Do I really have to leave my pond pump and filter on 24 hours a day?
Do I really have to leave my pond pump and filter on 24 hours a day?
This is a question I get on almost a daily basis. Now I realize everyone wants to save a little money on electricity or they are trying to save the planet by conserving. But not on your Koi pond or your water garden- Please! We carry many, many pond pumps have we have chosen because they work well and are very energy efficient. In some cases electric companies will rebate the cost or partial cost of a new energy efficient pond pump. This cost is made up in usually three or four months of use. So dont be afraid to leave it on. It is imperative that you leave your pond pump on 24 hours a day. And to that many people say – well, I turn my swimming pool on only 4 or 5 hours and it is doing just fine. Well your pond is not a pool. Your pool has powerful chemicals to keep in clean and clear. You pond does not. Your Pond is alive! It has fish and plants and bacteria ( both good and bad)
“If you have pond fish and/or Koi, you need to leave your pond pumps and filters on 24 hours a day”
If you have a biological ( meaning it is alive) filter you need to leave your pond pumps and filters on 24 hours a day
“if you have something alive in you pond in needs oxygen”
Remember if you have something alive in you pond in needs oxygen. You only have so many hours of surface area oxygen in your pond. Most ponds only have 4 or 5 hours of dissolved oxygen is their pond. After that the biggest fish are usually the first to die.
Oxygenation is the process in which oxygen is diffused into the water. This process happens every time your water comes into contact with the air. If there is no aeration in a pond, the pond cannot exchange gasses at the deeper levels of the pond and can only exchange gases at the water surface and therefore, will support only a few fish. Ponds deeper than 3 feet will benefit from a bottom aerator especially if this pond is a koi pond.
A pond needs to absorb oxygen from the air and it also needs to release carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide among other gases. Hydrogen sulfide is one of these gasses that contribute to breaking down organic matter in the bottom of the pond. The pond bottom has less oxygen than the upper layers of a pond.
When you use a biological filter or a fountain or have a stream, you increase the surface that is exposed to the atmosphere. Harmful gasses can be released and oxygen absorbed. Adding submergible oxygenator plants (such as Anacharis or Hornwort) will add oxygen to the water but while they add oxygen during the daylight, they use up the available oxygen at night the same as other plant life in the pond.
During daylight hours plants normally produce more oxygen than they consume, thus providing oxygen for the fish and other organisms in the pond Without oxygen, filter bacteria cannot oxidise (and detoxify) ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate. If a pond or filter are allowed to become oxygen deficient for any period of time, anaerobic conditions will prevail causing unstable water conditions and the tell-tale bad-egg smell. Then when you turn the filter back on guess where all that smell unhealthy anaerobic dead bacteria go. Yep you guessed it – in your pond to fertilize the algae and make your fish sick… Not good at all!!
So the short answer is
Yes leave your pond pump on 24 /7!!!
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Pond Talk: Do I really have to leave my pond pump and filter on 24 hours a day?
Article Source: Sunland Water Gardens
Author: Jacklyn Rodman