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  1. #1
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion smartin's Avatar
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    pumps, air and trickling

    Good evening everyone,
    Well pond temps have been dwindling of late and I expect most of you are going through your winter ritual, I have a few questions on this matter please and would appreciate your views,


    1) Should I slow down my pumps for the colder months as there is a lot less food going in and also the less current swirling around the pond will surely help the fish to maintain there fat reserves longer as they are not swimming against the water returns 24/7 ?

    2)Air, should this be turned down, my thoughts are when the ambient temps are low the more air being pumped through the water column the quicker / colder your making your water again just my thoughts ??

    3)Do you trickle in / out during the winter?


    Fish are still feeding well and getting fed once a day, my pond temp today is 10.2 degrees, it is milder than of late and it looks like this week although wet it will be between 10 - 12 degrees in the south east..

    Cheers Steve.



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  3. #2
    Senior Member Rank = Kyusai Sim's Avatar
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    Hi steve
    I reduce both air and flow around the pond.
    When I had an air diffuser in the pond I used to turn it off through the winter.
    I also reduce the air in the filters.
    I reduce the flow through the bakki right down so that it's enough for it just to run with a reasonable flow to keep the media wet, and return more under the water line.
    I will also keep feeding the koi if they are looking for food.
    This year I have a few smaller koi so will feed them to keep them healthy, a couple of the bigger koi have stopped eating already and have stopped feeding.
    Hope it helps I'm sure others will help too.

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  5. #3
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Hi steve. A lot of people turn things down
    Ie air pumps. UV. Filter pumps. Every pond is different plus the fish.
    I leave everything the same all year round.
    Reason for this. My fish don t like change
    They flash and attack my air dome if I turn the air off. And I don t want ulcers on them this time of year. That's just one example.
    I played and experimented. So decided to just leave it as it is.

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  7. #4
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion john1's Avatar
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    Hi Steve,
    No1, I run two pumps and turn one off and the other down by 1/2,everything is valved so my bio is fed to the shower in winter.

    No 2, I dont have air in the pond but keep air going in the bio.

    No3, I dont trickle in/out.
    Would feed if they look for it.
    John

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  9. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by freddyboy View Post
    Hi steve. A lot of people turn things down
    Ie air pumps. UV. Filter pumps. Every pond is different plus the fish.
    I leave everything the same all year round.
    Reason for this. My fish don t like change
    They flash and attack my air dome if I turn the air off. And I don t want ulcers on them this time of year. That's just one example.
    I played and experimented. So decided to just leave it as it is.

    Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
    I turned my air off for 5 minutes the other day Fred and a couple of mine went nuts against the dome too.
    Back on, happy as Larry. Mad eh?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  11. #6
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bigcarpchaser View Post
    I turned my air off for 5 minutes the other day Fred and a couple of mine went nuts against the dome too.
    Back on, happy as Larry. Mad eh?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    I know mate. It fascinates me.
    I even turn the bd pump down. And they went nuts and as soon as I opened the valve fully open. They just calm right down.
    It's what there used to I suppose.
    And where altering there environment. Like you say mate its mad
    Fred

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  13. #7
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion smartin's Avatar
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    thanks for your replies everyone..... interesting that changes may stress your fish, i will just make some minor changes to my pumps but nothing drastic, just seen the weather forecast wet and mild all week but from this coming Sunday high pressure dominates and N NE winds and daytime temps dropping to 4 degrees !!! thats an 8 degreee temp swing from this week..... Steve.

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  15. #8
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by smartin View Post
    thanks for your replies everyone..... interesting that changes may stress your fish, i will just make some minor changes to my pumps but nothing drastic, just seen the weather forecast wet and mild all week but from this coming Sunday high pressure dominates and N NE winds and daytime temps dropping to 4 degrees !!! thats an 8 degreee temp swing from this week..... Steve.
    It is interesting how certain ponds. And fish in that pond. React. My old pond in ground
    They never reacted like that. Saying that I never had windows on that pond. So I could not see them like I can with this pond Steve. So who knows. But going on threads on here. Only a few people mention it. So I assume they don t react to change on most ponds.

    With temperature s. In my opinion it's not what tempreture s are at.

    It's how quick they drop. Like say its 10c in the pond. And it drops to say 2c overnight with the pond water. That's what scares me with the fish. The quick shock they get.
    But if it comes down slowly . Like over 3 or 4 nights. That's not so scary. Lol.

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  17. #9
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion davethefish1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by freddyboy View Post

    With temperature s. In my opinion it's not what tempreture s are at.

    It's how quick they drop. Like say its 10c in the pond. And it drops to say 2c overnight with the pond water. That's what scares me with the fish. The quick shock they get.
    But if it comes down slowly . Like over 3 or 4 nights. That's not so scary. Lol.
    that's an interesting point.

    Even if i didn't actually heat my pond through the winter.
    i'd use the heater to stabilise the speed of temperature drop going into winter, and coming back out of winter.
    plus protect the pond with a minimum safe temperature in freak extreme cold weather.

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  19. #10
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by davethefish1 View Post
    that's an interesting point.

    Even if i didn't actually heat my pond through the winter.
    i'd use the heater to stabilise the speed of temperature drop going into winter, and coming back out of winter.
    plus protect the pond with a minimum safe temperature in freak extreme cold weather.
    Same good point. Dave. In my case I don t have heating. So for my pond that's where the problem could be. I never covered for 22 years. On the inground old pond.
    And never lost a fish. Maybe I was lucky.
    But on this rebuild I lost 2 fish to hypothermia. That's what made me buy a cover.
    And that has improved it massively. Take end of this week it's going to plummet.
    That's one mistake I made not putting heating in the system. But could I afford the cost. I don t know. But it would have been nice to have had it in.
    Fred



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