Is there too much oxygenation?

[MitchM]

I found this on ice fissures:
http://lakeice.squarespace.com/stress-cracks/

It sounds like it's a phenomenon on larger bodies of water, not something that would happen a lot on our ponds.

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[callingcolleen1]

I haven't kept koi or outside fish for 27 years Colleen, but the laws of science apply to everyone's pond the same.
You found something that works for you, that's great.
If you truly understand why it works for you, then you'll also understand why you method doesn't work for everyone.

If we took your pond setup and placed it in my yard, the cattle panels would blow away, the 1500 watt heater would freeze over, the ice would form thick enough to freeze the spillways so there was no pond to pond circulation and you would be on the forum looking for help.

We would gladly help you, using the laws of science.

(I'm also wondering how someone with 27 years of experience could completely miss something like how ammonia can burn fish gills from the other thread. You may have become too complacent with your 27 years.)

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If lived in your area I would have built two ponds that flow together. I would turn the bottom pond into a marsh and keep only small fish. The top pond would be for large fish. Pumps and ez bio filters all under water that would pump water to the top pond. The top pond would run just like my ponds and they would have little ice and/or ice that would break up fast in the upper pond as that pond the WATER LEVEL would ALWAYS be at THE SAME LeveL as ThE ICE!!!! That way the top pond would run similar to a river and the ice would go away very fast and you would not get two feet of ice in that pond as running water cuts the ice down. You don't have to have a cover as the ice will make a cover. I have the exact same cold as you. Except I don't have high winds. I would use one heater to keep ice down and unplug when temps are above -10 C. This would work for you.

You could also put a heater in your current pond with a proper pump and very good filter, and top the water up to the level of the ice on warm days. That would melt the ice if the water was running at the SAME LEVEL as the ice.

 

[MitchM]

... Except I don't have high winds. ....

That makes all the difference.
Evaporation is the single largest source of heat loss for a pond.

 

[callingcolleen1]

That makes all the difference.
Evaporation is the single largest source of heat loss for a pond.

I have had lots of evaporation as well. I regularly top up my ponds all winter. When you heat a pond you can get lots of evaporation. Thats why I frequently unplug pond heater so the water is always ice cold. If you want to look back at my old videos take a second look. I run a hose from the house every week and add water. With the snow you get that would fall and add insulation as well. Your ice won't be so thick and you won't have to wait months to enjoy your pond. You could stock top pond with beautiful fish too.
When I first built my ponds way back in spring of 1991, there was not much out there for information and I had to look to nature and it was then when I studied the flow of rivers and the creek I drive over every day. The ice is gone very quick in spring, sometimes months before our local lakes. I devised a plan and it has worked beautifully for many years. Its not necessary to cover ponds as the ponds will make a ice cap and with heavy snow the ponds stay very warm, with the running water cutting the ice away in upper ponds. My bottom pond has had two feet of ice some years as that is the reservoir pond and the water level falls below the ice.

Many other people in this town gave up wintering their ponds but I have a good pond design for extreme winter. You used to tell me that I must have a micro climate or something. I used to try to tell you it was the way my ponds work. Upper levels are all pumped to max and water flows back tbrough gentle water ways to bottom ponds (not a big thrashing splashing drop). The upper ponds get next to no ice unless very cold. Then they can get two or three inches at most, and water continues to flow nicely. When temps warm up the running water cuts ice down to nothing very quick..

 

[callingcolleen1]

And people who still believe that water can be super chilled on planet earth should perhaps google "fish living in Niagara Falls" There you will find an abundance of different kinds of fish living quite well right under the worlds largest volume water fall. And there is only two types of fish, cold water fish and Topical. There is no inbetween. I still laugh about the people who once tried to tell me that goldfish and koi would never survive in ice cold running water, that they needed warmer waters... Ha ha ha . Yes those were the so called "fish experts"

Oh yes. Trout live very well right under the falls!

 

[MitchM]

Snow also adds weight. Weight that can push down the ice.
I've gone out to try and shovel snow off the pond and found 6 inches of slush.
As the snow pushes down the ice, pond water is displaced and flows on top of the existing ice.
When the temperature gets colder at night, that slush freezes and I have an extra 6 inches of ice overnight.
Fighting mother nature can be expensive so I try not to and go with the flow.