1/3 acre m/l pond, 9' deep, stocked w/LMB, BG and CC plus some hitchhikers, located in SW Indiana and subject to freezing, frost depth here 20".
What a drought! My pond is now almost 4' below full. We're over 13" below normal rainfall at this point. My simple method of aeration has been working great. It has kept the fish from gasping for air and eliminated the pond odor. I have a 60gpm, $60 Harbor Freight pump suspended 4' from a float just pumping water up and dumping it 2' above the float. This has solved all my problems and, with the warranty, I get a brand new pump every two years for $10.
I am in the process of building a large water feature (waterfalls and 30' stream) at my house. It is 110' from the pond. I am going to use pond water to operate it and hope it also does double duty for what aeration my pond requires. Time will tell. The details of this project follow. At the very least, they are creative. Who knows, it might even work
I have buried a 4" pipe 4'6" below full level at the pond with a 5' horizontal "probe" that extends into the pond (4' pvc weep with open end and holes in pipe covered with galvanized hardware cloth w/1/2" squares to act as a screen).
This 4" pipe then goes to the house and ends up at a depth of 7'. It does a 90 deg turn up into a 9" thick concrete pad. I stood up an 11' piece of 15" double wall pvc culvert I had laying around and embedded it 6" into the concrete. This is my "water column" in which my pump(s) will reside. This will allow water to gravity flow the 110' to the pump, eliminating all that head pressure and friction loss. The return will also be a 4" pipe that dumps the water back in the pond at about full level. Everything is set up so simply turning the pump off "winterizes" the entire system (pitch, weep holes, depth, etc).
Now, to my question. I just wondered if, during the winter, I could do more harm than good to the fish by drawing water from 5' down and dumping it on top, especially considering the flow rate (max of 120gpm) and pond size. Could this reduce the water temp down low to an unacceptable point? I am totally clueless on this point (and many others). Thoughts?
