Man, you guys aren't going to believe this without a picture, but I hooked up my circulator last night and let 'er run for an hour, and I turned my 1/7 acre pond into a river! I had cattail stalks going by me at about 1 ft. per second. Another cool thing is that it didn't affect the yellow perch or the bluegill in the slightest. They continued to eat pellets and were biting on jigs within two minutes of turning the rig on.
I've asked this before, so I'm sorry for the repeat, but what is the formula for energy costs of a 3/4 hp circulator 110/120 with 6.7 running amps? I'm debating whether to run it 24/7 or to run it during the night to oxygenate and keep the pond from heating too much in the hot summer sun.
Between running the sweeper nozzles one way down one bank, and the circulator the other way down the other bank, you may not be able to get a light lure to get to the bottom! I'll be carefully documenting O2 levels throughout the summer, but I think this device could work quite well on a pond that is considerably bigger than this one.
Also very cool--the feeder went off during my test, and the pellets spun around the pond, about ten minutes per lap and the yellow perch chased them down. The pellets stayed in the current and never went to the shoreline, which may have the added benefit on breezy days of not pushing the pellets to the shore as often happens with a vertical diffusion system. As many of you already know, those pellets end up rotting, or feeding turtles and froggies.
I'll also be documenting shoreline erosion issues. I may have to set some flat stones along the first bank that the current hits from the circulator.
