OKIE, This is basicly what I did in our Ohio drought of 2002, Upper pond (pics on homepage under installs) was drained and recarved and sealed as it leaked into lower pond.This upper pond was enlarged and a 40 GPM dedicated well was put in. My driller calculated draw down in this 6 inch case and suggested that this 6 inch case and 1 1/2 hp pump would produce 40 gpm.Tested and it is right on 40 gpm of 52F water high in sulfer and fe. It ran for a few months (70-75 days if memory serves)and filled the 1.1 acre 12 average depth pond. The overflow to the lower pond is a 4 inch gradual depression that allows potential overflow to go down a fescue embankment, I wanted to try the grass embankmet to see what kind of erosion I would get and to date has worked out fine. This upper pond has very little water shed to fill it by design, The lower pond which is only 4/10 acre has 38 acre of water shed and a creek that runs to it which runs dry only 3 months out of the year.With the size of your ponds once they are full figure that 5 acres of surface with a evaporation loss of approx 1/2 inch per day (this could be high)is 68000 gallon and a 40 gpm well will pump approx 57600 gpm,so with a little rainfall and figuring the .5 inch loss would be the exception not the rule day in and day out you will be fine, As far as the aeration ripple effect I would not count on a lot of DO from that in your size ponds, Depending on maximum and average depth and eventual BOD you may want to look into diffused aeration even with windy conditions.Good Luck Ted
