Adding Water for the First Time to Your Decorative Indoor Fountain

When it was time for Jeanne to add water to her fountain she was nervous. It seemed like a simple task, yet she didn’t want to do anything wrong. She carefully read the instructions and this simple act saved the life of the fountain.  Never add tap water to a decorative indoor fountain! The minerals in the water will form a scaly deposit within the pump and on the fountain surfaces and will make the fountain look very unclean. This mineral build up will also reduce the life of the pump and cause the fountain to deteriorate quickly in regards to looks and functionality.  It is important to keep your fountain clean in order to increase it's life span.

By reading the instructions Jeanne knew she should add distilled water. Because distilled water is free of minerals those annoying little ‘mineral spots’ will not form when it is used. Distilled water can be purchased at most pharmacies or grocery stores.

Adding Water to Your Established Fountain

Water from within your fountain will appear to decrease for 2 main reasons.  As the fountain runs there may be some splashing that occurs and therefore water will be leaving the main reservoir. That is why it is important to arrange the stones, adjust the splash guard or make an adjustment in the water flow to eliminate splashing. The main reason the water volume will decrease in the fountain is due to evaporation. The evaporation of your fountain will be directly determined by the climate and humidity of the air within the building and within the region in which you live. A unit in Arizona will need to be filled more often then a similar unit in Seattle.

Jeanne realized that if she added a small amount of water every other day she never ran into a situation where the pump was sucking air. It is very important to keep the water level above the intake port on the pump. If the pump does suck air through the intake, the life of the pump is compromised and most likely greatly reduced. Jeanne noticed that when her household plants needed watering, her fountain also needed to be topped up. This made it easy to integrate filling her fountain into her routine. She got into the habit of topping up her fountain when she watered her plants. In the case of her boyfriend Mike, he was reminded to water his plants when he noticed his fountain needed to be topped up.

It can never be stated too many times, this information should supplement the owner’s manual you received with the fountain.