Should I melt the ice on my pond?

[max384]

I have a 400 gallon 9'x4' pond that is 3' deep at the deep end and about 1.5' at the shallow end. Last year the winter (my first with a pond) was very mild in the northeast and I never had to turn off my waterfall, so I always had an area around the waterfall (on the shallow end) that was unfrozen. I had to turn off the waterfall a couple of weeks ago because the temps got too low. For the past few days, it's been very cold here. I went out today and cleared the snow off the pond surface and melted the surface with a propane torch to get the ice clear so I could see down below the ice. The ice looks to be about three inches deep. The fish are swimming around underneath, and look fine from up here. I have five Shubunkins and two goldfish. One that is about 8" and four that are about 3-4" long. I don't know the name of the two goldfish I have. They're about 4-5" long and are gold and white with long fins. I can't remember what they called them at the pond shop I got them from. It was a Japanese-sounding name. There are also about a dozen frogs that were hanging out at the pond during the summer.

Should I melt the ice? Or should I let it be as long as it doesn't get too thick?

Also, how should I do it? Think there's any problem with blasting the ice with my propane torch to burn a hole through?

 

[sissy]

pan of hot water set on top to melt a hole and you will need to keep it open somehow

 

[adavisus]

Yup a pan of hot water would work well, might take a couple of pans to get through 3" thick ice

Melting a hole every other day would probably be adequate to stop a toxic level of gases building up

A cunning way to stop the ice plate from thickening would be to drain 1/2" of water from under ice creating an air gap.

Plugging the melt hole with some fabric cover will keep the hole and the double glazed pond in stasis during the freeze period

 

[max384]

Thanks for the advice guys!

Okay, after about an hour of the pan method, I gave up. I boiled three pots of water on my turkey fryer and let them sit on the ice until the water in the pot was lukewarm (In other words, I boiled a pot of water and set it on the ice three separate times, to avoid confusion). I had only managed to get through about 3/4" of water in an hour. Maybe the cold is dampening the effects of this method; according to my thermometer, it's 4 degrees F outside right now. If my estimate of 3" of water was correct, I still had another three hours to go.

I decided to just torch it. About 45 seconds later I was through and had a hole about a foot in diameter.

Unless you guys give me a reason why torching it would be harmful, I think I'll just put the torch to the ice for about 20 seconds every other day.

 

[max384]

By the way, here's the type of propane torch I used:

 

[fishin4cars]

I would be worried about the chemicals being burnt by the torch right by the pond. But if your going to use one and its 4 degrees outside, that would be the ticket! my suggestion would be get the hole made, get a pond de-icer http://www.ebay.com/itm/Farm-Innova...453?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58963fb0b5

 

[sissy]

I would use the pan method also .Neighbor tried a blow torch the 2010 winter and lost 4 fish

 

[Mmathis]

A cunning way to stop the ice plate from thickening would be to drain 1/2" of water from under ice creating an air gap.

Plugging the melt hole with some fabric cover will keep the hole and the double glazed pond in stasis during the freeze period

I kinda like Andy's suggestion. At least worth a try once you finally get a hole opened up. Maybe roll up some quilt batting, or something similar, to stuff in the hole..... Guess you'd still have to make modifications along the way, especially if you get additional precipitation.

 

[addy1]

bubble wrap won't soak in water and freeze, it would probably really help in keeping the hole open. Easy to pull out also

 

[Mmathis]

bubble wrap won't soak in water and freeze, it would probably really help in keeping the hole open. Easy to pull out also

Oh, good idea! And 'cause of the shape or "texture" of bubble wrap, it would allow for air to pass.

 

[addy1]

I stuff it in my skimmer for the winter, keeps ice from forming in it and possibly cracking the skimmer. Works great

 

[max384]

Thanks guys. Have any of you used low wattage (100-250 W) deicers? I'm not crazy about the idea of running a 1000+ watt heater 24 hours a day during the winter. I've found a few on Amazon that are low wattage and are just meant to keep a tiny hole open for gas exchange.

 

[max384]

Oh, and I'm a bit nervous about draining water from my pond. For my climate, my pond is already a bit too shallow. There turned out to be closer to 4" of ice on the pond, plus dropping it another couple of inches would take away a lot of swimming area. What do you guys think?

 

[addy1]

I just run an aerator, no heater. If you can get a hole in your ice, put in some bubble wrap to keep it open, every now and then pull the bubble wrap to let an air exchange happen. Looks like the weather is warming up next week, at least here in md, up to almost 60.

 

[sissy]

I never add or drop water in the winter to much risk there in water temps .I understand it adds oxygen but which is better or worse I don't know .But this has worked for me .As long as you have a small hole thats all you need .Next year around the edges if you can add pots of grasses and leave them in for the winter and they will hopefully keep openings and if you add bubble wrap around them like addy adds to her skimmer that should help keep a nice opening for you .I always prepare for the worst weather i can get here and then I don't have to worry as much