herzausstahl
herzausstahl
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2011
- Messages
- 790
- Reaction score
- 363
- Location
- Northeast Wisconsin Zone 4a/5b
- Hardiness Zone
- 4a
Hello everyone, as most of you know this is my first summer/winter with my pond and I was wondering when everyone starts to winterize their pond? I understand about not feeding fish after the water temp drops below 50 degrees (yes I need a thermometer for my pond, but the little guys are just eating algae now anyway so not a problem this year), but at what temperature do you remove the filter and pump? I'm zone 4a/5b so it will get well below freezing here. My pond is 3'3" at the deepest part, could probably get it to 3'5"-3'6" if I put a cap on my overflow drain. So I plan on leaving my pumps in the bottom of the pond turned off where it won't freeze and blowing air in the water tubing (2" Flex PVC and 1 1/2" corrugated tubing). I plan on shutting down my stream at the end of this month and then leaving the filter running for awhile. The question is at what consistent temp should I pull my filter for winter storage and winterize that pump? To keep a hole in the ice I will have a smaller pump that will go on a ledge about 16" below the surface of the water and be connected to a bubbling fountain head, it is a 450 gph pump so it will move a huge amount of water, but enough to keep a hole in the ice. If that doesn't work, I will pick up a de-icer on ebay.