My Winter Cover

[jrladd]

Hello.
I am new to the forum and hobby. Made my first pond this year. I am in Milwaukee, WI. It's a small ~800 gallon pond, which will be expanded next spring. Anyway I just wanted to share with you some pictures of my winter cover I made. So far we have had 2 snow storms and 2 pretty cold spells that followed. We had temps below zero for a few days. I have had no ice at all!!! I am not running any heaters. I am still running my main pump, and an air pump. Here are some pics. Enjoy!

Regards,
Jon

PS. The blue thing is a coffee can with the bottom cut out. I can pop the cover off and take a peek inside to see how things are doing.

 

[DrDave]

Welcome to the Forum. Thanks for sharing the photos.
Merry Christmas

 

[Meekaboo]

Hey jrladd,

Welcome to the forum. Great idea with the coffee can!

 

[koikeepr]

Looks like your cover is working like a charm!

 

[jrladd]

Thanks for the welcomes!

Anyone here have any success or failures with this type of winter cover? My biggest concern is keeping the pond as ice free as possible. The pond is only ~20-22 inches deep.

So far the air temp in the dome is consistently staying about 10-20 degrees higher then the outside temp.
The water temp is staying between 32 and 38.

I am wondering if it is better to leave snow on the dome (assuming it doesn't collapse) so that it will act like insulation to keep heat in better, or to remove the snow so that more sunlight will enter the dome and help to heat it up.

Any input?

 

[DrDave]

Igloos stay warm inside...

 

[koikeepr]

right! It's an insulator. Hopefully the piping you used is rigid enough to support the weight. Do you have an air pump running so that you can keep a hole open if the pond freezes over? You can search our forums here on winterizing where we've spend a lot of time talking about this very subject...air pumps, de-icers, heaters, etc.

 

[DrDave]

Depending on the location of the air pump, the seal of the cover, and the volume of air, it will help support the cover.

It would be interesting to know if your pond stays ice free and other ponds freeze over in your area. This would be a testament to the value of a pond (tent style) cover.

 

[Matak]

In gardening, a small tent as such is called a cloche. It is really useful for extending the season on both ends. It may prove useful to you to get a jump start on the season next spring and also to moderate any spring cold snaps. Good idea!

 

[DrDave]

Welcome to the Forum Matak. More good advice.

 

[Matak]

Thanks Doctor

 

[jrladd]

Hello! Here are some pictures of my pond from a couple weeks ago. These were taken during a decent snow storm. Temps were in the teens the week prior to this storm, and about 25-30 during the storm. Following this storm temps were anywhere from 0 to 30 for a week or two. The snow on the dome helps hold in any heat that was there, and I had no ice to speak of! I am wondering if the pump that is running is putting off a tiny amount of heat...

 

[jrladd]

This past week has been brutally cold. It started when the temp rose to around 35, and we had rain for two days, melting nearly all the snow. All my insulation on the dome is gone! After the rain, temps have been around 0 for nearly the whole week. Wind chills much below. As you can see from the pic's, the pond has started to freeze over. In an attempt to slow or stop the ice, I "installed" a work light in the pond. I am hoping the small amount of heat generated by the bulb will help keep the air temp in the dome up.

The first two pics are before I added the light. You can see my air pump is still keeping an area open, but I was still nervous considering how cold it is out there.

In the last pic, the light had been on for about 24 hours. It appears that the ice has started to subdue.

Just thought I would share!

-Jon

 

[DrDave]

Thanks, great pictures.

 

[DrCase]

Your pond looks a lot warmer than mine right now...
Next week will be different