remembering winter and are you prepared

[j.w]

No net here. When the Japanese Maple near the pond starts to fall I start to scoop w/ the net. It's not a giant tree so not too much work and no other falling leaf trees nearby.

 

[ididntdoit99]

I don't really want to say this, but i am kind of excited to see how the pond winters as well. First year, brought the fish inside because the pond wasn't deep enough, second year, froze for a little while, i had a stock tank heater in there, but then it got unusually warm, and the neighbors dog ripped a hole in it, so in the middle of December i drained it and brought the fish inside. So this will really be the first winter the fish will stay in the pond.

 

[sissy]

Well that can be scarey .I remember my first winter and i would wake up and have to go look at the pond .Every time it said snow or big drop in the temps I would panic :razz: :razz:

 

[callingcolleen1]

Sissy, I did too, and still do when it get's really cold, first thing I do when I get up and it's -40 is put my boots on and run out to check pond, just to be sure.... you never know when it that cold, you got be be ready for anything. A few years back when my bottom pond was smaller, and I had a small pump, (under 400 gph) if the filter got plugged the hose would freeze, and when the pond quit flowing with the rest of the other ponds, it would freeze solid pretty quick, and I would have to work fast to get it flowing again before the whole thing would freeze to the bottom solid. That small pond always gave me trouble, as the small pond was the bottom pond and it would keep the other ponds "topped up". I did take it out and redid the bottom pond a couple years ago, making it much bigger, now I have no trouble as long as the "power stays on". One year I had to drag out the generators cause in the middle of the winter someone hit a power pole and it knocked out power for a few hours, had to drag out the generators and get the pond running, as long as it was flowing like the "creek", even though the heater in not plugged in, everything was fine for a few hours.

If your wintering your pond up here in the "arctic" keep extra hoses, pumps, filters handy, just in case, cause you never know......

 

[Mmathis]

Well that can be scarey .I remember my first winter and i would wake up and have to go look at the pond .Every time it said snow or big drop in the temps I would panic :razz: :razz:

That will be ME this winter!

 

[sissy]

what really scares me is the you never know mother nature part .If we get an early fall does that really mean a bad winter and with costs going up how are people going to do it .I never thought that things would get this bad all over the world .If people just could learn to at least live in piece and leave there anger and prejudice ideas at home would we not be better .I am glad that the past generations do not see what the world has come down too because they would say why and how .

 

[pecan]

Last year was my first winter. I shut her all down, started up the air stone, and the comets slept at the bottom 40" down in peace with an inch of ice over about 3/4 of the pond.

This year will be my first winter with koi and I have heard they are not as resiliant tot he cold temps as comets. I hope to do the same thing and have the same results as last year.

I really really really want my pond to be 6' deep now though with no planting shelves But it is too soon to pull the liner and start from scratch. I need some rest from the original pond build.

 

[taherrmann4]

Pecan I am in zone 6b on the border of 6a, my pond is 24" deep in 3/4 of it and the other 1/4 is 3' deep. My koi have done very well over the years, they have been in there around 7 years i think. I turn off my pump usually around thanksgiving and start it up first week of march, I do keep an aerator going all year around. I don't think you will have a problem with the koi.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I have had my koi outside for 20 years, through the coldest weather on planet Earth, some winters it was MINUS 50!!! Just so you know, once you get below minius 40, it's the same Fahrenheit as it is in Celsius, and my pond is only three feet deep. Never had it freeze to the bottom, cause I use a big heater. I only turn the heater on when its colder than -15 c or 3 degrees Fahrenheit. I like to have two or three inches of ice on the lower level ponds, to help insulate, and when the snow falls its a bonus of extra insulation! In the coldest winter, with no heat or running water, only the first two feet of ice will ever freeze! So if your in zone 7, I don't think you even need a heater at all, just keep water running and enjoy your pond all year long!!!

Never lost any goldfish or koi during the winter. Gold fish and Koi like it cold, there like "White fish", ever go fishing for Whitefish? Never eat them during the summer cause they may be full of worms and taste like slew water, yuk!! BUT in the middle of the winter, fish them out of the frozen lake and they taste great!! When water is warm, koi and goldfish get things like lice and other things not good, but the cold water freshens them nicely and keeps them from getting sick. People who bring there fish in for the winter will have more problems with sick fish as it is not natural for them to be warm all year round.

 

[ididntdoit99]

Correction, Celsius and Fahrenheit are the same at -40, but that is the only temperature that they happen to be the same -50 C is -58F

 

[brandonsdad02]

Im planning on just running a air stone this winter. I will move it so its not at the deepest part of the pond now. I have it in the deepest part now to help with circulating the water from the deep pool by the falls. Last winter I tried leaving it running with the mind set of as long as I have moving water, the water won't freeze. I woke up to seeing ice on the end of my hose coming from the pump. The pump was still running and water was moving, but it was a tube of ice. I shut it down that night and brought everything inside for the winter. When I drained the pond, there was already ice 3" thick on it. Not fun getting in the water to get all the fish out.

 

[sissy]

You should invest in a pond heater and they say on the on all the aerator sights that in the winter it should only be a foot or two under .I have to go see about a new one but so far the one I got at petco is pretty good and amazed it works as good as it does for under 30 dollars and came with everything 4 years ago and has 4 ports .

I am looking at getting the 4 port one here as the place is about an hour from my house in NC .If any one has it please let me know good or bad :razz: :sad:

 

[sissy]

And also right now it is 79.99 on sale and need to know what others think of the cfm and energy ratings .

 

[callingcolleen1]

Correction, Celsius and Fahrenheit are the same at -40, but that is the only temperature that they happen to be the same -50 C is -58F

ya think you'll notice the difference when your freezing to death and your eyes are froze shut! Ha ha ha

 

[callingcolleen1]

Brandon dad2, My hoses do that every year, they make a "tunnel of ice" and so does the waterways, As long as the pump is faster than 200 gph it should not freeze solid. I shut some pumps down to simulate a natural reduced winter flow of water like the creek does here, and everything turns out good. I run about 1200 gph that flows from each pond for the winter. You could get a pond heater just for when it's "really cold", don't worry about three inches of ice, the snow will fall over and everything will go into a deep sleep. As long as the water is flowing, which it should if the pump is not too small, (and you have a good filter that won't clog fast) the fish all be just fine. If your pond has less than 1000 gph and if it is less than 2 feet deep, you will just have to heat more. If it is really cold, my pond can "appear to be a frozen block of ice" but it's not. When the water flows, and it's extremely cold, like below -35 or so, there is still open water pockets in the ice, they may be small, but they are there, with a heater running. If you have large marshes that float, like my naturally floating water iris, the fish go under there and the pond can appear "empty" of fish. The iris acts like a "bale of hay" that farmers used to put in dugout and provides air holes for the fish.