can hear them shouting constantly, thought the bubbling and trickling of water may calm me!
Good luck with it! 😊 I got my greenhouse from Primrose and no complaints, hope you find what your after.

Fire

I think perhaps I misunderstood your original comment. You are looking for a pump, not a pond?

I think the pond bit is pretty easy -  a large, shallow trug or terracotta pot of any size would do. I seriously thought about making a fountain like this with pots and silicone. In the end I thought I would get violent and end up quivering amid splinters of plastic pipe and drill bits, so passed on it for now, but would love to try with someone who some sense of spatially. I'm still itching to try.

I did a lot of research and the Kinsman was the cheapest I could find for a pond-pond.

I run a pump off the mains, but the solar type I would recommend would be Hozelock. This type of thing.

How big a pump you want would depend on how many litres of water per hour you want to get through. This depends if you want an option for an actually shooty fountain or just a drizzle over the rocks. It depends on how big your pond is and the distance the water has to cycle through. The Kinsman is tiny, so I need a pretty tiny pump.

It turns out that the lovely, tinkly sound of the water generally depends on having some drop. Water just oozing over rocks makes almost noise at all. That is why people have fountain things - to give a rise so that you can hear the drop and hence the tinkle. That is also why people (I belatedly discovered) go for the (rather odd) layer cake affairs or jugs pouring into each other etc. Three layers gives you lots of drops and therefore lots of lovely water sounds. How you arrange your drop is a bit of an art, re tinkle. And so we come back the the pump size. Lots of tinkle = bigger pump as the water needs to shoot higher. It's much fun to sort out with on a warm summer's afternoon. If you are not worries about sound, but are just in it for the lovely look, then drop is not an issue.

The other things pump to think of: how much green gunge the filter will have to be dealing with (position re sun); will you have anything living in your fountain/splashy thing (wildlife/plants etc); and making it easy to take the pump out for winter if you want to. I found a tiny pump needed cleaning all the time and it was a fiddle. Some people say you should never leave your pump in when it's icy as it can break. Others shrug.

I hope that helps. I only put mine in last year, so expert pump people will have more experience.

Flinster

Wow Fire, thank you so much! It’s a container type thing I’m after rather than for the pond. I’ve put the pond at the top end of the garden so I can escape and get great sunset views. I’d like something just outside the patio doors in the flower bed, as it’s the only place to sit in the shade until we get the arbours erected... and chairs for that matter (I keep digging/planting waiting for the fairies to do the hard landscaping... but so far...). Anyway, so I quite like the sound of playing with pebbles/container etc (I wish funds would stretch to a millstone, but even Santa ignored my request!).

I don’t want a huge amount of sounds, just a gentle trickly plop (🤣) two kids and weak bladder would probably not appreciate the gushing of a fountain! 😂

Right, I’m going to re-read you post and have a think and a google! Thanks again!

Fire

I would say that any container would do, then. Put in pump and fill with stones.