"O3raledale" wrote in message
...

NJ,
Thanks for the info. I'll get the y pipe for the fish to hide in. Maybe
two of
them. When do you remove your pump? And how or do you cover your air pump
to
keep the weather out?

I remove the pump once we have had a few threats of frost. Once the fish
are in an environment of sustained cool temperatures, like 50F or so, they
stop moving around much and don't eat, so I put the pond to sleep for the
season. As far as covering the air pump, we place ours up against the
garage, so it is usually covered by the overhang and by the lower boughs of
a hemlock tree. Some folks here just put a box or bucket over it.

I wish I could be more specific about when exactly I turn off the falls and
pump, but it varies from year to year, depending upon the weather. I know
that this year, pond season started a lot sooner for us...we were running
the pump and falls on April 1, and it was late October/early November when
we shut it down in 2002.

NJ
Zone5b