Tell us how YOU Winterize YOUR pond.

[Fishylove]

Truthfully, till last winter, I've never had to worry about the pond freezing. 5 feet at its deepest and mild winters I just keep a smaller pump about 2 ft off the bottom and point it up.

 

[RobAmy]

All good advice. There is, however, a fourth step which many are not aware of that can be a main determining factor in the health of the fish....and pond both during the winter months and at Spring thaw.
Although it may prove to be difficult and, at times, extremely inconvenient, all effort should be made to avoid any snow buildup on the surface of the iced-over pond. This snow cover will completely block out sunlight that is able to penetrate the ice maintaining a winter growth of algae. The algae contributes to maintaining the pond over winter by supplying Oxygen and by being a food source of other organisms-Micro-, Meio- and Macro-. The food chain and the Carbon Cycle is kept functioning. A partial collapse of the eco-system is thereby avoided. I suspect that many fish mortalities are a direct result of the omission of this step.

I agree with this. I bought a snow roof rake for just that purpose, worked great last year. Also the fish are not is complete darkness for months.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Mitch I am not worried about the water temperature, my only concern is keeping my ponds from freezing solid and making sure the pumps are running good and that will naturally keep breather holes open, with the help of 1250 watt heater. Without that heater I have no doubt that my pond would freeze too hard and smother the big koi. ICE Cold water has never killed off any of my fish in all my 24 years of running ponds all winter.

Years ago I tried to cover my ponds and built a greenhouse frame with wood and plastic. I found the plastic filters out the strongest spectrum of sun and caused fungus to grow every where that year.
Same thing at greenhouse that I used to work at, plants that were grown on cold frame side with plastic dome had to be sprayed all the time to prevent fungus and keep it at bay.
After that experiment many years ago, I gave up on covering pond during winter. Besides the ice and snow work best for natural pond cover and the sun shines better threw ice than it does threw plastic!

 

[dieselplower]

All good advice. There is, however, a fourth step which many are not aware of that can be a main determining factor in the health of the fish....and pond both during the winter months and at Spring thaw.
Although it may prove to be difficult and, at times, extremely inconvenient, all effort should be made to avoid any snow buildup on the surface of the iced-over pond. This snow cover will completely block out sunlight that is able to penetrate the ice maintaining a winter growth of algae. The algae contributes to maintaining the pond over winter by supplying Oxygen and by being a food source of other organisms-Micro-, Meio- and Macro-. The food chain and the Carbon Cycle is kept functioning. A partial collapse of the eco-system is thereby avoided. I suspect that many fish mortalities are a direct result of the omission of this step.

Very interesting. What I noticed last year was the deeper the snow on top of the ice, the bigger the hole in the ice opened, indicating warmer water. The bigger hole also allows in more direct Sunlight, rather than Sunlight that is deflected and dimmed my over a foot thick layer of ice. I wonder which is better, a bigger hole and direct Sun, or a small hole and Sun dimmed by thick ice?

 

[addy1]

Maybe we all need to pay attention this year, see what we see about snow ice and sun, Casual observation.

 

[MitchM]

Yes, personally I would like to see more data posted about ponds during winter. Our ponds up here are frozen over for just as long as they are ice free.
In a perfect winter world, our ponds would have a crystal clear ice cover with cold enough temperatures to allow the fish to survive comfortably, plus enough oxygen and algae available for when they come out of their dormant state.

Colleen, I wanted to mention the data about the pond heating because of your statement that the pond heater warms the water. They don't. Your heaters do not work for me and to say that the pond breathers won't work for anyone isn't correct either.

Dave54 has said in the past that koi should not be able to survive at the temperatures that they do here.

Obviously there's more to be learned about winter ponds.

 

[MitchM]

If anyone is interested in calculating the BTU loss of their pond, there are some formulas included in this PDF:

http://geoheat.oit.edu/pdf/bulletin/bullet140.pdf

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Last winter it was very cold and snowy and my stock tank stayed between 49 and 54 degrees with the use of a stock tank heater. It's a small tank at 70 gallons and Im pretty sure without the heater the water would have been much colder and probably even frozen. Not sure that it would warm my pond though (500 gallons)

 

[Dave 54]

Personally the best asnswer is no idce at all thats if you either have the money to heat the pond and its problems or lik DoDad and ourselves you both cover and insulate against the cold and ice, Do Dad with a tent construct ourselves with polycarbonate roofing sheets .
We like to keep an eye on temerature and water perameters throughout and unless your hole in the ice is near to where you can take water for those all important readings then how on earth do you keep an eye on things.
Any build up of snow is supported by the polycarbonate and it gives the same insulating effects as plain old snow and ice the algae on the sides of the pond plus the air supplied by our insulated filter housing takes care of any oxygen problems and also allows the koi should they require it a bite to eat from.
Maria if you can get the polycarbonate for your stock tank get it you'll be amazed at what it will also keep in warmth wise , our lowest temperature reading last year air temperature wise was -15c the pond itself kept steady at 7c whilst a friends pond uncovered and only a mile away at the same elivation to ours froze

Dave

 

[Dave 54]

What is the purpose of a floating heater Colleen?

