My Winter Cover

Hello.
I am new to the forum and hobby. Made my first pond this year. I am in Milwaukee, WI. It's a small ~800 gallon pond, which will be expanded next spring. Anyway I just wanted to share with you some pictures of my winter cover I made. So far we have had 2 snow storms and 2 pretty cold spells that followed. We had temps below zero for a few days. I have had no ice at all!!! I am not running any heaters. I am still running my main pump, and an air pump. Here are some pics. Enjoy!

Regards,
Jon

PS. The blue thing is a coffee can with the bottom cut out. I can pop the cover off and take a peek inside to see how things are doing.

Welcome to the Forum. Thanks for sharing the photos.
Merry Christmas

Hey jrladd,

Welcome to the forum. Great idea with the coffee can!

Looks like your cover is working like a charm!

Thanks for the welcomes!

Anyone here have any success or failures with this type of winter cover? My biggest concern is keeping the pond as ice free as possible. The pond is only ~20-22 inches deep.

So far the air temp in the dome is consistently staying about 10-20 degrees higher then the outside temp.
The water temp is staying between 32 and 38.

I am wondering if it is better to leave snow on the dome (assuming it doesn't collapse) so that it will act like insulation to keep heat in better, or to remove the snow so that more sunlight will enter the dome and help to heat it up.

Any input?

Igloos stay warm inside...

right! It's an insulator. Hopefully the piping you used is rigid enough to support the weight. Do you have an air pump running so that you can keep a hole open if the pond freezes over? You can search our forums here on winterizing where we've spend a lot of time talking about this very subject...air pumps, de-icers, heaters, etc.

Depending on the location of the air pump, the seal of the cover, and the volume of air, it will help support the cover.

It would be interesting to know if your pond stays ice free and other ponds freeze over in your area. This would be a testament to the value of a pond (tent style) cover.

In gardening, a small tent as such is called a cloche. It is really useful for extending the season on both ends. It may prove useful to you to get a jump start on the season next spring and also to moderate any spring cold snaps. Good idea!

Welcome to the Forum Matak. More good advice.