The idea of Zen and the Art of Water is borrowed from the 60s counterculture hit ?EUR??,,????'??Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.?EUR??,,????'?? For many of us, this book was one of our first introductions to Eastern Philosophy. The gist of the book was that to analyze the motorcycle?EUR??,,????'???s problems and to properly repair them, we must ?EUR??,,????'??become?EUR??,,????'??? the motorcycle. To build a successful water feature, it helps to adopt this philosophy and ?EUR??,,????'??become?EUR??,,????'??? the water. The concept of ?EUR??,,????'??being Zen?EUR??,,????'??? is not as strange as it may first appear. In sports and in the arts, or even writing a magazine article, we often talk about ?EUR??,,????'??being in the zone.?EUR??,,????'??? Being in the zone only means we are focused on doing one thing. When we are in the zone, thinking is not involved; it is just ?EUR??,,????'??being.?EUR??,,????'??? At the moment Tiger Woods swings his driver, (or for him any club) he does not think about his swing. He is simply ?EUR??,,????'??being?EUR??,,????'??? the swing. Before he swings he envisions what he wants to do and afterwards he may analyze how he did. But at the moment of swing, he is the swing. Designers are often accustomed to making an area functional and visually pleasing. However, with water features they often overlook the equally important sound component. The sound, like the visual, should compliment the surroundings and neither dominate nor get lost in them. Sound is created by water falling and hitting water or a hard object. The more water and the greater surface area of the water, the greater the sound. With all else being equal, changes in the height of the water falling only minimally effects the amount of sound. Doubling the height of a waterfall from 4 feet to 8 feet will only slightly change the volume. Double the amount of water and the volume changes greatly. However, a continuous sheet fall makes virtually no noise unless it starts to break up. In a swimming pool, or even a bucket of water, experiment with a garden hose. Hold the hose underwater directed upwards. By moving the hose to various depths and nozzle settings, we can hear the changes in sound. Then try a single stream from the side of the pool and see if you don?EUR??,,????'???t seek out the facilities. Waterfalls are a prime example of being Zen with water. This task is complicated because we usually are working from the bottom up and not the top down as the water falls. A common mistake is the belief that a waterfall is a series of flat rocks with water falling over them. This resembles a stairway with a water leak at the top. In nature, the water usually tumbles over and around rocks. By having mix of water hitting rocks and separating, coming together, going side-to-side and cascading and falling, we get a water feature that is visually interesting and offers a nice orchestration of sounds. To design the equipment in a fountain, we generally start with one piece of information ?EUR??,,????'??+ how much water do we need at the top of the water feature? In a koi pond, we need to keep in mind the water feature and insure the total water volume passes through the filter every two hours. From this information, we can determine the size of the pump, filter and piping we need. Let us assume we have a fountain head that the manufacturer say requires 60 gallons per minute (GPM) at 15 feet head to achieve a fountain height of 8 feet. This means we need to be able to pump 60 GPM to a height of 15 feet to achieve the desired height of the fountain. This does not mean we can use a pump with the output of 60 GPM at 15 feet. From the output of the pump, we must subtract the resistance to flow we encounter along the way. The resistance to flow, Frictional Head Loss (FHL), increases as water passes through each component of the equipment. The FHL for any system can be anticipated by adding the resistance of the components. To work in a common unit, the Hydraulic Institute has converted pipe fittings into equivalent lengths of horiznal pipe. From charts, we convert this total to head loss (FHL). By taking the FHL to performance curves, provided by pump manufacturors, we can read how many gallons per minute we can expect. The velocity of the water as it passes through pipes and fittings is another important consideration in reducing fhe FHL. As the velocity of the water in pipes and fittings increases, the turbulence in the water increases but at a greater rate. As we double the velocity of the water throught straight pipe, we increase the resistance by about 4 times. This is to say if we double the pressure in the pipe, the flow might only increase 70 percent. To minimize FHL, all pipes need to be properly sized. Water passing through 100 feet of PVC at 11.03 feet per second (fps) with 25.1 FHL. However, if the pipe were 2?EUR??,,????'??, the velocity would be 6.69 fps but the FHL would be reduced to 7.4 feet. With the pipe properly sized at 2.5?EUR??,,????'??, the flow rate would be4.96 with only 3.14 FHL. Undersizing the pipes, specially the pump intake pipe, is a very common problem and often expensive to remedy. If in doubt, up size the pipe. Many safety laws for pools are based on the velocity of water through drains, skimmers. Therefore it is imporant to design in enough drains and skimmers for everyones?EUR??,,????'??? safety. Drains and skimmers should be designed so that the suction velocity in the pipes should not exceed 6 fps. Return pipes should also have rates not exceeding 6 fps. Rates for wading pools is often less. Check with local building codes. When designing for multiple skimmers or skimmers, they should be connected at ends of the crossbar of a ?EUR??,,????'??T?EUR??,,????'??? or at the ends of an ?EUR??,,????'??H?EUR??,,????'??? with a common pipe from the middle of the cross bar. The ability of filters to do their work is also directly related to the velocity of the water passing through it. The slower the rate, the more filtration takes place. The greater the rate, the less filtration. The flow rate through a filter is the rate of the water entering it divided by the square footage of the filter. Sand filter should be 15-20 GPM; cartridge filters .375-1 GPM and diotomacious earth filters 1.5-2 GPM. We have only skimmed the surface of how we can be Zen with the water and can apply our our technical knowledge to designing the proper equipment with balanced hydraulics. Also, we need to anticipate the sound as well as visual aspects of a water feature. For those of you who have the opportunity, Fred Hare at Sta-Rite Industries teaches courses on hydraulics through the country. If you want to learn hydraulics for water features, attend one of Fred?EUR??,,????'???s workshops. Other equipment manufacturers offer classes on hydraulics as well.