"Ted" wrote in message
...
I live in zone 9b, and my water temp in the winter only gets into the low
50's. Is it necessary at that temp to turn my waterfall off? I have a
bottom drain where my external pump sucks the water from.
snip

It seems that this is a hotly contested topic. At least it was last fall
when I joined the group. OMIGOD, I've been here a year now! Yeeha. Anyway,
there are two crowds of IMRIGHTYERWRONG thought. One group believes that
once your water reaches 50ish you stop feeding and stop filtering. Without
feeding your fish will produce less waste and therefore not filtering is OK.
In addition by circulating your water, you move the cold top water down to
the lower warm water. The other school of thought thinks the opposite,
filter your water, turn it over, stir it up, whatever.

In my experience, both schools have been successful, and I have not seen
empirical evidence supporting either argument. I for one have my pump shut
off...but...that is because my stream is still leaking, and I don't feel
like fixing it until Spring. That doesn't help does it?

BV.