The pond is officially closed till spring

[RobAmy]

Well the time has come. I could of squeaked a couple more days but the weather was decent today to close the pond down. The next 10 days looked iffy, possible snow and cold temps then who knows. I gained over a month from past winters which was nice. I cleaned out the bio filter and media, I cleaned out a lot of the stream, a bit of poop and gunk on was on the bottom of the stream. I dug pockets in the stone then washed the stone down with the hose and sucked the debris out of the pockets with the pond vac. Worked well with nothing going into the pond. Just the air pump running now. Amazing I could do that in February. Now I can relax till spring

 

[sissy]

Well Phil did speak in a way or so .Here it has been so nice I have been amazed .I thought this winter was going to be bad but so far good .But winter is not done yet so wondering if we are in for a big surprise .I hope not but you never know

 

[cas]

I opened my pond up (pump and filters in) last year on March 7. You might only have your pond shut down for one month - what a long ponding season you had!

 

[RobAmy]

I opened my pond up (pump and filters in) last year on March 7. You might only have your pond shut down for one month - what a long ponding season you had!

Hopefully It can get back up and running soon. It was the middle of march last year I believe.

 

[Tula]

Yes, you may get lucky and only get to relax a month

 

[Gemma]

My pond hasn't stopped running at all this year, even though we had some very cold days

 

[Lisak1]

Out of curiosity - why you shut down at all @RobAmy ?

 

[RobAmy]

Out of curiosity - why you shut down at all @RobAmy ?

I may even not too, but my stream is very shallow in a few areas for the ease of bird use, it is only about 1 1/2 inches deep. So I get concerned with possible damming and the water flows out of the stream onto the ground. So far the water flow is fast enough that flow is fine with icing. Heavy snow is another issue, sometimes it can turn slushy with only high volume snow storms in a short period of time. I also travel a bit more during the winter so it is just easier then to worry about it. I think if I really pay attention during the winter I could keep it going all year.

 

[Lisak1]

Gotcha! I thought it might be because of the stream, but I wasn't sure. We have a small "stream" (and I do mean small... like less than two feet long - we built it for the visual effect more than anything) that we are able to turn off during the winter. I know if that were still flowing I would be concerned about ice dams and overflows, too.