winter prep early ...

[Tfisher]

I know early - but one of my daughters was born during a Nor'easter in October so it's best to be prepared early in my book.

I purchased the aquascape dual aerator - I know I should have the stones off the bottom a bit but my question is what to do with the unit itself:

what does everyone house the pump in to keep it snow free?

Does it need to be insulated? I'd put inside if the area was close but no dice.

Any ideas welcome - thanks

 

[Tula]

Years ago, I put mine under a garden pot that didn't have a drainage hole, making room for the hoses to exit. I now have a small shed, I have equipment in.

A great idea I've read about here, is using a Rubber Maid tote and cutting holes for hoses and electrical cords.....plus it's water proof

 

[morewater]

Rubbermaid tote.

Cut flaps in one side for the plug, and another flap in the other side for the airlines. Put the pump itself on a brick so that it isn't resting on the bottom (if water gets in, the pump won't be immersed). Put a brick on the lid to make sure it doesn't come off, get blown over, blah, blah, blah...........

 

[Tfisher]

Does the tote need to be insulated ?

 

[morewater]

No. The compressor pumps air, not water.

Make sure that the unit is higher than the pond surface and that the backflow components (you'll see them on the airlines) are inside the box as well.

The purpose of having the compressor higher than the pond surface is so that in the event of a power failure, you won't have water migrating up the airline. The water will freeze in the airline rendering your entire system useless.

 

[Tfisher]

I know I'll need to have to stones half way up the depth of the pond - but will I be chilling the pond by not insulating the box/tote the pump motor is stored inside because of the cold air it's drawing in to aerate?

 

[addy1]

I used a air compressor until a friend lost all their fish one winter, he was using air to keep the pond free of ice. It was keeping around 1/2 of the pond ice free. But come February we got really cold, he started seeing bodies, as the ice melted, every fish of his died, except one.

I decided to use the pond breather that Mitch in Canada uses, he gets a lot colder than we do, his fish do great.

This is my second year with the breather, no fish loss over the winter.

 

[Tfisher]

Interesting product - I did purchase a 315w deicer to use in addition to the dual aerators

 

[morewater]

I know I'll need to have to stones half way up the depth of the pond - but will I be chilling the pond by not insulating the box/tote the pump motor is stored inside because of the cold air it's drawing in to aerate?

Insulating a box that's drawing cold air isn't going to make any difference whatsoever.

Ad Addy pointed out, a pond breather is definitely the way to go, but as your question was regarding aerators, that's what I answered.

Those pond de-icers suck a lot of juice, the aerators less so, the breather even less.

 

[Coach87]

I am new to all of this but I suspect that a de-icer is basically an electric water heater..and that would use a lot of juice. We don't get but so much cold weather here so my immersed pump doesn't freeze, although the top of the pond does get ice.

 

[Coach87]

Years ago, I put mine under a garden pot that didn't have a drainage hole, making room for the hoses to exit. I now have a small shed, I have equipment in.

A great idea I've read about here, is using a Rubber Maid tote and cutting holes for hoses and electrical cords.....plus it's water proof

Three pumps? How big are they?

 

[Tula]

Three pumps? How big are they?

One is 3000 GPH and powers the water fall.
Another is 2000 GPH and goes into a large filter.
The other is 1200 GPH, sits in the skimmer and water flows past the UV light, then onto a smaller filter.

 

[Tfisher]

Thanks everyone - I'll utilize a plastic tote to house the pump (elevated) and if my electric bill too high this winter will look into a pond breather for next winter

 

[brokensword]

Tfish; I used to rely on an aerator too and for the first couple of years it did fine. What I found though in year 3 was the tube got pinched/frozen and I lost the hole I was creating. And since everything was snowed over/iced in, I was out of luck trying to resurrect that unit. I had to use my ice melter unit and did so until winter was over. Btw, I had my aerator in a plastic tote with holes for the tubes, placed a home-made styrofoam box over the unit to insure it did not totally freeze.

I went to the Pond Breather and it's been nice. I think you should invest now and not worry. IF you use the aerator, keep the stone within 18" of the top. There's articles online showing how the stone near the bottom is a way to look for trouble. I figure you can use the $$ spent for any aerator on the pond breather and cut your losses.

Just my 2 cents.

Michael

 

[sissy]

So far everything I have seen says this winter will be bad