Hi Sean - I appreciate yet another possible suggestion. I generally agree
with what you are saying about disrubting the water, but I guess I have
gotten used to what I have now. That is one of the reasons I didnt put the
outflow out of the water, because it disrupted it much more. I still will
probably get a standby setup of something like the venturi or airstone for
future instances when I am treating the pond and extra aeration is
suggested.

I have tried to read up a little on your trickle tower but perhaps your
suggestions will answer quicker. First of all - "natural'. If I am
understanding the idea - how do you get a bucket of rocks, sticking up out
of your pond to look natural? I have my babbling brook effect pretty much
in the middle of the 'deep' end with the thought it will distribute a little
better. If the trickle filter is 'hidden' on the side will the aeration
dispurse as evenly? or is that a real consideration. I am obviously missing
something as well - newbie remember. The few things that I read sounded
like a trickle tower is essentially a bio filter. It makes sense if the
water is getting oxygen and then immediately falling on the rocks these bio
bugs would be well aerated as compared to other methods - but does this
actually create more oxygen available to the pond. Lastly? I have tried the
"gravel in the milk crate prefilter idea" and even that I found very
difficult to pull from the pond. Wouldnt this or any suggestion of filling
a 5 pound bucket with pea gravel be very heavy to put in and out of the
pond?
Thanks for you help!
Bill Brister

"Sean Dinh" wrote in message
...
Standing water create a thermocline, whereas the lower layer of the water
body
is much cooler than the top layer. Since your pond is only 25" deep, and
that
you have the main pump running, thermocline should not be an issue.

I hate to see any water feature with a venturi or an airstone. They're so
unnatural. The parts I hate the most about them are that they disturb the
water
surface and create extreme light ray distortion, making viewing the
content of
the body of water highly distractive. There is little efficiency in
oxygenating
the water through airstone. The venturi adds little more to that.

The best way to oxygenate the water is to use a Trickle Tower. Water
flowing
down hugh number of small items creates extreme water surface disruption.
This
let the water to have massive gas exchange rate, when comparing to
airstone or
venturi.

If you want an application for your small pump, make a small TT to use it.
Fill
a 5 gallon bucket filled with lava rock. Let that pump feed this TT. This
is my
only setup I use for my 600 gallons pond.

Newbie Bill wrote:

Let me try this again. Thanxx to all who have answered so far. All of
your
suggestions are helpful but they may raise more questions than they
answer.
Let me revert to 'pump layout 101' questions.
My pond is around 800 gallons. It is shaped like a snowman with a
smaller
'circle' on top (about 5 ft wide) of a larger one (about 6 1/2 ft).
There is
very little 'indentation'/restriction between the two circles. The top
has
an irregular buttom (has a platform in it as the original owner had
designed
it as mostly a spitter pond) but it is only about 18" deep in the small
end
and 25" in the larger end. It is a little over 9 feet long. Accordingly
it
does has a high surface to volume ratio, which I assume helps a little
bit
in gas exchange. I have a 1600 gal Laguna pump(full open) running from
the
deeper end to my filter which comes back in over a small shelf of two
flat
rocks stacked on each other, in the shallow end. This does create
minimal
splashing, some ripples and bubbles. The small pump in question is in
the
middle of the larger circle. Surprising to me, the bubbling/rolling
from
the 200 gph pump actually produces stronger ripples than the 'splash'
end
(floating food is pushed towards the 'waterfall'). I have a bunch of
water
lilies around the edge of the deep end which is why I am trying to avoid
splashing with the little pump. Even a very small bell fountain effect
was
splashing the leaves and making visibility poor. It wont be long before
the
water rolling from the small pump is pretty much the only open surface
on
the deep end. I have about 8 submerged anarchis.
Everything is running well right now but I am particularly concerned
about
it being so shallow and my first ponding hot Texas summer coming on. It
gets full afternoon sun. I have more flow from my big pump than I need.
I
was planning to build a 'sink filter' as filter #2 and divert some flow
to
it, as my fish load is very high. Naturally I am not getting a full
1600
gph due to elevation loss, but I think it would be adequate for both.
Water
parameters are perfect right now, but they are growing right.
Now, as a result of your valuable input I am unsure how to proceed. I
would very much appreciate your educated guesses. I could divert the
large
pump and try the venturi idea, and add new pump and filter as/if
required
later. (Trying to avoid higher electricity usage when possible.) Your
input has now started me to consider zonation which I assume is
stratification(just read a bit about this). Perhaps? I should divert
the
large pump for additional airation and just us the small to move lower
water
some. I hadn't thought it through but to put in an airstone I would need
(even if small) an external pump that sucks air and not water right. I
am a
bit concerned about moving the small pump much deeper since it has no
prefilter, just small slits in the case, which seem to plug up within
2-4
weeks just from algae growth, much less pulling sediment. The fountain
tube
attached (I didnt mention before) put the bottom of the pump about a
foot
deep and exiting about an inch from the water surface. I suspect if I
lower
it much more there will be very little rolling water on the surface. I
am
also wondering if I should be diverting from the large pump directly
into
the pond just for water movement. or. or. or. Probably there are other
permutations which I havent considered.
Sorry to be so lengthy but, like I am discovering in ponding, few
things
have a totally simple straightforward solution when my budget is small
and
my ambitions are large. Thanks again for all the help. My general
naivete
was once again in full force when I first started 'building my pond'. I
love it, but every time I learn something - which is almost daily - I
learn
two more things I dont know enough about. I can only begin to imagine
the
disasters I would have already encountered if I didnt have this group
for
soooooo much support.
Bill Brister - Austin, Texas (for Grubber it's actually Leander)