My goldfish pond

[sissy]

sam can be short for samantha .My cousins name is samatha and she grew up being called sandy or sam .

 

[CometKeith]

Hey Sissy, I know. Our youngest daughter's middle name is Samantha and she can go by Ricki or Sam, but she is definitely a girl!

 

[CometKeith]

okay, here are some winter pics. The first two were about a month ago when the temperature was a lot warmer and then we had a dusting of snow. The next one is about a week ago when it was 20's or 30's during the day. The last one ugghh.... is right now at about 10 degrees. it sounds like my pump is still working because I can hear a trickle sound, but I don't see any water running. I hope I didn't ruin my pump.

 

[addy1]

The water is probably running below the ice, if you can still hear a trickle sound. I used a flash light to check our pond, there is one nice hole still open in the middle, air bubbling out, cold 10 degrees here.

Poor fish last week almost 50 degree water, this week 32

 

[sissy]

wow last pic is some real ice ,yep it will run down the back but you may not want to take the chance and burn it out ,they sure are not cheap to replace ,

 

[j.w]

Brrrrrrrrrrr, all those pix of ice and cold temps make me kinda glad ours are going up now but just wish it was w/o the rain!

 

[callingcolleen1]

If the back of the waterfall is sealed, as it should be, then the water should not leak out. Your waterfall looks normal to me, and the cold does not wreak my pumps, poor filters wreak pumps when they clog up.

Here is what my bottom pond looks like today, and it does this every year, pump has been pumping water for five years and I have a top quality pre-filter that does not plug up all winter. This is very important to ensure pump does not clog up or then hose could freeze.

First two pictures of water drop from middle pond to bottom pond. Looks frozen but that is just the ice shell on top, water still moving good under the ice as usual, no need to panic.

The last picture is the end of the middle pond, water gate looks froze, but water still moving under the ice and then water drops down to the bottom pond.

 

[j.w]

Next time in Spring/Summer show us your pre-filter if you can Colleen as some might want to see what a good quality one looks like...............I would :razz:

 

[CountryEscape]

Yes, I agree with JW, Colleen take a pic of your pre filter. Also, did you say your pump is out of the water, with a line in that you pull from? All of my pumps are submersed. The one that was going slower was an older pump that I am using as the bubbler on the goldfish pond, and it go going so slow that the hard cold snap froze the pond. Two days later the whole pond was thawed out ... that's how we roll in IL! 10 degrees one day, 55 two days later. LOL It had a filter sponge thingy in the "cage" where the water pulls in. I don't have any type of line just let the water pull through. I probably should have just taken the sponge off, as the water is simply pulling in on one side, pushing out the top of the pump to make the bubbler. As long as it's not large leaves that might clog it, most everything small will go through. My bigger pumps (4200 gph) are Laguna Max Flows. Same thing, but no sponge under the cage, as those can push pretty good sized stuff through them. Never have had to clean them off but maybe once a year, but the one in the koi pond is the one that failed to keep the waterfall running, so I'm not sure yet what is going on with that.
So, when you get thawed out there, Colleen, show us some pics of your pre-filter. Thanks!!!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Cleaned out a filter today, and blabbed about it on my winter thread just today. Here is a picture of it today, cleaned it out in my bathtub. All my pumps and filters are in the water and the pond heater is above two of them so easy to ascess all year. no filters after the pump, two hoses just run into top pond.... last picture is of two hoses that enter top pond near water surface.

 

[j.w]

Looks like a pretty simple pre-filter and do you know the name of it and where you got it? Does it have a top plastic round piece that goes on the top and the bottom and how does it hold together? How often do you have to clean it? Looks like you would just pull it out take the hose to it and done!

 

[sissy]

spill the beans colleen

 

[j.w]

Hey she put up pix and wrote more about the pre-filter in her own pond thread now so we don't have to use up Keith's space here

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks for all the good advice. I couldn't really hear any trickling of water tonight, but that might just be my hearing. We got 1.1 inches of snow today so it looks pretty. I think we are about 2.5 inches total for the year. Normal is 17.5 inches through this date. If you look at the pictures there is one depressed area and there are some shiny areas of ice. I'm thinking maybe water is running in those areas? They are predicting 40 degrees by Sunday and rain so maybe most of it will be melted and I'll see if the pump is still working. That would be good because it went as low as 0 degrees F and we had several days where it didn't make it over 10 degrees.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes Keith it looks to me like it is still running, the snow has muffled the sound. Mine gets like that too when we get fresh snow, and you will see a typical "pond breathing hole" near the water drop. This happens to my bottom pond, I think all should be fine. You can take a closer peek and melt the snow gently with a pond heater or hot water to see what is going on if you are worried.

I Have not plugged my pond heater in for last day or so, weather have been very nice for January, have not even had to plug my truck in yet! (Which is really odd for this time of the year) so I have nothing to complain about.