Question
QUESTION: Our saddle club wants to install an arena watering system for an arena 150 x 250. They want 4 sprinkler heads on each side of arena (8 total). The purpose of the system is to water the arena during breaks at the horse show. The system must work quickly because the breaks are only 15 min. They have a 2500 gallon reservoir tank, but are not sure what they would need as far as pump, nozzles,piping,etc. The sprinkler heads would be mounted on top of the fenceposts around the arena. Any advise you could give would be greatly appreciated, because i think they are in way over their heads.

ANSWER: Hey Bret, the first problem, is that these heads would have to throw about 75 feet. You could get a Hunter I-40 rotor head, and basically if you have about 100psi, you could get this head to throw about 75 feet. This head will use about 30 gpm(gallons per minute). So you could only put 2 heads on a valve, and you would need 4 valves. Each valve when it is turned on, assuming we have 2- 30 gpm nozzles in the heads would use 60gpm(gallons per minute). You would probably have to run each zone for at least 5 minutes and so 4 zones at 5 minutes each would take 20 minutes, a little more than 15 minutes. But lets say you ran each zone for 5 minutes at 60 gpm, after all the zones are run, it would use about 1200 gallons (60 gpm times 20 minutes = 1200 gallons). So after you run the system twice it is going to use 2400 gallons, and the tank is 2500 gallons, can the tank be refilled in between waterings? You could put in a system, even though you would not get 100% coverage, it might be adequate for what you need to do. You would need a good pump that puts out about 120 psi, and your piping would have to be 2" size. Again it could be done, but the cost might be pretty high, how much do you have in the budget? Let me know if I can be of further help, thanks and have a great day.

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QUESTION: Our club has 5000 to spend on this project. Can it be done for that amount of money? What type and size of pump would you recommend? Would  larger diameter piping allow us to run more than 2 heads at once? Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions

Answer
Hey Bret, 5000 would be about right. As far as pipe sizes go, if you go up pipe sizes, then you would need a bigger pump, and thats where the biggest cost would come into play. I would sick with a 2" pump that could put out between 110 to 120 psi at about 60 gpm (gallons per minute). Hope this helps, let me know if I can be of anymore help. Thanks and have a great day.