turn off or not for winter

Hi,

I seen conflicting info regarding what to do with your pump/filter in the
winter....

one source said to turn off the pump when the fish stop feeding and let the
water temp stratify thus keeping a 4oC layer (in U.K.) at the bottom rather
than ciurculating the water with the pump & chilling it all down. Also, no
waste from the fish to feeed the bateria in the filter so no point!

the other source said to leave them running all winter just to keep the pond
clean/clear & reduce spring clean-up.

What is the general concenus here??

Cheers,

Sky

I turn my water pump off to the external veggie filter that would cool the pond water
and put my pump into a bucket filter and run the pump shooting the water just under
the surface ruffling the surface to keep water moving and the water cleaned up a bit.
Ingrid


"SkyCatcher" wrote:

Hi,

I seen conflicting info regarding what to do with your pump/filter in the
winter....

one source said to turn off the pump when the fish stop feeding and let the
water temp stratify thus keeping a 4oC layer (in U.K.) at the bottom rather
than ciurculating the water with the pump & chilling it all down. Also, no
waste from the fish to feeed the bateria in the filter so no point!

the other source said to leave them running all winter just to keep the pond
clean/clear & reduce spring clean-up.

What is the general concenus here??

Cheers,

Sky




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

SkyCatcher wrote:

I seen conflicting info regarding what to do with your pump/filter in the
winter....

one source said to turn off the pump when the fish stop feeding and let
the water temp stratify thus keeping a 4oC layer (in U.K.) at the bottom

It really depends where you are. In much of the UK, your water would rarely
get much cooler than that anyway.

In most of Canada, it's not a good idea to run a pump in the winter unless
you keep both intake and outflow close to the surface.

Also, no waste from the fish to feeed the bateria in the filter so no
point!

Not much activity from the bacteria, either.

the other source said to leave them running all winter just to keep the
pond clean/clear & reduce spring clean-up.

Only if your pond doesn't freeze. Otherwise, keeping the pump off the
bottom, to allow warmer water to collect there, will also let the crud
collect there too, so you get no filtration benefit. In any case, you'd be
getting purely mechanical filtration - with no biological breakdown - so
your filter would need a good clean in spring.

What is the general concenus here??

You'll get individual opinions - you'll have to figure out the consensus
yourself :-)
--
derek

I seen conflicting info regarding what to do with your pump/filter in the
winter....
What is the general concenus here??
Sky

As Derek mentioned, it is a case by case, or pond by pond, zone by zone
that is a determinant. As far as stratification temperatures, only works in
deep ponds 5 or more feet. I'm in Zone 7 and one ponder ran checks on his
4' deep pond last winter and found only a .03 degree difference.

My set up works where I put a small pump behind the bio-media of one
bio-chamber and set the outlet hose right at the surface, pulling water
into the filter from the skimmer. My ponds & filter are all in-ground. (See
*My Filter* www.jjspond.us) I've run this circulation for many winters, but
last winter was the first I continued to pump thru the bio-media, before I
used just the pre-filter. I saw a quicker start-up of the filter this
spring running with the bio-media engaged year round. ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

My filter is a veggie filter, water hyacinth, watercress and today I discovered
string algae.Plugged up the outlets to the waterfall and was backing out water
over the back (!!!).
Drained the filter, tossed the water hyacinth and string algae and shut down
the pump. That's it for winter. The watercress in the waterfall will just stay
there, suffer winter temps, no water, snow, ice and come back next year.
Amazing plant.
I'll put in an air pump this weekend in the pond to keep a hole open in the ice
when it comes.
Pond is 3,000 gallons, bunch of goldfish, four small koi and one elusive lady
bullfrog.


kathy :-)
zone 7, SE WA state