Mitch interestingly our friends in St Johns Canada bring their koi indoors they as well as colleen knows have an outside airtemperature of -24c with a windchil factor of -54c her koi simply would find they had their gills fried by the cold and wouldnt survive the water warming up in the spring towards the hotter summer months the effect on their gills was like looking at KHV and what it does to them .
However since our suggestion of keeping them indoors in her Hubbies workshop she is yet to loose a koi looking at the thickness of ice and her struggle to keep an airhole open on a daily basis when the cold even overwhelmed her heaters you can see why they died first time I ever saw frozen airbubbles too lol

Not only that but the quality of her koi has really gone through the roof and for the first time ever this year she's acctually got koi fry

Dave

 

[mtpond]

Mitch I have to d

Those pond heaters are absolutely ineffective at raising the temperature of our ponds.
Outdoor ponds require roughly 40 watts/meter squared/degrees Celsius.
My pond for example, at 83 square meters, would require 83,000 watts to raise it's temperature by 25 degrees Celsius above what the outside temperature is.
(83 square meters X 40 watts/sq m/degrees Celcius = 3320 watts for my pond) (3320 X 25 degrees temperature difference = 83,000 watts required)
A 1500 watt heater won't budge the temperature up one bit.

The only thing keeping our ponds from freezing solid is heat from the earth.
If anything, those floating heaters bring the water temperature down. They keep an open hole in the ice which allows evaporation, which actually cools the pond.
If you want to keep your water temperature as high as possible, the best solution is for a cover of ice or something similar.

I have to disagree Mitch. Last winter when it got so cold the bottom of my pond reached close to 32F. I got a 1500 stock heater and put it as far as I could in the bottom of my pond and it raised it to 36F at the lowest temp. It raised my electric bill a lot! All my fish made it. Thinking it wouldn't work for you cause your pond is bigger.

 

[MitchM]

Those numbers are not my opinion, mtpond. Those numbers are based on the physical properties of water.
If you used a submersible heater, heat would radiate from it and cause localized areas of warmer water, plus water itself is heavier when it is warmer than water at or near the freezing point.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes, personally I would like to see more data posted about ponds during winter. Our ponds up here are frozen over for just as long as they are ice free.
In a perfect winter world, our ponds would have a crystal clear ice cover with cold enough temperatures to allow the fish to survive comfortably, plus enough oxygen and algae available for when they come out of their dormant state.

Colleen, I wanted to mention the data about the pond heating because of your statement that the pond heater warms the water. They don't. Your heaters do not work for me and to say that the pond breathers won't work for anyone isn't correct either.

Dave54 has said in the past that koi should not be able to survive at the temperatures that they do here.

Obviously there's more to be learned about winter ponds.

Sorry Mitch that I took so long to respond, but for some reason I never saw this till now. I agree that your pond breather works good for you and I really have not seen it in action and so I can only speculate about it. The only thing I worry about with such a small wattage is that some ponds are small and if the temps is really really cold I would fear that to much ice would develop and smother a small pond, leaving little room for fish. You will just have to continue to post about your pond breather and I closely observe your reports and findings.

In regards to the heater, they will not heat the water really at all, but with will keep ice away if you had a bigger pump circulating in front of the heater, that would help lots. Most people will still have more ice that me, cause they only have one level of water, but my three connecting ponds have three levels of water, and the top levels de-ice very quick all the time, due to the fact that the water is always touching the ice, so the running water will "erode" the ice in the top tiers first and quick. The bottom pond, the water falls below the ice as it is displaced and turned into ice in the upper level. If the water is below the ice, then the running water cannot "erode" the ice, and hence the reason my bottom pond gets lots of ice.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Mitch I have to d


I have to disagree Mitch. Last winter when it got so cold the bottom of my pond reached close to 32F. I got a 1500 stock heater and put it as far as I could in the bottom of my pond and it raised it to 36F at the lowest temp. It raised my electric bill a lot! All my fish made it. Thinking it wouldn't work for you cause your pond is bigger.

yes, due to the volume of water in Mitch's pond I think he would need two or more heaters!
Mypond, if you unplug that heater when not needed, then you will save lots of money. The heater continues to draw electric even with the so called "auto turn off".

 

[MitchM]

Sorry Mitch that I took so long to respond, but for some reason I never saw this till now. I agree that your pond breather works good for you and I really have not seen it in action and so I can only speculate about it. The only thing I worry about with such a small wattage is that some ponds are small and if the temps is really really cold I would fear that to much ice would develop and smother a small pond, leaving little room for fish. You will just have to continue to post about your pond breather and I closely observe your reports and findings....

I'm pretty sure that if you understood how the pond breather operates, you would appreciate how well it oxygenates the water under the ice.
If so much ice develops on a pond that it leaves no room for the fish, then the pond is too shallow to begin with.