Cold, I mean REEEEEly cold

[Tish]

The weather looks crazy all over so how are your fishes faring? My first year experiment of " 2 in and 1 out" is going well so far. 2 months ago I brought 2 lucky goldfish indoors to an aquarium for the winter. You can see that I spared no expense decorating the tank. LOLOL! Hey, they are pond monsters not your fancy dancy tropicals so don't need day-glow rocks and fairy castles. I found pros and cons to doing this: Among the pros- {1} Finally get a real close look at them. Look Shiny and healthy to me - {2} They are lovely company, staring at a fish tank has a mesmerizing affect. Cons- {1} Learning curve. Similar but different from the pond. Had one PH crash/ ammonia spike but we got through it. {2} - Aquariums can be lot of friggin work. Goldfish really are messy little creatures that quite rightly belong in a pond.
Now to the lone ranger, the one 6 inch comet I left in the pond. He's still alive, at least I think he is. I rarely see him. Once it got down to 40 F in there he retreated into one of the new improved fish caves I so thoughtfully provided. I do occasionally spot him hanging around the de-icer.
I pulled the pump in early October before freezing but kept a couple small airstones running near the surface until the lines iced up. Pond is a small above ground stock tank less than 2 ft. deep so I was nervous. I insulated with whatever I found in my shed. Big bubble wrap, furniture moving blankets and a couple of shower curtains for water proofing. Over the top I placed vinyl lattice, two long 4 by 4's and a couple of short pieces of plywood to support a folded over tarp. Tarp reached the ground on 3 sides with 1end open for air flow. Have been banking snow up around it now which is a great insulator. I placed in a Ukal 1500 watt sinking de-icer recommended to me by a member on this forum. So, I found with temperatures between freezing and 20 F I only needed to plug in de-icer for an hour a day. It would then take 24 hours for ice to re-form. If I left it on longer pond temp would go up over 50 F. My MacGyver insulation job must be somewhat effective.
Here's what surprised me. We are now in the midst of a SEVERE cold snap.
The past 4 days have been - 5 to - 20 F with a wind chill down to -30 F. This will continue for 4 more days then temps will get above freezing. { Not even kidding! }
The first 2 nights I was afraid my comet would become an orange popsicle so I left de-icer on all night but in the morning pond temp was 50 F so last night went back to previous routine of 1 hour on before going to bed. It is currently 5:30 P.M. Outside temp is below 0 F and pond is still about 40 F.

 

[j.w]

My fish are all hunkered down under w/knitted scarves and hats and long johns! It was 8f when I looked at my window thermometer this morning!
Who knows how low it was before that?

 

[Faebinder]

Yeah that's too much work... My fish are hanging outside with the same type of trough heater you got in that picture. With your temperature I would have consider just covering the pond with a vinyl see-through cover to improve insulation and you did. I think you were fine to leave them outside.

Get a pond thermometer and see what's your pond temperature when insulated and covered from the top. Bet it doesn't go below 30 with the trough heater.

 

[Tish]

My fish are all hunkered down under w/knitted scarves and hats and long johns! It was 8f when I looked at my window thermometer this morning!
Who knows how low it was before that? View attachment 155520View attachment 155519

Did you knit those sweaters yourself? Very nice.