What does your pond look like ... Today?

[BKHpondcritters]

For better or worse, I don't go anywhere over the winter, so I can monitor things & take care of any icy problems before they become something major. And things don't typically stay that cold (below freezing both overnight lows AND daytime highs) for long. These pictures show just how quickly things change here. This first picture was taken last year on Jan. 31st:

And this is what it looked like on Feb. 3rd:

 

[sissy]

My pond happening the 1 winter happened in the middle of the night with a snow storm coming in .I had a layer of ice on the top and happened that hubby had notice the ice was sinking in the middle a lot more than I had noticed during the day .I found out I only had a little over a foot of water in the pond ,I was lucky the fish survived .We are retired and do not travel at all ,I am a home body and love it .That is also when we decided we needed security cameras .We do not get much snow here and it usually melts in a day or two .Being out in a snow storm in your PJ'S was no fun .I was in big time panic mode

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Yikes! No, a middle of the night 'fix the pond NOW' in your PJ's does not sound like any fun at all! When it does get really cold overnight I always wake up in the morning & have to 'steel' myself before looking out the window, just in case something happened overnight that's a real problem. Knock on wood - so far, so good.

 

[sissy]

I was lucky hubby noticed that the ice had sunk even lower than I had seen it earlier .I was also lucky I have a well and indoor water taps in the basement that I could fill the pond from .I was up all night in cold and snow .We are retired and I just love being able to do the things I love .I grew up on a farm so hard work is nothing to me .But this pond thing is not as easy as it looks .I wish I had done pondless pond .Only time I get to see the pond lately is on the security cameras

 

[schizm]

I have a question about feeding the goldfish during the Winter. The weather here in NY has been a little odd. We had very cold, frozen even single digits at night a few weeks ago. Now it's been a little warmer, above freezing during the days. I know to stop feeding the fish once the temperature goes below 39 degrees f. But, when it's above that temperature do I feed them again, even if it's only for a day or two at a time? Or if it is warmer during the day, like over 40 degrees but goes below freezing at night? Or do I just not feed them at all until Spring? They are acting like they want to be fed but I'm just not sure if I should.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Feeding is based more on water temperature than air temperature. Although obviously colder air will result in colder water, it doesn't swing as quickly. When the water is cold, the fishes entire metabolism slows down including digestion. Feeding during a brief warm up can result in undigested food 'lingering' inside them when the temps drop again. Better to err on the side of caution, imo, and not feed again until temps are on a definite upswing in the Spring.

 

[addy1]

Once I stop feeding for the winter, they get nothing until spring when I turn the pump back on. The fish do just fine. Just about 5-6 months Just depending on how darn cold it is in the spring.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

First pond photo of 2020.

 

[Lisak1]

We run our pond all winter and love it. However, you do need to know that your pond can handle icing. For example, you need to make sure your waterfall won't ice over in such a way that it diverts water out of the pond. Our waterfall is wide and concave, so we don't ever have that issue. I'm sure a professional could plan to build a waterfall that could handle ice - we just got lucky. We never planned to keep the pond running - we just grew into it. We also don't have a skimmer that could potentially get clogged over winter and cause a problem. So knowing your pond and anticipating what ice could do is important.

We've discussed the "super cooling" concept on the forum a number of times. From a scientific point of view in order to super cool your water, your pond would need to be pure and free of minerals - not something that is possible in a pond. However, you could potentially disturb the warmer water at the bottom of the pond - I'm imagining that could happen if your waterfall was falling from a great height for example. But I've observed my pond long enough to know the water from the fall barely disturbs the shelf underneath it, so there's no way it's affecting the bottom of the pond. Running the waterfall means we don't have to be concerned about keeping a hole open in the pond - the constantly moving water takes care of the off-gassing for us.

To each their own when it comes to winter time pond keeping!

 

[GBBUDD]

I am planning to make some adjustments to stream and large bog to be able to handle icing and wicking

 

[Tombstone]

Here's my pond today. Hubby just finished the 'bones' of the waterfall, bit more work to do, but I included a close up for you all you rock lovers out there. Still hiding my liner. But I'm loving the feel of the pond. It really looks like its been there much longer than 3 months. Couldn't have done it without you guys and all your know how! Just tested my water and its all testing consistently where I want it. I am going to add a trickle tower because I would like to add more goldies (no more koi, unless I find a white or silver butterfly), I also want to have the safety net of another filter and pump.



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Is that Duckweed?

 

[corgi]

I added a second bubbler just as ice was forming to keep an area by shore open in case animals fall in. They can swim to shore and climb out as opposed to trying to climb out from a 15 foot open area in the middle of the pond on prior years. This year, two bubblers going.

Today

A few weeks ago, after a snow and ice storm left me with some clean up the following day. I have a chain saw and don't mind using it, but
I also care more about keeping all of my fingers as a guitarist. So I paid a guy 350 to get this one cut down and removed as well as another 99 percent dead one next to our home I was worried about in falling on our house. 350 well spent.

As well, in this pic you can see the float location in the pond at it's deepest point of 14 feet. (The bubbler at this location is presently off), This gets phased out late fall for one that is in 9 1/2 feet of water. This keeps a "warmer" buffer zone in the pond for fish and creates a buffer zone where super chilling hopefully won't stress them as much. This is the first year I've tried having the bubbers in a slightly shallower location, but also another by shore for the wildlife egress. By putting in a y valve at the dock I can control two bubblers from one compressor, and seasonally change where they are working.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

One more pond photo before the winter storm.

 

[GBBUDD]

that pond is crazy did you build it or is it natural ?

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Here's the pond tonight, mid-storm. Currently not as bad as expected.