What You Need to Know

A lot of people assume that placing jets at the bottom of a koi pond will help push debris toward the bottom drain. It sounds logical, but water behaves differently under pressure. The deeper you go, the higher the hydrostatic pressure becomes, and the less effective a jet or TPR actually is. A jet placed on the pond floor has very little reach, so it does almost nothing to move sunken debris.

Jets are incredibly useful when they’re installed in the right place. Positioned about twelve inches below the surface, a jet moving around 5 gallons per minute can influence water flow up to seven feet away. At that depth, jets work together with your skimmer and any waterfalls to create a gentle, self‑cleaning current across the surface of the pond. That surface movement is what carries leaves and dissolved organic compounds toward the skimmer before they have a chance to sink.

Pro Tip

For the best results, install your jets roughly a foot below water level and angle them slightly upward toward the skimmer. This creates a smooth, circular flow pattern that keeps the top of the pond clean and reduces the amount of debris that ever reaches the bottom in the first place. In a simple 8' x 10' rectangular pond, for example, four jets positioned this way will keep the water circulating efficiently toward the skimmer.

Used correctly, jets are one of the easiest ways to keep your pond cleaner, clearer, and far less work to maintain.