Probably like many of your members Im struggling whether to put in a mains line or use solar power.My pond is about 100 yrds from the mains and across wetlands etc. I have had success with a DC solar panel on another small pond but would like to develop the principle for this larger pond. My problem is that the DC motors I have found so far are fairly limited in their power and I believe have a fairly short live span thus making AC the way to go. The question is does it make sense to put an inverter in the system or are you going to lose too much power. I was thinking of using two 75 watt dc panels.