avoiding mixing water

[alex chappelear]

25,000 gallon pond in zone 6. 8 feet deep. two 4" aerated bottom drains, 2 skimmers, These gravity feed 2 sieves then pumped through various filters back to the pond using two pumps

filtration room is underground mostly and has the sand gravel filters. I plan on turning off one pump in winter and I plan on that being the skimmer and baki shower/waterfall unit as it would be returning cold/exposed water to bottom of pond The pump I plan on running year round will be the bottom drains/ sandgravel filters that return to TPRs at bottom edge of pond.

turn off aerated portion of bottom drain in winter to cut down on mixing.

does this make sense to help keep water oxygenated (sieve oxygenates) while still letting different temps of water to stratify out?

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I would not be concerned with Oxygen levels in Winter months for there is not much demand. You certainly want to avoid any mixing of the lower levels of water with the upper levels. Unless your pond freezes completely the water at the bottom will always by no lower than 34F.

 

[alex chappelear]

thanks tadpole, I guess it sounds like skimmers on one pump and bottom drains on the other pump are the way to go then. our farm pond most winters gets cold enough the ice is a couple inches thick for at least a week. The only ponder I ever saw talk about this is wrighty on youtube where an intake for his filter in the winter is on the side of the pond a few feet down and he uses it instead of the skimmers in the winter, im not sure why he doesn't just use the bottom drain in the winter, maybe his returns don't go back to the bottom of the pond and he doesn't want to lose the warmer water.