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[sissy]

I did notice one thing in your pics you may want to be very careful with that exposed liner becoming brittle .I actually broke a piece of liner when it was frozen last winter .Lucky it was just a small piece that cracked for me and over the summer i protected that piece of liner from it happening again .I guess even heavy rubber has it's breaking point .Mine had ice on it and I leaned my knee on it with a stone that was under it just caused it to just crack .Also be careful of your power cord .I put one of those foam pipe insulators on mine ,learned they get brittle to from extreme cold after last winter .I was lucky the power cord that cracked was to a light I have at the pond not my pump .The power cord had a coating of ice on it and I moved a stone and set it on the cord and well the rest is history I will never repeat again .

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I only have one thermometer, and I'm not sure it would be helpful to have others since those things aren't very accurate anyway. It certainly would be interesting to move it between the two barrels and the open part of the pond, though, to see if there's any noticeable difference in temps.

I never thought about the liner getting brittle. Not much I can do now about what's around the waterfall. I never had a chance to finish that off, and planned on doing it next year. I'm still having trouble with the concept of 'extreme cold' in Virginia... My idea of extreme cold is when we see -25F ... what's your's?

 

[sissy]

Mine is minus 5 .I know thats not really that cold .I lived all my life in NJ And it got cold there .I have been in VA since 2004 and still getting used to it .I am 15 minutes from North Carolina .That would be interesting to try and see what happens .I just got one of those regular thermometers and put it inside the pond here and there to check temps .I got one of the big ones easy to read and it is better than the electronic one I have .

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Well I got the new floating heater yesterday and dropped it in place. Around 11pm last night the circuit breaker popped when the barrel heater kicked on, so I ran an extension cord from another circuit to split the load. It looks like I may have a bit too much heat for this early in the season, however. Even though we got down below 10F again last night, and its only 22F right now, this morning most of the ice has melted off the pond and the surface temperature is 36F. Its certainly good to know that these two heaters can make such an impact on the pond, but I think that may be a bit too much heat right now. I pulled the plug on one of the heaters for now, however the barrel heater has an adjustable thermostat, so I'm thinking I may turn it way down, then bump it up when I see ice forming in the barrel. That should keep the water flowing through the pipes without significantly raising the overall temp.

 

[sissy]

What about a thermo cube it is a plug that has a thermostatic controlled .You just plug you heater into it .Or maybe one of those remote controlled plugs ,where you just plug the heater into it and press the button from inside the house to turn it on .Around christmas they put a lot of them on sale for christmas light control .Did you use heavy pipes or insulate them as they can get brittle too .I know my first winter I had a hose crack from cold .I insulted them after that with the pipe insulation .Keeps the the water warmer going through the hose also

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I used 2" thick-wall PVC pipe, buried a foot deep. The pipe also runs partially under the river and the edge of the pond, which I think will help insulate the ground against the hard freezes. The controllers for christmas lights would not work for a 1500-watt heater!!! Each heater pulls over 10 amps, and the lights are generally only rated for 3-5 amps.

 

[sissy]

These are not controllers for christmas lights .I just think they put these onsale then also .These are heavy duty I think you may be able to look them up online at lowes and homedepot they both sell them .I use mine for the guest house to turn on the heater out there when it gets really cold and i don't feel like walking out there to turn it on .I am not sure what wattage the heater is as it is one of those inferred ones and the place is 20x14

 

[sissy]

Trying to remember where I got mine .I know I got the heater at tractor supply and I may have asked the guy about it when I bought the heater .I bought the heater at the end of the season,just not sure it was either there or at the supply house for plumbing and electrical .

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Ah well, like I said, I have an adjustable thermostat on the barrel heater, I think I just had it set too high. I just need to play with it until I find the right setting

When the breaker tripped last night, the entire pond got a glaze of ice over it before I noticed. Took the flashlight out to look around, and it was really strange to see the fish swimming around under the ice..

 

[sissy]

That's why I like having my pond close to the house this way I just walk out on the front porch and look down .Plus I have A LED light i keep on from dusk to dawn.I guess when i put my pond heater in I will find the same thing and have to figure it out .Everything seems to have a learning curve to it .Could you just put in a bigger breaker

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Hmm it would actually be cool to string some christmas lights around the pond... I may have to do that.

No you can't just put in a bigger breaker. The breaker is rated for the size of the wire, if I put in something bigger, it wouldn't be safe. However what I CAN do is fish a second wire through the pipe, and have each wire on its own 15-amp breaker. Its too bad I didn't think of that when I was putting it all together, but if I can fish a leader wire through, then I can pull the larger wire through the pipe. Honestly though, I'm just hoping I don't really have to run both heaters. That's a LOT of power to be running - about 1/6 of what my entire house has available. It'd be like running the air conditioner all Winter.

 

[sissy]

I was wondering what type of romex you used

 

[Shdwdrgn]

The grey stuff, of course!

Actually it IS grey... outdoor/underground rated, 14Ga. Now that I think about it, I can't remember if its 14 or 12 that is the cutoff point for a 20A circuit. Regardless, my math (1500W / 125V = 12A) says that even a 20A breaker won't be enough for two heaters.

 

[sissy]

true I know my son put 3 of my outlets each on it's on 20 amp breaker and then 4 outlets on a shared 2 -20 amp breakers .He knows me all to well .I guess since you put them in a pipe it should be no problem running a new one .My son had the electric company put in a second 50 amp service in the basement when the house was built .He said it was better as all my utilities are underground .He said since I had my workshop in the basement it was better to do it then since it was only an extra 100 dollars to do it then .I'm glad I listened to him

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Yeah I had a 50A line run into my garage with its own breaker box. Trying to weld from the same circuit as the TV and refrigerator just wasn't cutting it! I ran my pond circuit out of the new box from the garage... I figure in the Winter when I'm running heaters on the pond, I'm not as likely to also be running all my power tools.

The only issue with feeding a second wire through the pipe and out to the pond is that there are two 90-degree curves plus a short length of flex-pipe that I have to feed through... So using a leader wire is the only practical way to get another line through.