De-icer never worked...bought new one

[poconojoe]

OK, Northeast Pennsylvania, prepped my pond (8' x 10' x 2.5 ' deep) for it's second winter. Last winter was no problem. Koi and Goldfish did great. I did the same thing this year. Small (550) pump as a bubbler and K&H floating de-icer.
Well. the de-icer never worked this year and due to the cold weather, there has been a dome forming over the bubbler. I've been trying to keep that dome from forming while waiting for the new de-icer to come. I know it's not good (for the fish) to hammer on that dome to clear it, but the ice has gotten real thick.
I have tried to remove the old de-icer with a berz-o matic torch, but didn't get too far.
Here's my questions...
What do I do when I get the new de-icer? How do I clear a spot in the ice for it? How about drilling some holes and popping out enough ice for the de-icer? Can this hurt my fish?
Sorry for the long post.
Thanks, Joe

 

[addy1]

A bucket of hot water put on the ice a few times will melt a hole for you.
Drilling some holes will work also, just don't fall in ...............that would be cold!

 

[markd]

If the dome is up off the water, I THINK you could pound on it without bothering the fish- there is air under it, which is compressible. If the ice is right against the water, the shock waves will propagate through the water, as the water is basically incompressible.. . .

 

[DrDave]

Welcome to the Forum. Pocono is my favorite track.

 

[poconojoe]

Thanks for the responses. I ended up drilling a hole with a 5" hole saw. The de-icer was more like 7" so I had to ream it a bit with the hole saw. It wasn't hard to do at all. A sharp hole saw and a good drill. The ice was about 4" thick.
Everything seems OK for now.
The old one is still under (2 year) warranty, but it's frozen solid in there! Hopefully the new one will thaw some of the ice and I can get the old one out to return it.
Thanks again!
Joe

PS
Dr Dave:
Pocono Raceway is about 15 minutes from my house

 

[WolfStock]

If I may ask - did you end up getting another K&H de-icer? Is it the 100-watt one?

I got that one recently and it seems to be working well. You can actually put it right on top of the ice and it'll just melt through after a few hours or a day or two. I did that with ice that was probably an inch and a half thick or so (recent cold spell, in NoVA area). The instructions say to only do that if the ice is 1-2 inches thick, though it seems like it would work with thicker ice too.

 

[poconojoe]

If I may ask - did you end up getting another K&H de-icer? Is it the 100-watt one?

I got that one recently and it seems to be working well. You can actually put it right on top of the ice and it'll just melt through after a few hours or a day or two. I did that with ice that was probably an inch and a half thick or so (recent cold spell, in NoVA area). The instructions say to only do that if the ice is 1-2 inches thick, though it seems like it would work with thicker ice too.

Yes, my first one was the 750 watt unit which I realized was too powerful. It actually kept a large portion of open water last year.
The new one is also K&H, but this time I got the 250 watt unit. It's doing fine. After two days (low 20 degrees F and high winds..brrrrrr brutal out there!) it's keeping a nice 10" or so circle clear for the gasses to escape. I hope I didn't make a mistake buying again from K&H. At least they do have a 2 year warranty.