PAL3100

I’m really happy with this pump. This is year three of 24/7/365 use in a very heavily planted 3000 gallon pond with no skimmer. I have 12 large golds fish and 20-30 minnows. Although the pond is 3000 gallons, I’m only running the 2100 GPH. My goals was to get lots of slow moving water running down the rocks - mostly for aesthetics and some aeration- rather than heavy duty filtration. The pump outtake valve is maxed for 1.5” but I used an adapter to attach a 2” inch hose and haven’t had problems. Again, my desire was to increase flow and decrease pressure and this thing is a workhorse so a larger hose was needed. To create biofiltration, the water passes through an 18” x 22” sump pump basin filled with lava rock just behind the waterfall. The total hose length is about 12-14’ and the total water rise is about 4’. For a mechanical filter box to protect the pump I purchased a pond safe plastic tote about 16”x 10”x 12”. I drilled 10-15 holes (about 1/2”) on three sides, a 2” hole in the lid for the hose and a 3/4” whole in the lid for the power cord. After I placed the pump inside I lined the box with filter material so that the pump was well surrounded (including the top and around the hosing). This seems to work great and I just clean it out once in the spring. Overall I’m super happy with this pump. It’s an incredible value given given it’s durability so far. I’m purchasing a second one now to have as a back-up in case they raise the price (paid about $95) or discontinue it.

This pump is a powerhouse, putting out a real 3100GPH. Has more power than a typical sump pump and a little smaller in size. It is so powerful that I used a dimmer switch to make a variable control for it and it works great.* I use it to power a waterfall of about 8ft height and 25ft from the small pond (about 250gal) where it is submerged. This pump is as good as pumps twice the price. As with all outdoor pumps, be sure to use a bag filter with a thick media mesh inside. Most only have a top hole like the one I have, but I just cut an outlet hole on the side near the bottom so the pump can sit upright (intake on bottom). Also of course you need to take any pump out in the winter when the water can freeze as any residual water in it will also freeze and destroy it. I highly recommend this Alpine Cyclone pump. Calculating the Flow Rate you need for a Waterfall: To calculate the flow rate you need multiply the number of feet wide your waterfall is by 1500 and that will give you the gph (gallons/hour) flow rate you need. Then find a pump that has a similar flow rate at the height of your waterfall outlet (vertical distance between the pump and the waterfall outlet. For example, if you look at the chart I attached, you will see that this pump has a flow rate of 2251gph at 5' and 1390 at 10' and using the graph I made (under the chart), you will see that at 8' the flow rate is ~1800gph. While this is a little more than what I needed, it is better to be high than low as you can always decrease the flow rate by using a smaller tubing or by regulating the power to the pump.* Hope this has helped! *I'm sure you can by a variable speed control somewhere but I just took a light dimmer switch and spliced it into a 3-prong outdoor extension cord so I can plug it into the outlet and then plug the pump into the other end. Just make sure that the switch can handle the watts. Most light dimmers have a 600W or1000W max rating but your pump's watts should be less than 75% of the dimmer's rating. For instance, looking at the attached chart you will see that this pump uses 2.3A at 120VAC which is 276W (W=VxA) so there is no problem using a 600w dimmer but if you had a PAL8000 which uses 540W, you would need to use a 1000W dimmer since it is over 75% of a 600W max dimmer (75% of 600W is 450W).

I bought this pump to help with filtration for a small pond with gold fishes. I connected a 1.5 inch hose to the outlet which then moves the water through a waterfall / filtration media. The pump has worked perfectly so far!

I bought two of these within a month in 2016. One pump died almost immediately, it would run but rattled horribly and didn't move water. I used the other on my pond until the summer of 2019, when that pump suffered an electrical issue (loose wires). I still had the old one and upon taking them both apart I found that the impeller had broken on the first pump. I managed to make one working pump out of the two broken pumps by using the impeller of the pump with the electrical issue in the other pump. It didn't last long though, I put the pump into the pond in the evening (with multiple prefilters) and it didn't even make it through the night. It broke the impeller at some point that night, which considering the burned out pump on the other pond, had to have happened almost immediately. So there's two pumps gone.... three years isn't a bad life for a pump, but if the odds of getting a good pump are 50/50... I won't risk it again.

I hv two of these Alpine pumps n they’ve bn running since arriving which speaks highly for their quality n lifespan. One in a tiny pond n the other in my sunroom in a 350 gallon holding tank. They’re not variable speed which would hv bn a big plus but so far I hvnt had the need to dial the flow rate down. It’s just a simple configuration of in the pond then tubed to a biofilter tub of lava rocks w/plants n waterfall back into the pond. In the holding tank It’s in a tall skimmer PVC connected to a 50 gallon rain barrel above filled with lava rocks n returns. Haven’t had any issues so far. Even when the hose to my bio fall kinked it still had pressure to push thru it. It never burnt out which is amazing to me. I cut the kink out n sleeved it w/a bamboo tube so it won’t kink again. With a root filled bio fall this year, the water flow is at what I consider comfortable, but still strong, flowing rate of where I want it to be. Come summer, I’ll be digging the pond deeper n may redo my bio fall filter. Most likely using the same Alpine pump!

Very powerful for its size. Quiet. Easy to clean. Recently had a warranty issue that the company stood behind and sent a replacement pump very quickly! All I had to do was provide a description of the problem and some photos of the item. They didn't even require the defective item to be returned… Super convenient.

This cyclone pond pump is amazing . He the first one over five years and ran the pump 5-20 hours per day. Works amazingly and customer service is amazing. You truly can’t go wrong with this!

I am using this as the submerged pump in my backyard "lost river". The rise from the pump to the top of the fountain is about 3.5 feet and I am running it through 1 1/4" tubing. It's actually a little strong for this purpose as you can see by the video so if I had to do it again, I would probably run 1". Works silently so long as it is compleletly submerged which is what I was hoping for.