Nice idea, but I doubt he needs anymore oxygen being added to the pond if there is a a reasonable amount of water movement at the surface. Indeed too much disolved O2 is bad, as it reduces the waters ability to carry CO2 which is needed for plant life. Often putting too much O2 in will simply cause algee to thrive.
Scott
The jet from a venturi is said to stabilize the level of oxygen and prevent over-oxygenation. Adequate planting is the key to algae control.
I am not sure about the following and it would apply only to mag drive pumps.
The pump works because the magnet is forced to follow the rotating magnetic field. When the pump is "dimmed" the field becomes weak and will be unable to force the magnet to stay ahead of it. As the rotating field passes the magnet it will slightly demagnetize the magnet. In time it will weaken the magnet to the point that the impeller will not work at all.
The same thing happens when you restrict the output and it causes the impeller to slow down. If the field is strong enough to keep the magnet in sync with the rotating field even with the restriction then this is not a problem. But I do not think it is alway the case.
HTH
The case is similar to when the pump is just started, or the impeller is stalled. Magnets in general only demagnetise if you exceed the maximum field. They generally do the first time it does, not over time. So, probably not.
Well, in the spirit of experimentation (and 4 glasses of wine) I decided I just had to try it. The lamp dimmer, in the best traditions of DIY, was scavenged from the next door neighbours bin. I wired it up, tested it with a lamp and then plugged a smaller version of the same pump in to it.
As you said,initially no change and then just a sudden cessation of pumping. Maybe a smaller pump will be the easiest option.
Cheers.
Tim
Lamp dimmers do ther job by chopping off the peaks of the power's sine wave.
Run an electric motor through it and you're likely to get a fried motor, assuming the dimmer doesn't overload and smoke first.
HTH, hope it's not too late for you. :-) When you let the "go-smoke' out of electronics, they won't go anymore.
Mike
Mike Patterson Please remove the spamtrap to email me. "I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific..."
I had the opposite result. I used a fan speed control which is just a dimmer with a snubber to protect the triac. The speed changed just fine. This was before I purchased the Kill-a-watt meter so I didn't measure the energy usage.
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