When do you shut down a pond...

[BStadele]

Hey everyone. I finished my above ground pond this summer and now with the cooler weather beginning to hit Colorado I need a little advice on when to shut everything down. Its between 550-600 gallons with a 2x4' window on the front. I have the pump kicking water into a UV Filter and then back up to a waterfall spillway. All of the pipe is exposed once it gets out of the pond and the UV filter is also sitting above ground.

I'm not super worried about the flex-pipe freezing (for now) because of how much water flows through it but should I be concerned about the UV filter and the components inside of that? Is it something that I could cover and wrap a blanket of some kind over it to extend the time that I have it running?

Initially I was thinking that I could keep it running at least into November, and if we had a mild start to winter, into December as well. I know that this would be an easier call if all of the plumbing was covered or underground but unfortunately that wasn't an option this time. Thoughts?

 

[addy1]

My plumbing is exposed, external pump, external lines. I usually remove the main pond pump sometime in Oct. If they predict freezing weather coming I make sure it is put away before it hits.

 

[mrsclem]

Your uv filter can be damaged if it freezes so I would bring it in if possible

 

[Ronfire]

Drain all the lines then you will not have a problem. If you think there is a low spot that will hold water just blow it out with a shop vac.

 

[mgmine]

You said that there was a window so I assume that it is underwater. If so I would think that it would break once the water freezes. Are you keeping the filter running all winter? If not I would drain everything and cover it to keep snow out.

 

[Ronfire]

I thought of a window as well but with the -30c temps we can get did not think it was a good idea.

 

[BStadele]

thanks for the input everyone. being that this cold front was really just a 24-36 hour cold snap I decided to let everything keep running as usual...got about 4" of snow on the top of the walls and overnight air temps were in the teens. we are now back into the 50s and the 10 day forecast has us consistently in the mid 60s all next week. The water temp dropped from 53 to 41. I will keep an eye on the forecast going forward and as soon as I see an extended period of colder weather I will pull the pump out and shut down the waterfalls.

 

[BStadele]

Quick pictures...

 

[addy1]

burrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Andrew]

Your above ground pond looks a lot like the one I had at my old house (though I didn't have that cool window!). I usually took the external filter and waterfall in for the winter but kept the submerged pump going all season - I just put a fountain attachment on it instead of running it out to the filter/waterfall. It kept a hole in the ice most of season except for the coldest days, when I would get a cool 'ice dome' where the fountain was.