pond water

[razman]

HI folks, Ihave a largish pond about 4ft deep with goldfish and shibunkin, I run a pump during daylight hours to circulate the water. The question is, do I need to run this pump every day?, will the fish suffer and if I do turn it off,how long for?.

[paddywak]

I like you run my pump for several hours each day, especially during the summer, but I also have spells when I don't run it at all, such as when I go on holiday. Also as the weather gets colder and the fish become very lethargic I only run the pump every now and then to stop freezing when it is very cold. when it gets very cold the fish will disappear and you might not see the for several weeks, it's quite normal and as soon as the weather picks up they reappear looking for dinner

[SlackAlice]

Basically it depends on your population of fish in relation to the water capacity of your pond. Cannot remember the ratio of inches of fish per gallon of water, someone else here may know the answer.

I have a pond 17'x8'x3.25'deep with a capacity of about 1350 gallons. At last count I had 35 fish of various types and sizes,ranging from 2-3inches to 2-2.5'.

In my case I have a high population of fish and therefore run a pump 24/7 365days to power a filter and uv. The only item I switch off is the uv during the winter.

If you have a low population of fish you can indeed not use the pump during the winter because the fish become quite dormant and cold water absorbs more oxygen. Also with no artificial movement of the water by the pump the water will stratify into layers and the fish will stay down in the slightly warmer depths.

Warmer water as in the summer needs more movement to absorb adequate oxygen at the surface. Think I would tend to keep the pump running all the time in the summer rather than using for only a few hours, because there are other benefits as well the main one being an improved Nitric acid to Nitrate conversion.

[hammerman]

My answer would be....It depends what you mean by "circulating the water".

if you want to run a pump to literally run underwater to whirl the pond water round and round, well there's absolutely no benifit what so ever.

However, if you want to use a fountain or supply a waterfall, that's a good idea especially in summer months.

But the real benifit would be to supply a small filter and UV which will keep your water in good condition. If a Filter is used, the pump would need to be run 24/7 all year.