Do you guys use heaters in the states for your koi ponds

whiskey

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I was wondering if you guys use heaters in your koi ponds, most over here do [uk]

Reason i ask .....if you dont and the weather gets below freezing how do your koi cope?

Do you have any loss?

Do your fish cope with low temp?

I have`nt a heater on mine as yet ,the koi seem ok ,slow on the move and coping, [ its minus 5 today and was minus 12 last night] just like to know how yours do and under what temps they have to endure.
thanks
whiskey
 
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Have you read Colleen's thread? She has done a great job posting about her ponds in Canada... She uses a heater, but if you read her thread, she says when, etc... For our area, it would take an extreme winter for us to even need to worry about keeping a hole open. We usually have mild enough winters that it isnt an issue here except for the really small ponds (under 1000 gallons), and even for those, just making sure a hole is open is all that is needed. I dont know without asking hubby how low the pond temps in our area drop. In the extremes I am guessing upper 20's F. Last time I looked at ours (4-5' deep) at the surface (floating thermometer), the water temp was 38F, and that was 2-3 weeks ago. So far, its been a mild winter here.
 

sissy

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I have a heater after the 2010 winter I bought it and used it only once last year as average temps here are 55 f .It does get down to around 8 degrees once in awhile but not that often and usually happens in January or febuary
 

j.w

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Don't have koi but no heater ever used here for my goldies, just air stone and bubbling water pipes. We don't get that many icey pond days here.
 
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It's pot luck how Winters vary from one year to the next.

Sometimes an arctic blast will last more than a week with sub freezing temps all day put a 6" plate of ice on the pond, this year Winter has hardly put a skim of ice on much

Those in parts where Winter is more severe have had good results covering ponds and retaining ground warmth, or using small floating heaters to vent decomp gasses

When water temps go below 40f, koi are going to struggle, especially if turbulent cooled water is circulated to the bottom of a pond, upsetting the reliable temperature inversion where 40f water settles on the bottom creating a reliable place for fish to Winter
 

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Whiskey;
Just want to clarify one thing here. Are you talking about heaters to keep the water at a certain temperature? Most of the references you will get to "heaters" actually refer to "stock tank de-icers". Don't know if you are familiar with these or if you even have them in the UK, but they are used in stock tanks (water troughs) to keep a hole open for the cattle or whatever to drink from. A thermostat turns them off somewhere around 1 or 2 degrees C., so the water is not really heated in the way an aquarium heater would heat an aquarium. In past years our air temperature would often sit around -30 to -35 C. for a week or two in the winter, and in that kind of cold you would need a compressor to keep a hole open, not just an air pump! My de-icer is rated at 1500 W., but I only plug it in after the pond is iced over for a few days, and only long enough to open a 15 - 20" hole.
John
 

sissy

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see that is where I can get away as building my pond not far from the septic tank seems to help in the winter but does cause problems during the summer .Thats why i have to provide shade for my pond in the summer so it can stay cooler .Great for winter though
 

whiskey

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Thanks guys
Heaters in uk are flow through with a temp setting starting at 1k units per 1,000 gallon ponds.....i would need a 4k being ours is 3700gallons could get away with 3k with covers.


So if i get a heater....... i maybe building covers plus vertical shutters for next years winter and keep water temp at 10c to 12c over winter.
The idea of both, is to keep the temp more constant and less variable, plus the added bonus of a thermal break between the two should help.
 

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sissy

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I got mine from petmountain.com and it can float or submerge and is the KH one and used it last winter a tiny bit
 

brandonsdad02

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This is my first winter keeping the pond running all winter. The coldest we have gotten this winter was 1F. The pond has a good layer of ice on it. I keep my pump running and just know that even tho the pond is mostly iced over, the water is still flowing under the ice. There is a small amount of open water in front of the water fall and by the skimmer box.
 
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Very few people in our pond club heat their koi ponds. As mentioned most just keep an air bubbler going close to the surface and a stock heater to open a hole if it freezes over for more than a week or so.

Craig
 

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