pond bubbler - neccessary for winter?

[micaaronfl76]

hey i have a 400 gallon pond and a floating heater, i live in pa and plan to turn the pumps off in december. i was wondering is a pond bubbler neccessary? i have 4 koi and 2 shubumkins. last year i had only 2 shubumkins and they survived fine.

dont want to lose the koi!

 

[Craig58]

You'll probably spend a lot on the heater to keep it running all winter. A bubbler is usually much cheaper to run and will usually keep a hole in the ice. If it freezes over anyway, turn the heater on for a day to open up the ice. Then unplug again. Last year was very mild. We never had to use our heater.

Of course, I'm assuming you have a pond at least 3' deep? At 400 gallons maybe not however. In which case you'll have to watch it very closely and maybe turn on the heater a lot more. The bubbler should be kept at the surface, not on the bottom.

Craig

 

[micaaronfl76]

my pond is 3 feet deep at the lowest and 2 feet shelfs on the side. i am not concerned with the freeze over, just want to make sure the fish have sufficient aeration. plus the heather only goes one when necessarry

 

[Craig58]

The bubbler is primarily to keep the ice open. O2 in the water is not usually an issue. We JUST had some extensive discussions on temp and DO on that here:

Temps are talked about here in conjunction with adding salt to the water: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/10352-salt-in-pond-water/page__st__30

This thread we talked a lot about dissolved oxygen levels: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/10439-pump-diedso-did-my-koi/page__st__15

Craig

 

[sissy]

pond heaters only come on at certain temps so they do not run all the time .But in PA they will run more than mine does .But you have to keep some type of opening in the ice somehow .

 

[micaaronfl76]

ok so it seems that concensus is to just have the heater, the bubbler isnt necessary

 

[callingcolleen1]

I would have something circulating the water and filtering it too. I keep some pumps running with the filter, so they don't plug up, and keep the water circulating well by the heater, so the pond is heated more evenly. If you only run a heater, the fish tend to hang out next to the heater and that is not good. The water around the heater will be warm, but elsewhere it will be freezing. If you only use a heater and nothing else, life will suck for the fish.

 

[sissy]

I keep a pump running also and use a pipe with holes drilled in it and it has worked for 5 years now

 

[Craig58]

I found our heaters ran a LOT in the winter here. I believe as delivered the stock heaters are set to come on around 40F.

The bubbler is MUCH cheaper to run.

Craig

 

[sissy]

That is a stock tank heater but the kh one I have does not come on until it hits 20 degrees .I wanted to see what temp so used ice water and checked the temps to see when it would come on .Stock tank heaters are made to keep water from freezing so animals can have something to drink .I have a built in one in one of my stock tanks

 

[callingcolleen1]

If you can get away with just a bubbler that would be great, but for most people in zone 2 or 3 it just won't "cut it". I don't plug in my heater until it is colder than -15c or close to zero f, I can get away with not plugging in heater when so cold cause my three connecting ponds have a large volume of water and larger bodies of water take longer to freeze up and cool off. I also like to try to keep at least 80 percent of the water surface covered with ice. When all my plants are frozen off I will try to get a picture of all three connecting ponds so that you can get an idea of large my ponds really are. The large sedges hide lots.

 

[sissy]

But also found where plants stick out of the pond it takes a little longer for water to freeze around them .I put a large planter pot filled with oyster shells and also milk cartons filled with oyster shells and it took a longer time for water to freeze around them .You can see one of the milk bottles in the pic by the bubbler .I had 4 of them tied to the bridge and put 2 near the water fall and one each on my plant shelves and it seemed the water never froze up to where the bottles were at .Not sure maybe the plastic warmed up or the oyster shells gave off heat .I used to keep wsand in the milk bottles but last year I tried oyster shells since I had a big bag of them from tractor supply .I ven tried solar salt in one and the water never froze around them last year ,but we did have a mild winter so not sure about that .I know the 2010 winter I had them in the pond with sand and it did not freeze them in place .I think they store heat .

 

[CliffandJoann]

We live in zone seven and keep one small pump on all year.

We also use an aquarium
bubbler in winter. We put the motor inside a peanut butter jar, cut a hole in the lid for the
hose to come out -- and then wire the peanut butter jar to a stake and secure the stake in the
ground about 2 1/2 feet up to keep the bubbler motor dry from the elements.

Bought the bubbler in wallmart many years ago for about five bucks.

 

[sissy]

Petco has a good 4 port one less than 30 dollars and mine still works great and came with everything included and mine has to be at least 4 years old .This was when i put 1 of the 2 inch air stones on the pump line