I live in Kempton Park and apart from the cold winter, my pond doesn't really heat up in summer. It is in the most shady part of the garden. I think the water temperature seldom gets over 20.

What about something like this with a low pressure pump, mounting on my roof. Will it make a difference in the water temperature, to get some extra growth or are there too many cons? And the physicists can work the detail out!!

I posted this on the forum under bacteria, or something, , but did not get a lot of response. Marius was worried about winter, but one can switch it off.







http://urban-arcadia.com/permaculture/solar-hot-water-2-diy-using-black-water-hose

Any thoughts or am I just in to much of a rush to get the koi bigger?

I think it's worth a try ... I would. But leave it to the pro's lets see what they have to say!

In my opinion you are gong to need the correct pipe to handle the sun and more than one role to be effective in lifting pond temp.

Very thin pipe matting in series is being used to heat up swimming pools effectively, although after 6 years mine started to perish from the sun, but it did lift my pool to 31 and 32 degrees after a warm day or two, it will slowly heat water over a period and will also cool down over a period, should not really spike temp to sudden, installed a bypass valve for when it gets to hot.

Albie what is the reason why you say that your water temp does not get more that 20 even in summer. With such cold temp, your pond is really at a disadvantage for growth.

I was concerned when I build my new pond facing south west but the summer temp went up to 28 and winter, well its 14 now, this is better than what I expected.

Hi Albie, I notice that you suggested a low pressure pump. Surely you will have to use a pump with at least a 5 meter head(high pressure)

I have seen that it works very well on swimming pools to heat up the water. My only concern is the bad bacteria that will grow in the pipes when you bypass the system. Standing water in a pipe at high temperature is a fantastic breading ground for nasty bacteria. As soon as you open the system after a bypass, all that bacteria will flow into the pond?

One of my clients who had the same problem, created a shallow veggie filter with large surface area in direct sunlight in a different spot in the garden. This effectively raised his pond temperature with a few degrees, effectively increased his overall volume of the sytem to allow larger stocking densities in his pond and increased biofiltration.



The problem is that not everybody has the space.