Winter help

[Stephen Noble]

You wrote “l purchased 6 White Cloud fish.”

White clouds are not koi, and don’t tolerate as much cold. I doubt they would survive your IL winter without a heater.

Absolutely agree with Mgessert.
A deicer will not stop the semi-tropical fish (White Clouds) from suffering. A deicer 'kicks' on just above freezing, usually around 34-35-degrees. Why not just bring the fish or the entire 30-gallon pond indoors? I would put it in your basement near a window and use a caged aquarium heater to keep the fish comfortable.

 

[Lisak1]

OK. This is NOT a pond. There's zero pond advice re: overwintering fish that applies to a 30 gallon container. ZERO. De-icer - no. Heater - no. Cover the pond - no. Combination of all three - NO. The water volume simply isn't great enough to prevent it from freezing solid. AND with our cold and DRY winters, it's highly likely you will end the winter with far less water than you started with - are you interested in refilling your container pond mid-January? Digging it out to check to see if it needs water? We honestly have that concern with a 4000 gallon pond - imagine 30 gallons.

I am also IL zone 5B - your container will 100% freeze solid and likely crack as a result. No way will ANY fish survive. I would recommend you deal with the fish however you choose - keep them indoors, re-home them, etc - and empty that container completely, or you won't have your mini-pond come spring.

Please understand I'm not dissing your little pond - I have a patio pond myself that I love love love. But having done this enough winters I can assure you that there is simply no way you can keep that "pond" running all winter.

 

[j.w]

Colleen kept her Guppies in a small pond out all year round up in Canada where it freezes big time. Seems like some work doing it but she did! She has moved from that house now so I don't think she has those guppies outside in her new place.............not sure tho.
Thinking one has to be very motivated to do this and keep on top of it all the time. Too much trouble for me but one could try it. Also I think her little pond was bigger than 30 gals.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=colleen+penny+guppies

 

[GBBUDD]

A simple plastic tee pee over your little guppy bowl can do wonders make it steep enough that snow sheds off and builds around the base

 

[Faebinder]

OK. This is NOT a pond. There's zero pond advice re: overwintering fish that applies to a 30 gallon container. ZERO. De-icer - no. Heater - no. Cover the pond - no. Combination of all three - NO. The water volume simply isn't great enough to prevent it from freezing solid. AND with our cold and DRY winters, it's highly likely you will end the winter with far less water than you started with - are you interested in refilling your container pond mid-January? Digging it out to check to see if it needs water? We honestly have that concern with a 4000 gallon pond - imagine 30 gallons.

I am also IL zone 5B - your container will 100% freeze solid and likely crack as a result. No way will ANY fish survive. I would recommend you deal with the fish however you choose - keep them indoors, re-home them, etc - and empty that container completely, or you won't have your mini-pond come spring.

Please understand I'm not dissing your little pond - I have a patio pond myself that I love love love. But having done this enough winters I can assure you that there is simply no way you can keep that "pond" running all winter.

My pond is above ground and is only 120 gallons. So it's 4 times his size. I am closer to advising the poster i suppose than others.

I use a trough heater/de-icer. But what I dont have in the pond is none cold fish. All I see is "white cloud fish" in the original post.. is that not white cloud minnows? I have those in my pond they are not a problem as long as the pond doesnt freeze up. If they are something else that needs warm water then forget it, not even a heater is gonna save them.

 

[Lisak1]

I believe Colleen’s pond was more like 90 gallons and she had multiple heaters going. Not sure what she paid for electricity in Canada but here in IL that would be a second mortgage payment.

30 gallons of water. 1/4 or 1/3 the water volume is a big difference. And isn’t PA more like a 6B/7A?

 

[Faebinder]

I believe Colleen’s pond was more like 90 gallons and she had multiple heaters going. Not sure what she paid for electricity in Canada but here in IL that would be a second mortgage payment.

30 gallons of water. 1/4 or 1/3 the water volume is a big difference. And isn’t PA more like a 6B/7A?

Yep but you dont need an expensive heater. Just get a trough heater like this one that functions like a deicer.