Here's a first for me...

[Shdwdrgn]

So I have a situation that's never happened to me before -- the temps have been so cold that the waterfall has formed a nearly complete shell of ice. There is one little sliver, about 1" x 8" that is open, and I'm pretty sure that will close up tonight. This will be the first time I've ever seen the pond completely encased in ice, despite the fact that the water is still flowing.

I would assume that if the pond is completely enclosed, this means no oxygen is getting into the water, even though the water is still flowing through the filters and splashing down the falls? I'm not too worried about it, since our temps are supposed to shoot back up above freezing tomorrow (which here means that everything will melt FAST), but I'm hoping to get a picture of the falls in the morning.

 

[Mmathis]

Can't wait to see the pics!

 

[dieselplower]

When the pond freezes over, are you not worried the water will overflow and eventually empty the pond?

 

[Shdwdrgn]

When the pond freezes over, are you not worried the water will overflow and eventually empty the pond?

No, the ice has formed a shell over the top of the waterfall. The filter barrels, the entire arc of the waterfall -- its all encased in ice. The water did initially splatter over the surface, which caused the ice to get so thick to begin with, but now all the splashing is contained.

Here's a shot from yesterday to give you an idea what its doing... Up front you can see where I cut a hole through the ice. That spot was 3" thick, and back by the falls is MUCH thicker.

Our temperatures have been hovering near 0F for over a week now. I've broken down the dome of ice over the falls twice already, and I have a floating heater at the far end to help a little in preventing the pipes from freeezing up. The ice is so thick that I can't see the fish, but they've never had a problem in the past.

 

[sissy]

gosh that ice looks really thick

 

[addy1]

Neat shot! Mine freezes, thaws, freezes, thaws lol. Can't make up its mind.

 

[j.w]

That's a heck of a lot of ice and no where near what I ever get here thank goodness! Make for a very pretty picture tho of all that ice forming in your falls.

 

[Tula]

Wow, you weren't kidding when you said your pond was iced over! Beautiful picture and am hoping all remains well with your pond Kim

 

[dieselplower]

Cool

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Well we had a bit of a surprise today... temps got up to 44F, followed by some monster winds this evening. The heat doesn't seem to have done much of anything to the ice on the falls, although the small pond at the end is almost completely uncovered now.

So I went and grabbed some pictures this morning before work. Just barely a sliver still open in the ice...

I just love how the ice over the falls is nearly crystal clear, while the rest of the pond is milky-white.

Another shot from further back...

I love the patterns that formed in the ice over the stream!

There is so much ice on top of the pond that the water level in the pond was dropping dangerously low, so I gave it a good fill. Of course now if all that ice melts, the pond is going to overflow! Ah well, no big deal. We're supposed be in the mid-40's for the next week, so I'm expecting most of the ice to be sinking back down. I really wish I had a webcam set up on the pond, because its completely dark by the time I get home at night, so I can't see much of what happened during the day.

 

[addy1]

Neat shots! My ponds are icing up where the aerator is not running, with this cold smack for the next week will see how well the aerator keeps the three ponds open. Big pond has about 1/2 open.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Well I had to kill it. Got up this morning and the bottom pond was running low on water again. With the temps warming up, some water from the falls had started working out over the top of the ice. If have a layer of ice at least 4" thick by the edges of the pond (where it was finally running out into the yard) and that builds up thicker going back to the falls. I started chopping out ice so it could fall back into the water and got the level back up enough that the pumps are happy again. We're going to be approaching 50 degrees over the weekend, so hopefully a good amount of the ice will melt down.

While I was cutting holes in the ice, I saw a curious goldfish come check out the open area... guess he was missing his sunshine!

 

[sissy]

the light came back on :cheerful:

 

[j.w]

Murderer :biggrin:

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Pics of the carnage...

Note the size of the blocks of ice I pulled out of the water!

Half the ice is underwater, and even with it chopped up like this, its still solid enough for me to walk around on it.