Turning the pump off

[mrsclem]

We had a couple nights of low temps in the teens and the 4" pipe coming from the filter froze almost solid! Another couple of hours and it would have drained the pond so the pumps have been pulled and 100 watt heaters are in place as well as 1250 watt heaters ( not plugged in yet) in case of severe weather.

 

[CometKeith]

Beth, If your pond is deep enough then it would be impossible for your fish to freeze. Suggested is at least 4-5 ft deep. The pond will develop a layer at the bottom of 38 degrees which your fish will be fine in and long as that layer isn't disturbed. This is assuming you have an in ground pond and it is not raised out of the ground. The earth will maintain the 38 degree temperature even if it is colder at the surface. I have a friend who only has a 2 ft deep pond and his fish are okay in the winter, but I wouldn't recommend that. Anything that maintains a hole is good. It doesn't have to be a pump and your pump may burn out if water freezes inside it. My pond did the same thing this weekend that yours did. All the ice melted and now it's frozen solid!

 

[Rbritt]

Thanks everyone! I'm very nervous about the pump freezing up, it's brutal out there today. So I'm running home on my lunch and hope I can get it disconnected and pulled out and get back to work in time and without freezing myself! The pond is a bit short of 3' at it's deepest - hope that'll be okay for the fish and they don't freeze solid!? We'd planned on digging it deeper when we put it in but we're surrounded by rock and the terrain wound up dictating some of the shape & depth of the pond since we were digging by hand. Hoping it'll be okay as there's not much I can do to change it now. :lol:
Beth

 

[JustJack]

I'm in Florida so our temps aren't as consistently cold, but last year we had quite a few freezes and already had some this year. I have a small waterfall that is not connected to the pump that just recycles the water out of the pond and that keeps it from freezing. My pump is off right now so the main waterfall is off and the pond connected to that waterfall froze last night but the koi pond was fine and they were all swimming around this morning. You can get a fountain at Home Depot or Lowes to put in there and keep water moving--that worked for us in the other pond last year but I had turned that off as well since we have no fish in that pond at the moment.
Amy