Can I only run my pump during the day?

The last two winters I have kept my filter pump running nonstop. The only reason I did this was to circulate the heated water throughout the pond. I use a submersible heater in my skimmer/pre-filter during the winter months which keeps my water just above freezing even when the temps at night drop down into the teens.

During the winter I remove the boi-filter, and turn off the water fall.

Happy ponding,

Rich

Can you tell us what a "wide fish to water ratio" looks like? I have ~1,000 gallons, currently no filter, and am thinking about adding some goldfish. Will add more plants first, though. If I can have a handful of goldfish before I add a filter, that would be great.

I guess it must not be too hard on your power bill since your pond is smaller but if I tried to heat my 2500 gal pond all winter I'd be in the poor house
I could use a smaller pump and stick it in my filter and just turn off the waterfall. I wonder if that would still keep the water too cold for the fish trying to stay in the warmer waters down under And then would I have to clean out my filter during the winter? Ooh la la that would be a cold, freezing job

It would take a lot of goldfish to overwhelm a 1000 gallon pond. You could easily have a hundred or more small goldfish at first. My experience with ones bought at the pet store as feeders is about half usually die in the first few weeks. They don't feed them and when you get them, they are starving.

JW, I only had to rinse my pre-filter media about every two to three weeks during the winter months. I used that rinse water to water my house plants.

Happy ponding,

Rich

Well my filter is just a big black plastic pot with holes drilled in it with the plastic rolls of filter matts
curved around inside and the pump in the center and it has ropes attached to it so I can pull it out.
It's pretty heavy but I manage. But I sure wouldn't want to have to do that during the winter.

Cool, well I'll buy a few when the temps rise a little higher. 100 is way more than I was planning on. Probably a dozen or so is more like it.

put in a dozen and next year you may have 100 like it or not!! my goldies went thru 3 spawn cycles last year...gave away 1000+ and still have around 40.. not to mention the koi i gave away too! the ones i have now are from the last cycle. i was giving away freezer bags full before any even had any color. didnt even know which were koi or goldies. put them on craigslist and people will line up at your door.

Well that would be OK, but I don't plan on providing enough food for 100! I'll probably end up netting a bunch and giving them away or selling them real cheap. Maybe my local fish store will set me up on a trade program for some food or other pond supplies.


Oh, and sorry for the thread hijack.

I found that if you are just going to have goldfish and you don't want them to over populate just don't feed them and they find enough food on their own and they will eat the eggs that are laid..........a few babies always manage to survive or just feed them small amounts so they will still keep the fish count lower. At first I didn't feed them at all, now I feed small amounts and also feed them good before winter and in spring w/ a good wheat germ based food. Then switch over in summer to the regular food. They are doing very well and their counts stay reasonable.