What is a good pond heater?

[agapanthus]

I have tried to look this up on here, but I can't find any favorites. I'm going to buy a pond heater/de-icer, and wondered what brands work the best? I want a submersible one, that won't melt my liner, and hoping to stay under $40. My pond is about 950 gallons. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[fishin4cars]

Heating pond water in the winter is pretty much useless, Unless you install heated water tubing before the install. these types of heaters are WAY more than your planning on your budget and most even when used are used on indoor ponds where the elements aren't nearly as fluctuation. Submersible heaters aren't very effective. they will heat a small area of water near the bottom, but aren't going to be enough to keep the water from freezing in your area. If the element does come in contact with the liner it can damage it, plus if a fish lay's up against the element while it's dormant it can actually burn the fish.
Floating deicers are the best option if your going with a heated device. the goal is to keep an opening in the ice so gases can escape and oxygen can still get in the pond water. aeration is another option, air brings the warmer water to the surface and in all but hard freezes this is usually all that is needed, plus the cost to run is FAR less.
My question now is how deep is this 950 gallon pond, If not deep enough no heater is going to work if the temps get down in the 20's and stays below freezing for days at a time.

 

[sissy]

I got my kh one from petmountain 35 dollar but is 250 watts I think .I put my heater right over top of my pump I think it helps keep the tanks from freezing since I run them all winter .You could use a 50 watt one but not sure where you can get one that small .Mine floats and can submerge and has a fish protector .I wonder if a fish tank heater would work for a smaller pond .I know they make big ones for the bigger tanks .Colleen manages to keep hers going in Canada with heaters .Depth does matter like fishin says .Not sure how cold you get there ,but here not so cold

 

[agapanthus]

Part of the pond is about 2' and goes down to just under 3'. Our temps have gone as low as 9 or 10, but usually stays in the high 20's at night and goes above freezing in the daytime. This is for about 2 or 3 months. Lots of rain, snow is never the same. Some years we have none and other times we have as much as 2 or 3 feet for a while! Crazy. I just want to keep an area open and maybe keep a warm spot where the fish could hang out.

 

[sissy]

The deeper water is warmer and all you would need is an opening in the ice for gas exchange I would think .If your pond is in sun it will be warmer also .I would google pond heaters for 1000 gallon ponds and see what you get .I am not sure how small the kh ones come in .But does use up electric .

 

[fishin4cars]

Sissy, you would need somewhere around 950 watts of heater to keep 950 gallons of water at 35 degrees if the air temp was 32. For that much electricity the Original Poster could purchase a 1250 watt de-icer run it all winter and still save a bundle of money. Aquarium heaters are designed to maintain temps in the 60-85 degree range with ambient room temp of about 65-75 degrees room temp. A deicer heater and air like what you use would do a far better job and in the long run and save a lot of money in electricity during the winter months.
this is the one I have, I have had it for about 5 years and it still works great, http://www.ebay.com/itm/1250-Watt-F...991?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item589b0925a7 Then again, I only use it maybe 1-5 days a winter. I do like that if the water is above 33 degrees it shuts down automatically until the temps go back below 33 again.

 

[studiovette]

I bought a 250 watt de icer I am gonna try for the first time this year. This will be my 1st winter with a pond. My pond is about 1000 gal. I also want to ask you guys if I can run my main pump that powers my falls? Will this freeze up? I don't want to damage pump or anyting else as I just spent about $1,000 at the beginning of this season to get everything up and running. I just like the idea of looking outside and seeing the running water even in the cold or snowy weather.

 

[sissy]

mine kept my whole pond open all winter .You can buy those heaters or like them at tractor supply but they use alot of electric also .If he just wants to keep the fish a little warmer he should not need much .I think colleen in Canada use a 750 watt one .I kept my fountain which was huge running in Edison NJ with a 50 watt one even through the blizzards we had .The fountain bottom was I think 10ft by 10 ft and 2 feet or so deep and had goldfish my son and his friends got at the fair and the heater was only 50 watts .Only kept an extra pump going and the heater for the bottom part of the fountain going .

 

[dieselplower]

If u choose to run the heater that's nifty but you really don't need it. I wouldn't bother running the water all winter. Running water can get very cold. Why make the fish suffer?

 

[agapanthus]

Thanks. I'm going to find a smallish one. One reason I want to make a little warm spot on the bottom is to see if a couple of Plecos will survive. I can't catch them. They have been in there since spring and 1 is about 4" and the other is about 6". I don't really think they will make it, but I want to experiment and see.
Also, I found a solar powered air bubbler. It only works with sunlight on it, it doesn't have a battery, but it puts out a lot of air when it does work. I think it would be grreat for people who live on areas that are sunny a lot.

 

[dieselplower]

Good luck. Looking forward to see how it works.

 

[fishin4cars]

Good luck, Plecos don't survive most wnters down here, and we hardly ever even get ice on the ponds much less freeze over. Solar powered pump, Hmm how does that work when it's covered in snow? most Goldfish and Koi can live in water that is 32 degrees, It's the opening in the ice that allows the gas exchange, without a opening the gasses build up and by the time the pond thaws out they fish are suffering from CO2 poisoning. But I'll let those that have some experience in this post on this. this is beyond my expertise since I usually run all my ponds continuously 24/7 365 days a year.

 

[Dave 54]

In the koi world we use inline pondheaters where the pump passes water through the heater and is returned to pond , they start at 1kw and go upwards from 1Kw .
1 kw would be more than enough to heat your pond one problem is the price as they can get expensive,
We encased our filter units in wood with 22mm polystyreene to lag the sides and quadruple thickness policarbonate roofing , in this we placed a 800 watt oil heated radiator to heat the whole unit up as an experiment last year.there is no way for the heat to escape so its kept in the filterhousing warming the plastc xortex style filters and thus that of the bio filter.
The bottom drain bubbler is turned down throughout the winter to its bare minimum.
The experiment worked heating the water going through our filters which raised the temperature in the pond to 11-12c.
On a warm winters day we acctually recorded 14c on the remote from the pond thermometer , the oil heated radiator gets up to temperature which then causes it to shut off and the heated oil takes over until it cools enough for the radiator to read this and click on again etc etc throughout the winter period.
Our pond is only 50 gallons Imperial more than yours at 1,000 gallons imperial.
The heat is refected back into the pond which is covered in Policarbonate sheeting throughout the winter from October until late spring.
Sometimes it pays to be inventive which in this case it works and it has.

rgrds

Dave

 

[dieselplower]

I don't want to beat a dead horse but it doesn't look like anyone has mentioned putting the heater in the bottom won't make the bottom water warmer. The colder, more dense water from the top will sink to the bottom, displacing the warm water. It will stir the pond gently but my point is that you will still be trying to heat the entire pond.

 

[Dave 54]

Are you talking thermal stratification desejplower ?
I think with most ponds there isnt sufficentt depth for them to form most ponds being 3.5 ft in depth in some cases lass , even ours at 4ft is the minimum for the koi world whee 5ft is normally the depth of our ponds .
You'll have to look into it see what you can come up with .

rgrds

Dave