What is your weather like ... today

[addy1]

That is less than my aerator uses, might check into them for next winter. Bet they would great in md

 

[Catfishnut]

With all the cold weather we have been having this winter I have been using a 1500 heater in my pond not to keep an opening but to try and keep the bottom of my pond warmer. It has worked my pond temp was averaging about 40F or more on the bottom of the pond ( compared to the last two winters when it got down to 36F and a couple times lower) but it has shot my electric bill up to 250.00 for the last two months. My house is all electric and in the past winters my electric bill has never been over 200 dollars during the winter. As Soon as this cold snap passes I will be unplugging the heater. This next winter I will try to come up with a cheaper way to keep my fish warmer . Cold 5F and a high of 38F today and sunny, will be unplugging the heater today.

Mtpond,

Just wanted to try this idea out on you because you are thinking on this subject... How about constructing a solar panel with tubes filled with water and antifreeze... During the daytime, a pump circulates the antifreeze through the tubes which are exposed to the sun in an insulated box with a glass window and the backing is painted black. The solar heated antifreeze mix then runs through a series of coils installed in a drum or one of your filter basins to serve as a heat exchanger to warm the pond water.

At night or during extremely cold days with little sun, thermocouples would be used to compare the pond water temp to the solar panel fluid temp and control the antifreeze circulation pump. If the temp in the solar panel is not several degrees higher than the pond water temp, the pump won't run so that it won't cause cooling of the pond water. If the reverse is true and the antifreeze in the solar panel is warmer than the pond water, the pump runs and heats the pond water.

A very small, low wattage pump would be used for the antifreeze circulation, and this would save a great deal of expense compared to running a heater / deicer.

During the extreme cold periods (expressly when the sun has gone down) the thermocouples would sense the temperature differences and would switch the controls for running the antifreeze pump to OFF and turn your electric deicer or heater ON as needed.

The thermocouples temperature sensing signal would be input to a small, inexpensive temperature controller unit (similar to your thermostat for your furnace) that would use relays to switch between the two systems.

I am pondering this sort of system for my bait tank pond. I have access to two used solar panels which are intended for water heating (not electrical power generation) so I have been thinking about going in this direction.

Thought I would kick this idea out there to you since you made the comments in post #8264.

Gordy

 

[jmajid]

well today is a strange day already - cooled off from mid 70s to about 52 today... with a cold night at possibly 37!
And this morning, was leaving for work when i noticed a new koi we got yesterday had jumped out of the QT tank! yikes
my wife and I sat there holding it in the flow of water for about 40 minutes - at which time it was trying to hold itself upright...
just now i got a message from my wife saying it was doing a little better...
thats a heck of a way to WAKE UP in the morning! Yes the QT is covered - and wow thats our first jumper!
hope he/she makes it - very pretty white and black koi.

 

[sissy]

I put window screen over my tanks and weigh it down .Koi and shubbies are jumpers

 

[gardengirl]

Hey guys its been a loonnng winter. Temp today is 31. Really weird weather this winter. Cold temps at minus degrees and then a week that got up in the 70's. Had 8" of snow at one time. But the ponds have been great!

 

[sissy]

sunny but cold here and no snow or rain even though they predicted it .Right now it is 38 and sure wish it would warm up more so I can get new liner in

 

[bettasngoldfish]

still cold and snowy here in Ohio.....I usually don't mind the winter weather but this year I am done!

Can't wait to get back outside and get the pond up and running again.

 

[j.w]

Spitting sun here again today........................too bad we have to go to the dentist.............time to clean our mouths out

 

[jmajid]

yep - we have adjusted our covering to the QT tanks - its window screens that we didnt need anymore... and weighed down...
update on the poor koi is that its swimming upright but a little weak - i have read that can take anything up to 6 hours or more for full normal swimming, or even it may not recover at all.
lesson learned - make sure the fish cant become houdini look-a-likes
Its midday and its ONLY 50 here... im sure the pond inhabitants are wondering what the heck too!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Mitch and Brandon... The heater only works good because the water is circulating in the top ponds at the level of the ice, but in the bottom pond yesterday the filter started to float because it has sucked up lots of loose algae and then that pump was slowing down big time to the middle pond and then the bottom pond began to freeze super duper hard, like a foot of ice was there!! So I took the hose out of the window yesterday and ran hot water to melt the frozen filter out of the ice and then the pump ran good again. The fish were all fine as I saw them under the ice once it started to melt again. It was like minus 30 the other night and hugging a fence is not going to warm you up when it is that cold. If you watched my video on my winter thread "RUNNING WATER MELTS ICE" then you will see that only the top pond and the middle pond have much more open water because the water in those ponds are always at the level of the ice, never below the ice, because the bottom pond pumps the water full till if overflows down the waterway. This makes a very big difference, and that is the main reason the bottom pond gets so much ice, because as the ice forms the water level below the ice falls and then the water is not circulating at the same level as the ice. Water is very corrosive and when it is circulating at the same level as the ice, then it erodes the ice very very fast. In ponds that only have one level, the ice forms and the water may be circulating, but it is circulating BELOW the ice.... BIG DIFFERENCE and that is why the bottom pond gets so much ice compared to the top ponds, which have ice right now, but it is melting very fast there today....

 

[callingcolleen1]

I need to clean that filter tomorrow for sure, usually by now I have the filters all cleaned come March, but the weather has been so darn cold!!! going to clean the one filter in the middle pond later today when the sun is high and warmer.... The ice should be melted around that filter later today in the middle pond, cause the ice melts very quick there...

 

[callingcolleen1]

Think of my top ponds like this... the top ponds flow like a river, sort of, flowing from pond to pond, and in the spring, the river ice is LONG GONE before the LAKE breaks up.... does that help?

video demo proving running water melts ice...

 

[sissy]

was just looking at you tube and any one that wants a greenhouse gotta check this guys video .Texasprepper2 /cattle panel green house

 

[callingcolleen1]

I need to get my seeds planted, this weekend for sure! I am kinda late this year, it has been so cold and seeds are touchy, so will start them in the house and then move them out to the greenhouse. The greenhouse is heated, but the nights can still be close to freezing. This winter has been long and cold, one of the colder winters in years, never had so much ice on the bottom pond before. Cleaned the one double filter and need to clean two more and the bathtub is a filthy mess cause it is too cold to clean them outside. Water is flowing better now and more ice melting off top ponds. Couple nights ago it was down to minus 30 and the ice was getting pretty thick. Then when the filter started to freeze in the bottom pond, the pump flow slowed down and then the ice grew really thick yesterday night in that pond. Have to clean the filters all before the big freeze come back Friday.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I think I drank a pot of coffee today too.