Will ice damage the EDPM liner?

[Jkm]

i live in north Idaho, zone 6. After the massacre in my new pond this summer, the pond of death is empty of fish but full of water. This morning it’s 26 degrees F. We turned off the pump and drained the filter and skimmer yesterday. There is 1/4” of ice on the pond this morning. I did not leave a floating de-icer in it so the ice is a solid sheet. It will only get thicker.

My husband and I are arguing about winter care - he’s afraid that if the pond equipment is turned off and water is not circulating, the ice will cut into the bare lining at the edges of the pond.

Has that ever happened to anyone? Is that a danger?

 

[Jack B. Nimble]

I'd say your fine although my worry as first year in is my skimmer. It is outside of the mass and being a hard shell plastic my be prone to expanding ice. My solution was a kids styrofoam noodle jammed inside. Just my first year but the skimmer and the bio falls will be my worries.

 

[Lisak1]

No - your EPDM liner will be fine. Here's a picture of my pond to ease your husband's mind. For seven winters our pond has looked like this:

 

[Mmathis]

The liner will be fine.

 

[addy1]

Agree liner will be fine, I have some small fish less ponds, they freeze almost solid never bothers the liner.

 

[poconojoe]

No problem with ice. I'm in zone 6B. Been ponding for 9 years. The ice on the top of my pond can get somewhere around (plus or minus) 10" thick.

 

[Jkm]

No problem with ice. I'm in zone 6B. Been ponding for 9 years. The ice on the top of my pond can get somewhere around (plus or minus) 10" thick.

Do you run your pump/filter/skimmer/waterfall through the winter? Do you have a bottom drain that you run through the winter?

 

[poconojoe]

Do you run your pump/filter/skimmer/waterfall through the winter? Do you have a bottom drain that you run through the winter?

I don't have a skimmer or a bottom drain. I shut my waterfall down for fear of the water flowing onto the ice and out of the pond. I take my pressure filters and their pump inside. The pump stays in the basement in a bucket of water to keep its rubber parts from dying out. I use a low wattage deicer to keep a hole in the ice for gasses to escape. I run the aerator with large air stone all year. I also have a submerged bucket with a small (550gph) pump covered with lava rocks which has a discharge pvc pipe that goes up and sits just below the water surface that creates a fountain.

 

[Jkm]

So I guess a better question is: do you have water circulating from bottom to top and top to bottom (via the aerator and bucket pump) throughout the winter?

 

[addy1]

I run a small pump in the shallow end of the pond, around 250 gph. It is in a home depot bucket with a bit of pads. The discharge is pointed to the surface of the water, keeps a small area ice free. The water would technically be going from two feet below surface level to the surface. This is around 15 feet from the deep end of the pond. The open area is for the birds to get drinks.

I leave the deep end of the pond free of disturbance, except for a pond breather.

 

[Lisak1]

I run my pond all winter - we don't have a skimmer or waterfall box, though.

 

[poconojoe]

Mine is like addy. Bucket on the bottom (depth is 3 feet there). So, water is sucked into the top of the bucket and discharged just below the surface through the small pvc pipe. Your aeration stone should not be on the bottom during the winter. You don't want the cold outside air to chill the bottom too much. Tie a string on it to keep it up.

 

[Mmathis]

I run mine all year, but I’m in zone 8 a/b, so my situation is different from yours. Any freezing that happens isn’t enough to be an issue.

 

[Jkm]

I run a small pump in the shallow end of the pond, around 250 gph. It is in a home depot bucket with a bit of pads. The discharge is pointed to the surface of the water, keeps a small area ice free. The water would technically be going from two feet below surface level to the surface. This is around 15 feet from the deep end of the pond. The open area is for the birds to get drinks.

I leave the deep end of the pond free of disturbance, except for a pond breather.

Thank you. This winter is a no-fish experiment; having an argument with my husband about running the drain (all the pond equipment) all winter. This morning the water temps are 38 at the surface and 36 at the drain (5ft). At least there are no fish.