This was my second winter, first with both ponds. I took Colleen's advise from Canada, and did my best to keep all pumps up and running. For some reason, my stream ran all but maybe a few days, it is fed from skimmer in goldfish pond, and if the ice was too thick, the skimmer pump got no water. Bog on goldfish pond I think never was shut off! Both ponds have been clear of ice for maybe 2 weeks now, or close to it, both crystal clear. Had bad situation last weekend, koi pond pump line pulled apart, and drained the pond down to the depth of the (thankfully) milk crate the 4200 gph pump was attached to. All fish accounted for, just took 2.5 days to fill it back up with well water, which is good as it, no chemicals were needed. And, since the well is 45' deep, water was cold, too. Pumping water into the pool at the bottom of waterfall, not going through Skippy yet, but have had the bog on koi pond running pretty much full-time, too, except for extreme ice times, so maybe a couple of weeks total it was off. I'm sold ... so far anyhow ... on keeping things up and running. I realize beneficial bacteria is not necessarily helping keep things clear, but the water in both ponds is clear to the bottom. I've not messed with trying to net out anything that has accumulated on the bottom over winter. Very little down there, but will wait until water is warmer, and can put in my pond stuff that helps make any muck into a "matt" and then it pulls out in a large blanket, instead of stirring up in the water and causing cloudiness. Last year I had brown murky water for about a month, so I'm anxious to see if it happens again this year, or if I get pea green water, or if it stays clear. The brown was from using too much peroxide in the spring trying to kill the string algae, but won't be doing that again either!
