Maybe not, but what else is in the pond? Is it decorative? How deep is it? Do you have lilies or other plants in it? Also, you might throw a mosquito dunk in the water. You really don't want a large stagnate body of water in your yard. They tend to be breeding grounds for all sorts of nasty bugs.

It's about 2 feet deep. The pump we're using pumps 400GPH, which is far more than what's in the pond.

We have 4 plants, including one lily.

I ordered some mosquito dunks, they should be here tomorrow. I also bought a set of barley straw bales.

I suspect we'll get some tadpoles eventually since we live next to a lake.

You can probably do whatever you want. You can sometimes do that even with fish. A 400gph pump is actually quite small. I have one pond that has a constantly running pump and another storage pond that has no circulation. Both have goldfish and both are fine.

What's your goal in using the pump? to keep the water clear?

I have a 3500 gallon tank with hundreds of mosquito fish and goldfish and no pump or filtration--it's been 3 or 4 years. It's murky, but it's clean enough that the fish keep breeding.

So I think you could cut way back on pump use and still have a clean pond. I would try 8 hours a day, then add or cut time as needed.

I think if your plants are growing well, you probably don't need the pump. I have several 300 gallon stocktanks that have just plants and tadpoles/frogs and they seem to do fine.......although I do pull a lot of algae out of them until the plants get going.