turn off or not for winter

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