Hi again Cecil- after my previous post this afternoon I decided to call up my local pond supplier and see if I could find any media like you have in yours. Sure enough he had a bunch of it that had been sitting around for a while and he gave me a great deal for it. It is actually little round 5/8" barrel looking pieces with what almost looks like a cork screw inside it that he says creats a vortex and induces air as the water travels thru it.
I got more than enough media to fill at least 5 buckets if I want. I am just curious as to what you have done to the bottom of each bucket...you mentioned you cut the bottom out but I can't figure out how you have attached the mesh or what ever you used to the bottom of the pail?
I also showed him the pictures of your setup and he thought it looked great and mentioned to me that one other thing I could do seeing I am only pumping 20gph is suplement the flow with pond water...he said although you wont decrease the temperature with it...It will oxygenate, and remove the unwanted gasses much faster than it would naturally in my pond seeing there isn't a whole lot of plant mater and create much more needed disolved oxygen. He thinks with the 20gph from the well and that much more from the pond directly over the trout cage it should work just fine and I can pull the water out out of the deeper, shaded area at the far end of the pond.
One other thing he said I could do if I wanted would be to wrap the cage with ridged blue 2" foam (foil back on the top reflecting sunlight)and wrap the sides down the first 4 feet. This would act like a cooler keeping the warmer surface water on the outside of the cage.
Looks like I have a busy next few days on our long holliday Canada Day weekend!!!
