Wisconsin Pond Build

[CountryEscape]

I just noticed my pump "bubbler" (it's a 4200 gph pump!) is not bubbling up about 16" like it had been, but is still bubbling, so wondering why that is, or if the pump somehow got turned on it's side. I find that unlikely since I zip tied it to a milk crate, although the pump is heavier than the crate. Just ran out to check (burr 19 degrees is quite a change from yesterday morning's 56!!!) and it's sitting like I left it, so must be something clogging the pump somewhat. The good thing is that it's bubbling like I want, just at the surface, but the bad thing is that I'm concerned why such lower flow rate. This weekend supposed to be much warmer, 50's or 60's, so will pull it and check it out then. What crazy weather we are having here in IL! Early yesterday a.m. (3:30) had horrendous thunder and lightening, and now heard tornado watches were out, and that explains the high winds that were causing horizontal rain. I was truly concerned it was going to blow in my bedroom west windows! But, calm and sunny this a.m., even though brisk!

 

[sissy]

You may want to check the pump as soon as possible something could have gotten sucked into the pump and is slowing the propellar inside down and could burn out your pump .I had a long slimy stem I guess from one of the lilies in mine and it slowed it down and lucky I checked as it could have burned out .Thats why I use a cheaper pump and keep it close to the edge of the pond so I can check it .If it is frozen up I just put a hot pan of water on top of the ice to melt it .This is the second slimy lily stem I have pulled out of my pump in the last 3 weeks .Lilies are nice but those slimy stems are not and I thought I had gotten all of them ,but guess not .This winter I used a nylon rope tied it to the handle of the pump and put a metal pipe across my pond and tied the pupm to that this way I could move the pipe and that moves the pump a little as long as it's not frozen in ice .

 

[CountryEscape]

Good idea about moving the pump with the pipe, Sissy. I, too, have a nylon rope tied to the handle. But the part that makes me think there should be nothing in the pump is that it's 12" from the bottom, on the milk crate, and I cleaned off all my lilies before I moved their pots lower on the shelves. Not sure that it might still have sucked up something, though, so I will check it out. This morning I have to get to work, and by tonight I'm sure the water will be iced over, although maybe not around the bubbler. I could unplug it, too, I guess, but then it WILL ice over, which I know won't hurt anything. Temps this weekend starting on Sunday are 56, 57 and 64 by Tuesday. CRAZY weather for IL in January!!!
Well, heck, just looked at the pump again, and now it's bubbling about 6-8" above the water surface, so maybe whatever was causing it to slow down has budged some and allowing more flow. I'll keep a close eye on it, though.

 

[sissy]

I cleaned all my lilies too and my pump is 2 feet off the bottom ,Just keep an eye on it .It could have been something on the cage of the pump .I had a piece of small plastic wrap blow in my ponds because of all the high winds also .

 

[j.w]

And could be a big leaf that blew in country wrapped around it...........who knows, just make sure you check it before it's too late.

 

[CountryEscape]

I checked it again before I left for work, which was maybe 5 minutes after first noticing it was not hardly bubbling, and it was back up to 12" high, although it had been bubbling about 16" before this. It's working just fine tonight. I never thought about something blowing into the pond and getting sucked onto the pump. Thanks for the friendly reminder, ladies. I will probably go ahead and pull it out this weekend, since temps are going to be wonderful, and see what is going on, if anything. I cleaned it off completely before I set it up, as it had a bunch of the string algae sucked and wrapped on the cage. But, there is none of that on the end when I put the crate and pump for the winter, so will still watch for other stuff that may have blown in. Considering we were under tornado watch yesterday early a.m. (when the 3:30 storm blew through), it's hard telling what could have blown into the pond.

 

[kraljcojo]

please can you tell me how deep is your pond when you finished all,and what fish did you put in it,and one more how is the weather in your part where you live becouse the fish.thanks a lot

 

[CountryEscape]

Kraljcojo, I'll let Herzausstahl answer his pond depth and what fish he has. As to weather, I'm in IL, which is south of WI where Herz lives. This winter is not common for our areas. We have all had a very mild winter this year. Ponds have frozen, and then thawed out several times already, and I would guess usually by this time they would have been frozen for a month or so and stay that way until about March. As far as my pond, I have koi and goldfish, and one fantail goldfish. From what I've learned on this site, they are all from the carp family, and can easily winter over in the pond. It's best to "open" the frozen pond a couple of times a week to release the gases produced from the fish waste and decomposing matter on the bottom of the pond. If you have a very small fish load, you may be able to only thaw out a small area once a week or less, maybe not at all. The depth needs to be deep enough so that the pond does not freeze solid. In Illinois, where my winter is milder than in Wisconsin, where Herz is, I still have my pond 4' deep in the middle, and 42" on each end. They recommend minimum of 3' and best to have it 5' if possible.
In a "wild" pond, like my farm pond, as long as it doesn't freeze solid, and there are not an overabundance of fish (my farm pond actually has carp in it), it can freeze over for months and the fish will be ok, since there is a much larger area for the gases to disperse to. However, in our smaller koi/goldfish ponds, the number of fish per gallon of water is much higher ratio, so must be more diligent to making sure the gases don't build up in the winter.
I have my pump running on a crate shooting the water upwards to keep water movement, and an opening in the ice. Others use aerators and floating heaters. I have a floating heater as a back up, in case my pump fails. Heaters are more expensive to run, but when someone mentioned you only need to make an opening once or twice a week, that makes it more economical than running it 24/7.
Hope this helps!

