"BenignVanilla" wrote in message
...

"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.



Does mother nature turn off her waterfalls when the temperature hits 50?
:-).
Mine run all year, the small amount of heat from the pump and the warmer
water from the bottom of the pond keep a small area of surface open. Here in
the UK I can have between 3 and 9inches of ice in mid winter.
Mike
UK


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.537 / Virus Database: 332 - Release Date: 06/11/2003