Anyone else seeing more ice this year?

[Eric_H_E]

I don't know about more ice, because this is our first winter with the pond. It has iced over several times but our flower pot filter/fountain keeps flowing. It does make a neat ice sculpture though

 

[callingcolleen1]

looks like you got a good size breather hole open and love the big rocks Eric!

 

[sissy]

I don't mind cold weather as long as it does not stay for long ,That polar thing was nasty and have not seen it that cold before here and never want to see it again ,The winds made it worse .Then walking to and from the hospital parking lot was nasty cold .They offer free customer parking but hate to back it up when there are people who need it more than me .I just bundled up and braved it .But it was not easy .The truck was freezing cold also which I did not think about until I got in it .

 

[callingcolleen1]

In Canada many people have "Command Start" to pre warm the vehicles when it is so cold. Sitting in a cold truck is not fun, watching the ice slowly melt off the windshield.

I can't believe how cold it is down where CE lives, and up here in most of Alberta we had record breaking temperatures in many Alberta cities today. seems weird to be warmer than those way down south....

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I have this thing called a 'garage'... :biggrin: As much as I have been tempted to use it as my workshop, I make a point of always keeping it cleared out enough to park both vehicles. I hate scraping windows!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Sissy, hope everything is OK with the hubby, reminds me of my struggles last winter with hubby and his big cancer ordeal, I remember well how difficulit it was some days to find parking in the Calgary Hospital, usually ended up still paying a small fortune and parking a mike away and walking... Oh thank goodness those stressful days are over now, hopefully your hubby will mend soon and praying all will be well for your hubby and then hopefully it will just be a bad memory too.

 

[sissy]

I have a 3 car carport here but had an over sized 2 car in NJ and hate to say but I like the carport better here but here we really don't get that much bad weather and besides to many mice and wild animals can sneak into a garage here.My neighbor who has a garage accidentally trapped a fox in his and what a mess ,he had to call animal control before he could even open the door .I hope for the same to colleen .Gosh glad we don't have to pay for parking at the hospital and valet parking is free and you are not allowed to tip the drivers either ,big signs saying it is a no no to tip .I am going to get handicap plates for the cars .

 

[cr8tivguy]

This is my first winter with my pond and I'm shooting from the hip basically.
I turned off my pumps and drained my Bio Filter unit. My air stones are still pumping air (about 18 inches from the bottom of the pond). But the pond continues to freeze over.

I got a pond heater that thawed the ice (it was almost 8 inches thick!) and then my Comets started coming up to the surface. The water temp got up to 45 degrees! So I turned off the heater. It stayed ice-free for about a week. This morning it was frozen over again (about an inch thick). We had 0 degree temps last night.

I also am not digging on how brown the water looks without filtration. I'm kind of dreading the spring clean up that is going to occur.

On a brighter note, when the pond thawed, no fish floated to the surface, so I'm hoping all are still alive and hiding at the bottom.

Stats:
1500 gal pond
4 feet deep at the deepest point
4 Koi (6 inch), 7 Comets (4 inch)
55gal bio filter, two 3500 gph pumps, UV and bog (5X7X18inches) and a 20 inch drop waterfall.

 

[sissy]

All my ice melted yesterday and today starting to freeze a little again but 1 more day of cold and then back up to the 50's and 60's again

 

[addy1]

I have a foot hole in the ice, big pond, around a 6 inch hole stock tank, 3 inch hole lotus tub. The pond is hanging in there, fish hopefully doing fine, see them swim by now and then, not bodies stuck under the ice cap.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Three connecting ponds are doing fine, water is flowing nicely under the ice and big underwater filters are keeping the water nice and fresh and clear. One 1250 watt heater keeps open holes in all three connecting ponds, I can see big fish and all is fine. Ice is mostly gone again, yesterday all three ponds were iced over good, but warmer weather now than the other day, right now 19 F or
( -7 Celsius)

pictures from a few moments ago...

 

[Logan]

Help!! I have had 2 Allied pond deicers that start out working great, but stop working after 2-3 months. They are plugged in and run whenever the temp drops below 32. I read something about lime build up and the first heater coil had a crust on it that I cleaned off, but that heater never worked again. Now the 2nd heater is frozen in the pond. Interestingly whatever happens in the heater causes a short in the heater that causes my GFI plug to blow. Once this happens the heater blows any other GFI circuit, so I believe the problem at that point is in the heater. Any thoughts? The Allied heater seems to get good reviews????

 

[sissy]

Could be also that it is pulling to much electric on the gfi .Any thing like that I put on it's own circuit breaker .It will over heat the breaker which shut the pond heater down .It will then ruin the pond heater .Essentially blowing it out .I do not plug my pond heater into a gfci plug .

 

[mrsclem]

my 2 1500w heaters tripped my 20A breaker but was running it off an extension cord. If I have to plug them back in I will have the heaters on the pond breaker and run pumps with the extension cord off the house line. Hoping I don't need the 1500s any more!

 

[addy1]

We got a trace of snow, but I do see a bigger and bigger hole in the ice, think it is warming up, at least for now. But for the next week teens and twentys all week and more snow coming.