 

[herzausstahl]

please can you tell me how deep is your pond when you finished all,and what fish did you put in it,and one more how is the weather in your part where you live becouse the fish.thanks a lot

My pond is about 3 feet 6 inches deep and has been covered with ice beginning in November 2011. We have had a weird, warmer than normal winter this year, but the last few days have been around 0-5 degrees Farenheit for the daily high temperatures. My fountain did freeze over again and I poured hot water on it to melt the ice and open a hole, 7 hours later it was almost frozen over again and I have left it for now. I will pour hot water on it tomorrow to open it up again. I just have goldfish in my pond right now.

 

[taherrmann4]

Herz I wonder if you would be better off using a stock tank heater to keep a hole open up? This is the one I have.

http://www.amazon.com/8125-Perfect-...FE8U/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1327194738&sr=8-8

 

[sissy]

I have that pond heater and bought it at pet mountain for 29 dollars after last winter i was not taking chances ,but so far this winter has been fine .I still put it in the pond and mine is 750 watts and my goldfish seem to hang around it .If you push the center button it submerges

 

[herzausstahl]

Herz I wonder if you would be better off using a stock tank heater to keep a hole open up? This is the one I have.

http://www.amazon.co...27194738&sr=8-8

I was thinking about that as winter has gone along and then got this one for christmas:
http://www.amazon.com/8001-Thermo-P...7NQU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1327627393&sr=8-2
and was going to try it out next year. At the time I asked for it, it was the only one I found under 500 watts or so, although the one you have is what I will try if this one fails. Although I also might do what Haro (John) does and get a 1500 watt one and just turn it on for 3-4 hours every day or every other day to open a hole in the ice. I am going to get an electrician to add outlets this spring by the pond so I also might have him put a switch inside the garage that controls the circuit so I would be able to leave it plugged in and turn it on/off from the comfort (well 20-30 degrees warmer wind blocked comfort) of the unheated garage. Not sure how the lower watt heaters will hold up in the consistent (well normally so) below freezing temps we get in Jan-Feb. The model I have has a hollow bottom, so it seams to just keep the inside of it ice free and it says to manually keep the top clear. It looks like it is almost easier to install it after a thin layer of ice forms and let it melt its way in, but I will find out next winter.

Here are some more pictures, after the few days of freezing weather it did warm up a little bit, so I pulled the pump out and removed the little foam filter it had between the intake and the debris guard. It was full of stuff, so I put it back together and works great again. I took these pictures on January 24, since then we have had more snow melt, and the pump is still working great, but I still think I will go the route of a heater next year.


I melted the snow/ice over the fountain head and then after pulling out the clogged filter (which I think was clogged because I had it in the pond since November and we had a lot of warm weather since then) the fountain head flow has been as strong as it was when I first turned it on and the ice has not formed over it again.



So I could conceivably just go the same route that I am now next year, but I think for the sake of simplicity I will use the pond de-icer and see how that goes. I would put it at the edge of the pond away from the deck because every time we got snow this year, that is the area that seems to have stayed clear on top. But instead I can think of changes I want to make next year, like where I will put the Little Giant air pump I got this winter for Christmas and if I want to incorporate the 450 gph pump into a feature somewhere as well.

 

[kraljcojo]

Thanks for the advice, like what I wrote here is not a cold winter, now measure the temperature of the pond in which I poured water only when I finish the lids of the pond, I'll put pictures on the forum, so you give your comments, below the bridge is not covered by that air is circulating, one part of the cover of Plexiglas where the sun passes and the day is not a problem to move back in the evening and also a waterfall can work regardless of whether the cover is installed, I think that it will be ok.

 

[kraljcojo]

Initially I thought I put the fish in my pond, my wife wanted was to be water, but when I saw how you can be beautiful ponds, I've changed thinking, but the problem was what I already make a pond of cement and only 50 cm deep and placed around the pebbles at the bottom of the Vulcan stone tablets and now i do not want to demolish it to dig deeper, here in Croatia there are several forums on the ponds so that I and the active and collect data and experience different, so i was yesterday heard from a man who was from my part of the country who told me that he has the same pond 50 cm deep and had no problems over the winter, says he has a couple of gold fish

 

[taherrmann4]

Not sure how the lower watt heaters will hold up in the consistent (well normally so) below freezing temps we get in Jan-Feb. The model I have has a hollow bottom, so it seams to just keep the inside of it ice free and it says to manually keep the top clear. It looks like it is almost easier to install it after a thin layer of ice forms and let it melt its way in, but I will find out next winter.

Herz, last year when I got my new deicer the pond was already frozen over except a small area 6" where my bubbler was so I laid it on the ice thinking it would melt it's way into the pond after a few hours. I went to check on it and there was only a very small area of water that was melted, no way this was going work. So I thought it might be too windy as it was windy that day and the heat it was generating was just being blown away and never really touching the pond. So I decided to make a tent out of aluminum foil to trap the heat inside and melt the ice on top. I checked on it after an hour and absolutely nothing happened. So then it occurred to me, the damn thing is thermostatically controlled so it would never melt the ice b/c as soon as it started melting the iced that water became warm and shut off the unit, and it kept doing this over and over again. So I had to make numerous trips to and from the house with hot water to eventually get through the 4" of ice. That was my blonde moment.