This is just an example so you won't worry so much. I do not advocate this as a way to raise precious fish. I set up a 500 gallon stocktank last March. I had no electricity available so there is no moving water or filtration. I added a few goldie babies I had wintered over in an aquarium in the house and some extra water lilies that were destined to the compost heap. I have thrown out several inches of ice several times so far this winter. I go to work at 6:30 each morning so I don't open a hole most days. It is still 3 months til spring here so I don't know if they will make it the whole winter. I would never do this with my precious goldfish that are 6 years old now but the few fish in there all summer multiplied and are alive today. I did water changes weekly all summer and replace water when I remove the ice this winter. There are some elm leaves still in there from the fall.

You have a lot of questions but you gave much more info than most newbies it makes up for it. LOL! I can't answer all your questions but there will be others along to correct that. No one pond is exactly like another and no ponder is just like another. I can't quite visualize your pond but maybe it will come clearer later on. You don't say why the pumps fail. If it is the same reason each time then I would think you should go to another type altogether. Or provide what it is lacking. If debris is damaging the pump then you need a prefilter which prevents damage to the impeller. Most pumps have a small and totally inadequate sponge in front of the impeller. Most of us toss it and install some sort of prefilter in it's place. Looking at your pump, I don't see even that, just a cap with lots of slots for water flow. Options could be change pump type, or remove filter cap and attach prefilter with sponge or other filter material. Algae is endemic when the pond gets lots of sun. You could use lots of chemicals but that is rarely satisfactory. A UV filter could work just fine by using a diverter or adding a small pump and filter. With your waterfall pump I suspect a separate pump would be easiest. More later, Sandy

Hi, bugsb! I converted my 12,000 gallon pool into a pond of considerably less gallonage due to plants, pots, etc. Although I swapped out my Hayward pump for a Sequence pump to save money on electricity, I'm still using a Hayward pool filter and it seems to be working fine after a year. Did replace the sand with pea gravel to minimize clogging and I back-flush if the flow slows down same as when it was a pool. I've even used my pool vac to clean out the bottom but had to backwash much more often than the pool. As things are now, I could drain it, powerwash it, and have a swimming pool again if I didn't love it as a pond, full of fish, frogs, and what-all. I'd definitely recommend it--basically the same as a pond filter but with different media and I would think a prefilter would make it even more efficient. Good luck whichever way you go with it. Linda

I've never seen a surge strip without a ground. If you could find an old 2-pin plug strip, you could make one with an MOV, but why bother? That's effectively what you have anyway when you plug a 3-pin one into your current receptacle. An ungrounded surge strip provides some measure of protection from surges and lightning, but not nearly as much as a properly grounded one. As for your DSL friend working on your wiring - I recommend saying "no thanks." In most cities, it is not legal for an unlicensed person to work on your wiring, with one exception - YOU are permitted to do so, *if* you own the home, and *if* you obtain a permit from the city's building department. I was going to recommend that you install a GFI yourself - the only installation differences between "with a ground" and "without a ground" is that without a ground you simply don't connect anything to the ground terminal, and on the GFI face you stick a label that says "no equipment ground." But then I looked again at the photo you posted. It's tough to be sure, but the junction box your recept is in doesn't look very generous in size. It might be OK, but I'm a bit concerned that you might have a tough time fitting a GFI in there. I'd hate to have you start the job and not be able to finish it. So, if you really want a GFI, you can do two things: 1) Hire an electrician to install a GFI. 2) Buy a plug-in GFI adapter from the hardware store. But I'm not so sure a GFI is what you really want. I'm getting a sense that you think having a ground is helpful for reducing radiation exposure. I don't know if that's so; it's not my area of expertise. However, note that while a GFI will provide protection from electrical shock, and that's a very good thing, it won't provide a ground. In order to get a proper and safe ground, you'll have to have a new receptacle installed, with a homerun directly back to the house's main panel (breaker or fuse box). My guess is that your friend who can "ground your outlet" is talking about either "bootlegging" a ground, or running a separate ground wire back to the main panel. The first is dangerous. The second is so much work that you might as well go ahead and do it right, installing a new cable run and a new receptacle. Unless you have the time, skills, and inclination to study up on the techniques of home wiring, that's most likely a job for a pro. FWIW, I bought my first home computer in 1984. I was living in a late-1950s home where the only grounded receptacles were in the kitchen and garage. I didn't want my $2000 system destroyed by lightning or power surges, so I did as I described above - installed a new, properly grounded receptacle for the computer with a home run back to the main panel. That's what I recommend for you.