Juniper Springs, in the Ocala Forest, was the first Florida spring where I saw sand boils.  Perhaps they aren’t quite as impressive as the “boils” or head waters of the springs where vast quantities of water flow from the Florida aquifer, but they are captivating in their understated beauty.  I find them mesmerizing, a bit like a lava lamp. Countless people have told me how they used to enjoy playing in the sand boils at the Springs when they were children.  At many of the Springs, swimming is now restricted in those areas.  I tried to include a sand boil in my very first portable Patio Paradise Fountain in 1984.  It worked well until the first time I turned the fountain pump off and the sand went down and clogged the small tubing I was using at the time.  For years I gave up on the sand boil effect and settled for a bubbler, where the water just shot up and made a nice rolling effect.  Sometime in the early 2000’s someone who worked at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa told me they were accepting bids for the landscaping near a children’s play area.  She thought they might be interested in some of my fountains rather than just boulders in some of the planter areas.  She asked me if I knew how to make a sand boil effect; they had tried to create sand boils in some of their aquarium displays, but they didn’t work well.  I told her I had some ideas; I thought I could figure it out.  I didn’t get the job, but I applied myself and figured out how to make a sand boil. 

The first part of the solution was obvious: the pump would have to be at the same level as the boil so that the sand wouldn’t flow down and clog the tubing and pump.  I found that easy in the lily pond size sand boils, where there was plenty of room to build a separate compartment at the same level to hide the pump; plus there was plenty of depth to just have the small jets for the sand boil point straight up and stay covered by the rolling sand.  When I tried it in my 30″ scale, or Harmony shape base, there was, once again just enough room to build a separate compartment for the pump and have the jets for the boil point straight up.  The real challenge was when I attempted the miniature sand boil in the 15″x18″ oval shape. If I tried to have the jets point straight up, the water quickly pushed all the sand aside to reveal the plumbing; not acceptable.  Plus the pump compartment was so small that when I tried to drill a hole for the water to flow back to the pump, all the sand flowed into the pump compartment and quickly fouled the pump and left the plumbing of the boil exposed; not acceptable.  Here’s the solution:  first, the water had to shoot from the side, down at about a 45 degree angle instead of straight up, AND, rather than have a hole between the sand area and the pump compartment I constructed what I believe is properly called a weir, a low dam that the water could gently flow over, back into the pump compartment, leaving the sand behind.  All three sizes of sand boils work great.  They are silent. The sounds you hear in the video are from the fountains close by.  Most clients who buy them buy a fountain too for the sound.  Leaves can clog them so I recommend keeping them indoors or be prepared to remove the leaves now and then. As with other maintenance, most of my clients feel it is well worth it in exchange for the beauty and pleasure from the fountains.