I want to keep my pond around 70°

[Amalgum12]

To start my pond is relatively small and I live in mid Florida where the temps are usually around 40-50 at noght and I'm wondering if 400 to 500 eatts of heaters will be enough. I'll be using submersible tank heaters as I'm stepping up from the aquarium hobby and have retired my large freshwater tropical predator tank in favor of keeping a couple of Florida Gar in a small to medium pond. Expansions are coming eventually.

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

Most of us don’t “heat” our ponds with a goal of keeping the water warm and/or at a consistent temperature, so much as to prevent freezing in the colder, northern areas. And in that case, the “heating” is very localized, just to keep a hole open for gas exchange — not to heat the entire body of water.

How big (or small) is your pond and how deep is it? How many gallons? Can you give us more information about the pond? Is it in-ground or above-ground? What kind of liner does it have and what type of filtration? Please post some pictures for us!

I have heard of people doing this, but it uses a lot of energy ($$$). Maybe look at solar power.

And what about the pond temperature in the summer? Are you concerned with that as well, because during the hotter months, in FL, you will be fighting to keep the temperature down.

 

[j.w]

@Amalgum12

 

[Stephen Noble]

To start my pond is relatively small and I live in mid Florida where the temps are usually around 40-50 at noght and I'm wondering if 400 to 500 eatts of heaters will be enough. I'll be using submersible tank heaters as I'm stepping up from the aquarium hobby and have retired my large freshwater tropical predator tank in favor of keeping a couple of Florida Gar in a small to medium pond. Expansions are coming eventually.

Welcome Amalgum!
Yep, you can do it with effort. I kept a small water garden going all year (The California weather was slightly warmer than yours) but there some things you need to do first. A clear, dome cover over the pond is most helpful. I used two plastic window well covers glued together for this. A plastic cover really holds in the heat at night and is easily removed during the day. You might not need to use any heating at all depending on the size, especially depth of your pond. Another helpful tip is to reduce or eliminate water exiting the pond where it will quickly cool like into a bog or waterfall. Aquarium heaters are designed to cycle on and off and will quickly fail if left continuously heating in a pond. My question is why heat a gar pond? Just my opinion, if the pond is small enough to heat, it probably is too small for gar. Let us know more information. Again, welcome to the friendliest forum!
Stephen

 

[addy1]

If you just drop to 40-50 I would not heat it at all. Welcome to our forum!

 

[CometKeith]

To start my pond is relatively small and I live in mid Florida where the temps are usually around 40-50 at noght and I'm wondering if 400 to 500 eatts of heaters will be enough. I'll be using submersible tank heaters as I'm stepping up from the aquarium hobby and have retired my large freshwater tropical predator tank in favor of keeping a couple of Florida Gar in a small to medium pond. Expansions are coming eventually.

Hi Amalgum . The problem with heating over the winter is you may get some unintended consequences. The fish are not really living in a natural environment. Their resistance to disease, ie immune system is not as fully developed as it would be in the summer and bacteria etc can live in the warm water and attack them. I know of a story where someone lost over 100 large valuable Koi to disease in a warmed winter pond and they had an expert pond keeper monitoring everything. People don't talk about it, but it happens where fish die. It's kinda like people that lose money in Las Vegas don't talk about that either!

 

[Lisak1]

I'm with the "why heat the pond" crowd - one of the beauties of a pond is that it's NOT an aquarium... less to concern yourself with, more to enjoy!

Depending on the size of your pond, those 40-50 degree nights (assuming the daytime temps are significantly warmer) may not even affect the temperature of your pond, especially if it's an in-ground pond. Water is much slower to cool than air.

 

[GBBUDD]

To start my pond is relatively small and I live in mid Florida where the temps are usually around 40-50 at noght and I'm wondering if 400 to 500 eatts of heaters will be enough. I'll be using submersible tank heaters as I'm stepping up from the aquarium hobby and have retired my large freshwater tropical predator tank in favor of keeping a couple of Florida Gar in a small to medium pond. Expansions are coming eventually.

Just like your mother told you as a youngster wear a hat..... place a cover over the pond even if it's only 80% covered it will keep your heating bill down. drop your temp to 60 and I think you'll be much happier and the fish will be comfy and ten degrees over the 50 degree temps that they start shutting down

 

[sissy]

Keeping that warm may keep them producing babies all year round and pond will become over crowded

 

[Mmathis]

@Amalgum12 We still don’t have any information about your pond. How many gallons? What kind of filtration will you have?

What size are Florida gar? What conditions do they prefer in the wild?