Mickey, I have an approx. 3,000 gallon pond (zone 6) ...
alot of our northern ponders just use a couple of airstones
placed about 6 inches below the surface of the water to
keep a hole open in the ice. The airstones provide aeration
and degate the use of pumps - just thru the winter of course.
I also have a De-Icer that I use when the horrid
winter winds kick in. Pond is on the north side of the house
and gets no sun at all in the wintertime.
You may want to think about just shutting down the filtration
and pumps and go to airpump/airstone for the winter.

Nedra
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/4836
http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118

"Mickey" wrote in message
...
This year is the experimental year for the 3000gallon pond plumbing since
it
is the first year. I am thinking of just running the OASE skimmer and
removing the aftermarket bottom drain. I live in Zone 4 and the pond will
be
drained yearly do to freezing. Is this a bad idea? I have a 3800 GPH
Sequence pump and it sucks aloot of stuff off the top when it is used by
itself.