25 below in WI - do I attempt a rescue

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Hi all (haven't posted in a long time...). The air temp got down to -24 overnight here in the Chicago 'burbs. Almost broke the all-time record, but we have another shot at that tonight. The pond had been ice-free last night when I went to bed as I had the heavy-duty de-icer going. I woke up and 2/3 of the pond was iced over. The water is running fine beneath a layer of ice on the waterfalls (we keep our pump and waterfall on year-round). There is still a large enough hole in the ice for air exchange, so for now I'm not super-concerned. I have a second de-icer I can plug in if needed... I would just have to figure out where to plug in another extension cord.

The funny thing is it will be 40+ degrees here by Sunday and all this will be a memory by then. Oh, winter.
 
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Hi @Lisak1 ! How is your pond faring?

Good question! We had a plumbing issue earlier this month that we could not resolve before the cold weather returned, so our pump is currently disconnected. We have an aerator and a deicer running, but you know the current situation... the pond is BURIED in snow and it's too dang cold out there to even go check. So we'll see! I'm hoping for the best but planning for the worst, like they say!
 
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Our pump went down during the summer. It was still within warranty, but unfortunately whoever rang us up when we bought it put the wrong product number in and the receipt reflected that, so they wouldn't warranty it because the receipt didn't match. Grrrr... So we paid for a new one out of pocket and it's been running fine. All the pipes are buried under snow so that's helping to insulate everything. I have a path shoveled to the edge of the pond and to the filter box in case I need to access it at some point.

I went outside to check the heat in the garage as the furnace out there has acted up a couple times this past week and I've had to reset it (unplug and plug back in--easy fix, at least)... It's rough out there. I had my gloves off so I could unlock the door and my fingers actually got sore from touching that cold door handle.
 
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There's no question it's too cold to do be outdoors. I really feel for people who have to work outdoors, but man am I grateful they do! My mom's neighborhood had a transformer explode and they lost power. The power company had it back up and running in under an hour.

But check out the weekend forecast - 50 degrees by Sunday!
 
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There have been so many water main breaks around this area in the past week due to the crazy temperature changes I've lost count. One in front of hubs' parents' house a few blocks away... one in front of a friend's house in the city... and a huge one last night a couple blocks from another friend's parents' house. That one was so bad it made the evening news. The entire intersection on a main street was flooding and water was pouring into peoples' homes. One elderly lady had to be helped from her house by city workers as she could not get out on her own. My hat is off to all the city workers, firefighters, ComEd guys, etc. who had to work very long shifts in this cold.

The hole on the pond itself is still there but it's very small--maybe basketball-sized at this point. However, a big section of the waterfall path thawed out for some reason, so the water is aerating as it comes down from the waterfall. And yes, the warmup is on the way!
 

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They are showing the cold quakes on the internet and no mail delivery in a lot of states .Can't blame them .
 
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Just an idea...
 

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Greetings, hope its ok to post here first rather than the intro since Im having a bit of an SOS .... I have a 600 gal pond (actually it might be 800 I cant remember) that's been functioning pretty well for last 7 yrs or so . All this time Ive brought my fishies in for the winter but this year I thought.... why not leave them out. After all, that's why I made my pond 42 inches deep. .... and the winters have been so mild lately. So then what happens - record arctic temps last week with worse to come next week. Last night it was minus 23 and before that, a week or so of minus 10 at night and barely above zero during the day. Next week will be 2 or 3 days in a row of minus 25 at night (minus 55 if you want to count wind chill).

So if I want to attempt to open up the ice and bring them in .... tomorrow and Monday prob about my only chance.

I guess this is a "what would you do" question.

I got a thermometer down to the bottom yesterday, and assuming its correct (not entirely sure - its very slow to measure change) its only a couple degrees above freezing. Given that the water is already pretty cold, and given continued cold weather, and given that I have an aerator that is pulling cold air into the water (I think that may have been a mistake), I think theres a good chance they would not survive next week. Im not even sure theyre still alive after last night....

I have a 1500 watt deicer + Tetra aerator with two air stones that seem to be putting out a lot of bubbles. I have them on a plant shelf that is about 8 inches from the surface so hole was quite large even this a.m. after minus 23. Any thoughts on the placement of these things?

And / or is it too late to get one of those pond breathers - seems like a lot of people use them here and they really work? I actually bought one earlier this year, but couldn't make head or tails out of how to work it so I returned it. Sigh.....

thx for any and all input
Catja in WI

Although we live in Florida, our pond water could dip into the 40's which will kill Plecos.

After losing fish several times I built this heater out of a Hot Tub heating unit and misc. parts from the local Home Depot. It is set up to run in line with one of my waterfalls outlets. I do not have it on a thermostat, (here in Florida I just run it at night when the temps get low), but that would be easy enough to add.

This pic may help...

118652
 
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But check out the weekend forecast - 50 degrees by Sunday!
The melt is ON. I can't believe the water dripping off my house--it looks like a rainstorm through my kitchen window. As for the pond... yesterday morning at the tail-end of the cold weather, the outdoor temp was about 10 degrees and the pond was already ice-free thanks to the de-icer. Surprisingly I did not lose a lot of water from evaporation. The ice that had been on the pond during this cold blast was very different from the ice I've seen in the past... This time it looked like shaved ice piled about 2" thick onto a 1/2" layer of more solid ice. I am still very glad to see it gone at this point.

The fish came out from under the stone slab to say Hi a little while ago when I went outside to check on things. It still boggles the mind that two days ago it was almost 50 degrees colder than it is now.
 
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Current temperature: 40 degrees F. That's a 67 degree swing from Thursday! Unreal. Still lots and lots of snow to melt, but it sure feels good out there !
 

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