Nedra,
Last year and this year I have left my pump going through the winter with my
1,500 gallons of above ground ponds. Living here in Northern Central
Oklahoma I get ice on the ponds and around the discharge of the to the last
pond but every thing is fine for the fish. On my discharges to each pond is
a 4 inch PVC and hanging on the elbow is a 6 inch lily pot that slows the
water flow into the pond and also helps distribute the water over the
surface of the pond rather than having the cascade dumping the water
directly to the bottom of the pond.
I started using this technique on the cascade about 5 years ago when I place
Philly Veil pea sized fish in my ponds so they would be battered by the
2,000 gph flow into the pond. I then noticed that it seemed that the fish
kept in the pond to help eat the excess food that fry didn't eat seemed to
enjoy the the lack of flow, and were not as skidished. I ended up using
this technique on all the pond discharges. This year I did have a problem
though because my oldest Rubbermaid of 9 years started leaking and later one
of the discharges where I used a different technique for sealing the joints
started leaking and twice I lost water significantly in the pond.
I have left my filter in tact for this last two winters except I have taken
the filter pads out and left only the bioballs in the fitler. Except for my
bout with string algae last year my filter seemed to take off quicker than
it has any year before at the beginning of the spring. I will see if it
does the same this spring, hopefully without the string algae episode.
I know one thing the pond sure has stayed cleaner this last two years when
the pump was left running and even though I had string algae the water was
always crystal clear.
I have bought my replacement filter for the big particales for the Spring
already and it looks like the fine filter I have is still good. I have
decided to change the administration of my Oyster Shell Chicken Grit and
made bags of toule to put it in and will place several of these in the
baskets under t water flow of the cascade so they will always be affected by
good water flow, because this last summer I had a problem with the water in
the filter knocking it out of the tray it was in and it ended up clogging
the holes drilled my dischage port from the filter. It took me two
overflows of my filter this last year to discover what was making the filter
overflow. So I came up with this idea to solve the problem that also
maintained the KH in my ponds.
HTH
Tom L.L.
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"Nedra" wrote in message
nk.net...
No babies to worry about .... I was thinking of trying to set up a dealy
with one of the
bags from the pressurized filter to get a jump start on spring. The
filter
is covered with snow and it has been cold here -
20 degrees or less. Everything is probably dead now anyway. But then
again, I may
go ahead and set something up in the patio pond. I have two of them -
unused
this year.
I think I could buy a small Beckett pump and I have a little
spunge filter that fits on it. Also somewhere around here is 75 degree
heater that I could
drop in.... As you can readily see - I'm just not 100% right now :-)
Thanks for your info, Jan.
Nedra
"~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote in message
...
Jan - would you please define further the terms "stock tank"
Stock tank, n. Rubber or metal tank for holding water for stock (cows,
horses, etc.). ;o) Mine is the Rubbermaid 70 gallon, sitting above ground
on my patio.
"becket box filter and bell fountain egitating the surface"
http://www.aqua-mart.com/search.pl (and if that doesn't get you there,
copy & paste BBF350A20 into their search box). The pump is a 350 gph,
but
you can go larger.
I'm using a regular stock tank heater, the red ones, 1000 watt. That's
why
I don't just leave it on.... they're too flakey.
Are you thinking of growing out some babies? ~ jan
~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~