Woke up this morning 1/4 of my water missing and most of fish dead

[CountryEscape]

Slakker said it before me. Any pipes or water lines you have underground are going to freeze, unless you have them deep enough they are below the frost line. In IL, where I am, the standard depth is 3'. That being said, if that same water line comes to the surface for a skimmer or pump or something else, it's in the freeze area, and will break. The only way you will keep your lines from freezing if they have water in them, is to keep the water running. Colleen from Canada runs her ponds 365 days a year. She has mastered the system, runs water from one pond to another, and the water movement is very near the surface, so she's not cooling the water at the bottom of her ponds. I did run a small pump at about 18" below the water surface, on a milk crate, so it was not pulling water from the bottom. It kept a nice hole, until we went into the very unusual (for this area) arctic blast that lasted for over a week of below zero temps. Then I used a horse/cattle trough floating heater and opened the area. My biggest mistake was being lazy and leaving that heater running 24/7 for about 40 days! Yikes, it (along with extra electric in the house to run the furnace, due to extreme cold temps) doubled my heating bill! Keep in mind I had 3 heaters (2 ponds and 1 horse trough), plus heat lamps to keep well housing warm enough so that water pump would not freeze. All of those "heat producing" items really pulled the amps! The other pond had aerator, which also did a good job. Both the water bubbler and air bubbler froze up in the extreme cold, but both worked really well otherwise.
I agree, if you have water movement, try to keep it at the surface, and I think Colleen would suggest turning the pump sideways, placing it just below the surface of possible ice, then aiming it at the surface.

 

[Waterbug]

It's still hard to tell. Can you get a picture of the crack? Are there any valves that you closed? Check valves?

Without a closed valve the pipe has to freeze in 2 places and then the water trapped in between could build pressure and crack a pipe. But that's pretty difficult to happen, but maybe.

 

[addy1]

Any pipes or water lines you have underground are going to freeze, unless you have them deep enough they are below the frost line. In IL, where I am, the standard depth is 3'. That being said, if that same water line comes to the surface for a skimmer or pump or something else, it's in the freeze area, and will break. The only way you will keep your lines from freezing if they have water in them, is to keep the water running.

Our frost line is 36 inches, my piping always has water left in it over winter. The bog piping even comes out and heads up hill a bit. It is never empty.
In the winter all I do is disconnect the pump, open all the lines and remove any ball valves. So far I have not lost a line to freeze and this was one cold winter. All my lines, except the one going to the deck pond, keep some water in them over winter, two lines have around 2 feet exposed to air, no ground insulation, they are full of water, but open to the air.

 

[Dave 54]

Slakker said it before me. Any pipes or water lines you have underground are going to freeze, unless you have them deep enough they are below the frost line. In IL, where I am, the standard depth is 3'. That being said, if that same water line comes to the surface for a skimmer or pump or something else, it's in the freeze area, and will break. The only way you will keep your lines from freezing if they have water in them, is to keep the water running. Colleen from Canada runs her ponds 365 days a year. She has mastered the system, runs water from one pond to another, and the water movement is very near the surface, so she's not cooling the water at the bottom of her ponds. I did run a small pump at about 18" below the water surface, on a milk crate, so it was not pulling water from the bottom. It kept a nice hole, until we went into the very unusual (for this area) arctic blast that lasted for over a week of below zero temps. Then I used a horse/cattle trough floating heater and opened the area. My biggest mistake was being lazy and leaving that heater running 24/7 for about 40 days! Yikes, it (along with extra electric in the house to run the furnace, due to extreme cold temps) doubled my heating bill! Keep in mind I had 3 heaters (2 ponds and 1 horse trough), plus heat lamps to keep well housing warm enough so that water pump would not freeze. All of those "heat producing" items really pulled the amps! The other pond had aerator, which also did a good job. Both the water bubbler and air bubbler froze up in the extreme cold, but both worked really well otherwise.
I agree, if you have water movement, try to keep it at the surface, and I think Colleen would suggest turning the pump sideways, placing it just below the surface of possible ice, then aiming it at the surface.

I can agree with that our bottom drian is on the frost line but we run water through it 24/7 I have an oil heated radiator in the filter housing should we need to warm the air and thus the water but dont use it that much.
Every other pipe is lagged and everything else is boxed in with isulated decking we have no problems even down at -15c
I think it's the practice we see on the forum of switching off your pumps that causes the damage.

Dave