DIY tabletop water fountain

It is exciting to hear your plans.  You can easily build an indoor miniature feature and create a symbol of serenity for your home. 

I am not an expert in the area of building your own indoor table top fountains, however I have built 2 units and have some practical experience. 

It sounds like you have chosen a perfect container that suits your rooms’ decor, however you may have some difficulty in hidding the electral cord, but I wil address later.  Ideally a table top fountain should have a basin / container about 3 to 5 inches deep. 

Firstly, place the pump in the container and cover it by a protective housing to protect the pump from the weight of the visible materials in the feature.  An inverted wire basket, pool drain or plastic planting basket will provide the protection that the pump needs. The protective housing needs to hide the pump and allow the water to filter towards the intake at the base of the pump.  Before you place the protective housing over the pump and fill the base will the rocks and pebbles place a piece of tubing (flexible or ridged, depending on what suites your application best) from the out flow on the pump to the top of the feature.

As you set the pump in place it is important to make sure that the out feed from the pump and electrical cord fit through the protecting housing.   I would suggest adjusting the flow rate of the pump before you conceal the pump and protective housing with the rocks and pebbles.  Once the pump is concealed it is very difficult to adjust the flow rate.  There must also be an adequate way to have the electrical cord from the pump run out the top of the container to an outlet without taking away from the aesthetics of the water feature.

I am unsure of the exact look you want to create, but you will need the out flow from the pump to be above the top of the stones within the cocktail bowl container.  I would suggest placing the rocks in the bowl to the level you feels looks best.  Then I would have the outflow tube from the pump protrude up to an inch and have above what you think you will want in the end.  If you start hiring them you think would look best you can always cut it back and make it lower, but it is impossible to work back the other way if you cut it too short.

One of the most important components of the feature will be the fountain head. This will be the focal point of the feature as it is the point where the water will flow from. It must be able to hide the tubing or have a hole drilled into it for the tubing.  Something as simple as a small pile of rocks concealing the outflow tube can look attractive and even placing rocks on the outflow tube itself to provide a natural looking stream of water.

Every fountain does need a filter an in your case it sounds like you have settled on pebbles and small rocks.  The filter is placed around the main feature and can be anything from marble, glass gems, slate, river pebbles, aquarium stones / rocks or shells. This crude filter adds to the decor of the feature while filtering the circulating water.

You may want to build up rocks on one side to conceal the out flow and they can also hide the electrical cord from the pump to the wall plug.

Once the feature is built, fill it with water and run the pump. Make sure the pump is fully submersed before you turn it on.  Opperating the pump when it is dry will wear it out very quickly.

One thing you may want to consider is to embellish the feature with small water or air plants.

I hope this helps you as you set to build your indoor table top fountain.  Please feel free to request clarification if you have any additional questions.  All the best, I trust you will send pictures of the completed project or even pictures along the way as you create this serenity fountain.   All the best.

Garth Epp Publisher, Premium Indoor Fountains.com