Pond in the foothills

[callingcolleen1]

Wonder if on a warm day, if you shoveled that snow off the ice, then the ice could melt sooner?

 

[MitchM]

jw, I wish I could send you some. When I take the dogs for a walk, we have to stick to the boring old driveway. It's too deep to go into the forest.

Colleen, I think we're still a ways away from any ice melting on the pond. The pond is on a dowhill slope and I need to keep in mind what is going to happen with the runoff from the yard.
I need to make sure that the melting snow doesn't drain into the pond.
I sure am looking forward to seeing if the fish made it through the winter ok though.

 

[callingcolleen1]

You need a little spy camera to stick down the hole and have a look see! Oh well, at least with the ice the big wild animals can't get into pond then and muck it up!

 

[MitchM]

I did get close and have a look down. All there is really is the breathing tube and water sitting on top of the base.
But those darn backswimmer bugs were there, flopping around in and out of the ice/water!

 

[CountryEscape]

Yikes, you have bugs swimming in your frozen pond, Mitch? How does that work? I had no idea there was a bug that lived when the water was ice cold. You can keep them up in Canada, too, no sending them south, please.
Colleen, my goldfish pond now has a very nice hole, about 3' in diameter, water is running in stream, bog and bubbler. All is well there again, just can't see any fish, they are all hiding under the remaining ice on each end. Koi pond is about 1/3 open water now. When it warms up tomorrow, both ponds will open up even more. Have heaters going in each.

 

[MitchM]

yep CE,

Backswimmers , Notonecta kirbyi , I think.

http://entomology.museums.ualberta.ca/searching_species_details.php?s=5977

flopping around on the ice, active in this water temperature. The fly around here from water body to water body and like beetles, can fly.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I have seen those backswimmers out on the prairie here, there is a natural spring water pond in the hills not far off from the river. It naturally runs all winter and summer, no matter how dry or wet the year, that spot has always got running water coming out of the ground. There in the little hills, this slow moving stream trickles quietly across the prairie, and that stream is full of those backswimmers!!
Ugg!!! They bite humans and I would be scared if I was a little fish in that pond!!

Maybe if you can keep water moving more and circulating the water good year round, those bad back swimmers will hate that and maybe take a hike off to a quieter pond...

 

[MitchM]

All that happens with a stronger pump is that the intake gets clogged up with backswimmer bodies.
Then I can't get to the pump because the water is frozen over.
These pond breathers have low flow pumps that haven't clogged up in 4 months so far.
If the fish have made it through this winter with these pond breathers, that's what I'm going to use for winter pond care.

 

[callingcolleen1]

You have to have a good filter before the pump, then the pump can run all winter, that is what I do, it also helps keep the water much fresher come spring. Good luck with all that ice and snow Mitch, hopefully the warm weather will and melt everything sooner this spring!

 

[CountryEscape]

But, if his pump clogs with those bugs wouldn't a pre-filter do the same thing, Colleen? That's why I don't have a pre-filter. If it clogs, then my pump is done until the ice is gone. I don't have a pre-filter on any of my pumps, except the filter on the skimmers is a sort of pre-filter. I think that was a good idea for the skimmer that feeds the bog; however, THAT bog seems to have clogged lines. Going to hook up the 4200 pump to those lines come spring and see if I can "blow it out". Running very slow last fall, so shut it down. The 4200 that is on a crate in the goldfish pond and runs that bog, no prefilter except the "cage" on the pump, and it's running perfectly. Never have to hardly even clean off the cage. You definitely have a good situation going there, Colleen. Wondering if those of us with ponds more out in the open, no fences, houses, etc. sheltering it from extra wind and cold, would have as much luck with your system. I am going to try to do a slower water flow closer to the surface next year, though, in both ponds. Somehow I will try to turn the pumps sideways and have them closer to the surface to push water there to keep ice at bay, and add more circulation. I guess if I aim them at where the heater will be if/when plugged it in, that will help as well. I sure don't want any of those water bugs. I read that they are in "fishless" water, so the fish must eat them usually.

 

[callingcolleen1]

The big pre filter that I use will not clogg and if you connect two together you will have a very powerful filter. I have bugs that live inside the filters that I have, but they are different kind of bugs, not sure what they are, but they and these long red worms live in the big filters that I run year round. I think the bugs eat stuff that get stuck in the filter. The filters I use are very firm and when you connect two together they can be run will a bigger pump. In the spring I drag out my pondmaster 4500 GPH pump, which is my biggest spring /summer pump, and run that one as well as the others all spring and summer. I don't use the biggest pump in winter cause it causes too much cooling of the water then. These big filters that I use are the best pre-filter that I have ever used in all my many years of ponding and I have been using these filters for many years now all winter long with no problem.

The back swimmers can be a big problem and the only way to get rid of them is to have more water moving all winter and summer. I used to have the odd one years ago in my bottom pond when the water was moving very slow, but now that I re-made the bottom pond bigger and increased the water flow and filteration I no longer seem to see them at all. Although late last summer there was one BIG MoTHeR of all big Beatles swimming in my bottom pond, it was about two inches long with big black pinchers that scared the living day lights out of me, resting in a quite shallow area in the pond.... I quickly got rid of him!!!

 

[callingcolleen1]

I think I posted a picture of the big pre filters that I use, but here it is again....

I really like these big underwater pre-pump filters and I think they are worth the money I paid for them, cause I no longer have to worry about filters clogging up all winter long!

also a good pre-filter will extend the life of your pump too!

 

[MitchM]

CE, you make a good point. The backswimmer population probably increases in the late fall/winter time because the fish have stopped eating them.

 

[CountryEscape]

OK, if my pumps were clogging with no filter, I would surely think about them. However, since my pumps are either off the pond floor or behind a skimmer pre-filter, I guess I'm good to go. The only pump that I had trouble with was the 1600 gph that I ran last year for the water movement in the goldfish pond. It DID slow way down, when the ice thawed enough to get the pump out and cleaned, it worked fine again. This year I have it on top of crate, secured with zip ties, and in front of the skimmer. I think floating debris got caught in it last year, maybe had it on earlier than I did this year. Learning as I go, what works, what doesn't, hopefully without harming the fish in the meantime. :blueflower:

 

[sissy]

yep there is never one thing that works on every ones pond it is try and fail or try and succeed.It never ends