Yep, using just a water pump (no air pumps) for simple moving water and good water circulation has kept ice away for me thus far (on my dinky little 440gal pond), but my area only had one string of 3 days or so of air temperatures never reaching above freezing until everything warmed up a few days later in the week.
Now, the next few days will be interesting... Right now temp is 27*F, 60mph gusts, 45mph constant wind speeds and just gonna keep on getting colder and windier the next few days...
http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/code.cgi?Submit=Go&sta=KDHT&state=TX
Supposedly all of the weather fronts are converging to make a good show of Mother Nature.
Bring it on Mother Nature!!
For anyone interested,
Pond Breathers (such as this API one) are excellent devices and less electricity to use rather than floating pond deicers as long as your pond is deep enough to use one. I had to cut the bottom pipe a bit to make this fit in my shallow pond. Keep in mind, due to how these function, they can get clogged.
However, I do not rely on the pond breather and I still use a 1500watt floating deicer at the base of my aquascape basalt column rock fountains that I keep running during Winter and the basalt rock makes some neat ice sculptures if the weather gets could enough. If I didn't use a floating deicer at the base of this fountain, then the ice sheet on top of my little pond gets humongous and takes forever to melt.
Quick cautionary note about floating de-icers if you have hard water... Clean them once a month if they have been in the pond... Mine gets an incredibly thick scale buildup causing the heater coil to eventually get too hot and bust thus tripping my GFCI. I just soak it in white vinegar over night and gently scrub the coils. I do it whenever there is enough ice thawed that I can pull out the de-icer... sometimes, I can't always do it... Always dedicate a GFCI to any de-icer or water heater so that, if it trips, then your water pumps continue to function.
