rebelangel_3733 said:
Luv the gingerbread house colleen!! Weather here is suppose to turn tmrw, wind, chance of snow (but not much on this end of the state) basically might get 1". I hope my fish are ready for this as the nights will be in the teens with windchills in the single digits...ok I'm not ready for this! Do have a floating stock tank de-icer 1250 watt and hope that if ice forms this will work to keep an open area as I've never used one before (other than when I had horses years back) since this will be the first time I've had this pond. I do have the bubbler going. QUESTION: How close can I be to the bubbler with the stock tank de-icer???
OH and for those of you who responded to my lil fishy who has swimmers bladder, hes much better now! Thanks!!
As far as how close, put the bubbler right under the heater if you want to. That's what I do, that way the bubbler circulates the warmer water the heater provides, and opens up the pond that much faster. I didn't have to leave my heater on but to open the ice a few times last year. And, since my new electric I had an electrician put in on my deck, so I would have lots of outlets for the ponds ... will only allow 1 heater to be running at the same time. Turns out, that's just fine, as once I get a hole opened up, I can shut off the heater and move to the other pond to open a hole. I did learn another thing, though - don't turn on an air bubbler underneath solid sheet of ice. I did that, thinking it would melt a hole in the ice, but all it did was create a large bubble of air under the ice, raised the sheet of ice and then it cracked! Good thing was it was a thin sheet, didn't make a loud noise, or could have been damaging to the fish. Same thing for water bubbler. Turned it on before the heater had a big enough hold, and the water pushed through the small opening and gathered on top of the ice, causing too much weight and cracked the ice. Learn those lessons just once. :blueflower:
Love the gingerbread house, Colleen! You are extremely creative. Now, what will you do with it? Are you keeping it for yourself, or giving it as a gift?
