Originally posted by Bruce Condello:
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I'll tell you something ewest that you'd find amazing.
In my little .15 acre pond I have 20+ gpm of 54 degree well water spraying into an 84 degree pond. If you get a mere 5 feet in front of the nozzle the difference in H20 temp is unmeasurable. Maybe .5 degrees at the most! I was astounded by this fact. I thought the differential would be a lot more, but it's not. Consequently the only effect the cool water has had on the pond is that the overall temperature of the pond seems to stay about 2 degrees lower than my 1.25 acre pond. And that I can't even say for certain is from the cool water spray. No effect on plankton that I can discern. Same species and same concentrations as other ponds. One thing I've noted is that the algae stays more consistant day to day and week to week. Lusk says this is because of the circulation.
Thermodynamics is a cool subject...Ha
Bruce, are your temp. measurements inclusive of the greatest depths in the pond? Waters of varying temperatures and chemistries stratify and form currents within the overall body of water. Without the good circulation this is what happened to BarO, now thankfully corrected. You might find that the bottom of your little pond is quite a bit colder than your bigger pond.
Water is an amazing sink of thermal energy. The amount of energy required to raise or lower the overall temp. a few degress within a large static body of water is huge.
