freezing

[alex chappelear]

I know in zone 6a im going to have to shut down the filter system in the winter but there are mornings in the fall and spring that are cold enough to freeze small volumes of water and bust pipes before warming up a few hours later, so are rotary drum filters only for non freezing areas as they have small volumes of water in those nosles and spray bar that would freeze quickly.

on gravity fed systems when shutting down for the winter all lines need to cross through a valve box that is buried below frost line where knife valves are? on the downstream side of the knife valve there would be water trapped between knife and settlement tank, and possibly other areas. Is there a type of small pump that you can attach a small flexible hose to the sucking end to feed through pipes to suck the water out so it doesn't freeze and bust pipes. also return jets would have water in them and the lines feeding them. do you unscrew the return jets and cap them off somehow then suck water out of those lines also?

 

[Mmathis]

Sorry, I live in balmy zone 8b.....but maybe someone else can run with this.

 

[MitchM]

Draining your plumbing for the winter shouldn't be as complicated as described.
You should be able to turn off the pumps and have the water drain either back into the pond or you have unions or valves you can leave open for the winter that will release the remaining pipe water into the ground.

 

[alex chappelear]

in a gravity fed system though?

 

[Lisak1]

I'm not familiar with a gravity fed system, but is it true that you MUST shut it down?

 

[MitchM]

Please describe or better yet post a picture of your gravity fed system.
Any low areas in plumbing should have a valve where you can release trapped water.
Gravity only flows one way.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I'm in zone 5a and have never intentionally shut down my pumps for the Winter. As long as the water keeps moving, the pipes will never freeze. This year however was one of my worst-case situations -- due to daily temps being well below zero and a large build-up of ice around the waterfall one night, my bottom pond drained and exposed one of the pumps. Sucking in cold air made the pump freeze up and it was a week before the temps came back up enough for me to get things moving again. (Oddly, even though the pump was submerged under water for that week, it still didn't thaw out.) Luckily there was no damage to the pump from being frozen, and as expected there was no damage to any of the pipes.

Some things to consider for year-round operations...

• Make sure your pipes are buried below the frost line as much as possible. In my area that's really only about 12" deep, and my pipes are above-ground leading to the pumps and filters on each end.
• Constantly watch for freezing around waterfalls or anything that splashes. I check my pond every morning before work. There are two problems at play here: 1) The ice building up reduces the amount of water in the pond. My lower pond where the pumps are located is rather small, so I have to make sure there isn't so much ice that the small pond drains out. 2) The ice can create dams and redirect splashing water out of your pond, again causing low-water problems. If the ice builds too high, you'll need to knock it back into the water, just be careful of pounding on the air as that can kill fish!
  
• Your fish need areas of undisturbed water. My waterfall is directly over the deepest part of my pond, and really only affects the top 6" of water. That top layer will be super-cooled from the interaction with the Winter air, but the fish find deeper pockets of motionless warmer water to sit in for the Winter.
• A benefit of keeping the pumps running is that it oxygenates the water. If you don't have an air pump, this can be critical for fish.

I was really nervous the first year after I built my pond. My stream is shallow, only about 6-8 inches deep (and it's funny to watch 18" koi coming up the stream with their backs completely out of the water while spawning). I knew the stream would freeze over, and it does every year. BUT the water under the ice keeps moving and the stream has never frozen through completely. Occasionally I will wake up to find a lot of water missing, and you need to be prepared to refill as needed even when everything is frozen up. However you want to try and leave your pond frozen over as much as possible because the ice traps in warmth. I've had 6" of ice on my pond and measured the water temp at 40 degrees. I've also had a sheet of very transparent ice over the pond and seen the fish completely active, as though it were Summer. Solid ice makes for warm water and happy fish, and if they're active then they will need more oxygen.

The point is, pumps don't HAVE to be shut down for the Winter just because you get ice -- as long as you are willing to keep a close watch on things.

 

[MitchM]

...

• Make sure your pipes are buried below the frost line as much as possible. In my area that's really only about 12" deep, ...

For argument's sake, if your frost line is 12", then you have a 40f heater at 13" with an almost endless supply of heat. Add on top of that snow cover for insulation and ice cover to prevent evaporation and you can enjoy free running water fairly safely.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Exactly... The ground will hold a certain amount of heat that may vary throughout the year, but it never completely freezes below a certain level. So if I have a 3' deep pond and the top 1' of ground is frozen, I still have another 2' of pond below that which is exposed to non-freezing temperatures. And even if I bury my pipes a little shallow, they'll still have warm water flowing through them. The pipes MUST be buried though, if they are exposed directly to freezing air then the water in the pipes will freeze the moment your power goes out and the water stops flowing. I found this out with my first pre-fab pond where I simply tucked the pipes under the lip at the edge of the liner -- the first time the power went out for a few minutes the pipes froze up solid.