Winterizing and pond cycling

[rebelangel_3733]

tell me about it lol...already thought about that many times...but it's not bad for the space it's in lol

 

[sissy]

You may save yourself at lot of extra work just by going deeper instead of bigger and get your self a pond heater just in case .Great thing about it you will still be able to enjoy your pond all winter and you don't have to worry about filters because in the winter you don't need it .You may have to worry if your electric goes out and your pond freezes over though .

 

[Shdwdrgn]

@max384 and rebelangel_3733: I'm located in Northern Colorado, and we get temperatures down to -20 at times. My previous pond was made of two pre-fab plastic liners for a total capacity of maybe 250 gallons. Over the last four years, I have always kept my pump and filter running through the Winter, however there is a caveat with this... If the pump stops running for very long, your pipes can freeze up. Assuming everything continues to run well, pushing the water through your filter will still help with mechanical filtration - removing dead plant matter that is still in the water. Also depending on your setup, the extra agitation can help stir more oxygen into the water, which the fish need a lot of in the Winter.

Adding a bit of heat to smaller ponds is actually pretty easy. Check with the farm supply stores for a stock-tank heater made to go in plastic tanks like the rubbermade types. These will be insulated to keep the heater from melting your pond liner, but you need to be careful of when you use it. I never plugged mine in until it was cold enough outside that the pond was nearly frozen over. If you're not careful, these heaters will have your pond back up to 45 degrees in the middle of Winter, and your fish will be wondering why they aren't getting fed! If you can afford a good heater, some come with an adjustable thermostat, so you can keep the water temperature down around 32-35 degrees.

 

[sissy]

I got mine at pet mountain 750 watts and it has a thermostat built in and has a float and also can be submerged and it was 30 dollars and the one at tractor supply was slightly more .I bought mine off season

 

[sissy]

Also I don't want winter LOL

 

[MikeS]

Should one get a de-icer AND a heater, or one or the other for a small pond?

Mike S - St. Louis

 

[sissy]

de icers and heaters are really the same thing > I never had one but after last winter you never know piece of mind is worth the 30 dollars I paid for mine .Buying off season is better I got my kh 750 watt at pet mountain with free shipping .

 

[sissy]

Just make sure you protect it from the liner mine has a float thing around the heating unit so it protects the liner and also the fish .Seems everything you put in the pond the fish have to check out .Mine has a thermostat that tells it when it is needed and turns it on .Don't want cooked fish .If it does not have a thermostat I would not buy it .I bought one at tractor supply for the deer water trough and had to return it .The water got to warm and the thing never shut off just kept on running

 

[addy1]

I am just doing air stones, with the suggestion of some one in here...........lol............... floating Styrofoam with a pipe in it, air stone below.

 

[HARO]

De-icers are thermostatically controlled to come on at 32 F and shut off around 36 F, so they will not heat your pond to 45 or 50 degrees. Heaters, on the other hand, have a programmable thermostat and will heat the entire pond to whatever you set them at. John

 

[taherrmann4]

Last year my old deicer kicked the bucket and it was in January when it was really cold, by the time my new one got here the pond was frozen over. So I just thought I would sit the deicer on top of the ice with some aluminum foil over the top of it to reflect the heat back down. Guess what that didn't work becuase the thermostat kept shutting it down when it got too hot under the foil. So then I had to take hot water and even boiling water and pour it on the ice to get a hole where I could place the deicer. I was just too lazy to do this at first and was trying to take the easy way out. If this ever happens again I am going to stick a basketball in the water to keep a hole open. I also use an aerator but that is in a different section of the pond, probably don't need both but I only turn on the deicer when it is really cold and looks like my aerator may not keep the hole open.

This sucks that we are already starting to plan for winter shut downs!

 

[j.w]

Now I always wonder about putting a ball in the pond and I put one in this spring just to have it there so I will remember to try this for the winter. It's a big plastic one. Does this really work and why? Is the air inside the ball warmer.........I mean what is the deal here tmann?

 

[Sunshine]

Now I always wonder about putting a ball in the pond and I put one in this spring just to have it there so I will remember to try this for the winter. It's a big plastic one. Does this really work and why? Is the air inside the ball warmer.........I mean what is the deal here tmann?

I would like to know this also.

 

[taherrmann4]

My thinking on the whole ball idea was to use it as a place holder if my deicer ever fails again and I have to wait for another one to show up. With that said the ball just does not allow the ice to form where it is. Over time I would think that the ice would freeze right up next to the ball therefore not allowing any sort of hole to exist unless you take the ball out, but then when you do that the ice will start freezing where the ball was. So with all this said I am really not sure how it works. But here is an article on ice on ponds etc. and it does mention a ball.


Should I break the ice on my pond? The answers.

By Jeremy Biggs

To get oxygen into your pond you need to stir it up a bit


UPDATED JAN 2010: CLICK HERE TO READ THE LATEST ADVICE

Do I need to break the ice on my pond? Not necessarily.

Isn’t ice bad for pond wildlife? Not automatically – its natural for ponds to ice over in cold weather. Pond animals can often tolerate the low oxygen levels you sometimes get under ice. They only get into difficulty when there is no oxygen at all.

What’s the effect of ice on a pond? It can lead to reduced oxygen concentrations – but as I’ve shown over the last few days it can also increase oxygen too. We don’t know how common increased oxygen levels under ice are becuase no-one has studied small ponds carefully enough. In lakes increased oxygen levels, in winter under ice, have been found.

Shouldn’t I make a hole in the ice? You can, but it will barely affect the amount of oxygen in the pond. Oxygen diffuses so slowly into water that making a small hole in the ice will only allow infinitessemally small amounts of oxygen into the pond. Even if you remove all the ice, unless the pond is stirred up in some way, it will make little difference to the amount of oxygen in the water.

Should I float a ball in the pond to stop ice forming? Using a ball to keep open a hole won’t make much difference to the the amount of oxygen in the pond. But it might give the pond an attractive ‘iced-cup-cake-with-a-cherry-on-top’-look. If you really want to increase the oxygen levels, see below.

How can I increase the amount of oxygen in the water? You need to stir the pond so that de-oxygenated water is constantly brought into contact with the air. This is why rivers usually have lots of oxygen dissolved in the water – because they are moving. It’s also why you bubble air into an aquarium.

To add oxygen to water you need to run a pump which constantly stirs the water around, or bubble air vigorously into the pond, or run a fountain which also mixes the water up with the air, allowing oxygen to dissolve much more quickly into the water.

What about fish? Pond fish (like goldfish, crucian carp or tench) can tolerate very low dissolved oxygen levels, especially in cold weather. If you’re worried, you need to keep the water stirred up, which will oxygenate the pond and automatically stop ice from forming.

Can I measure how much oxygen there is in the water? Yes, but dissolved oxygen meters are quite expensive, usually in the £250+ range. But if you’re keen, or have expensive animals in the pond, it could well be worth it.

 

[j.w]

Seems as tho they think it doesn't do any good to put the ball in there. I'm gonna leave my pump and waterfall running this winter I think and will move the pump up to the plant shelf so it won't pull the warmer water from down below up and make it too cold for the fish.