Winterizing in Virginia ?

[Culchie]

My average temp. here in Winter is a couple of degrees above freezing to right at freezing. I know there are chances we can always have a harsher Winter. What depth would I have to make a pond, so that it didn't require winterizing ? As far as removing the fish. Thanks.


Wayne

 

[sissy]

I built mine over 4 feet but you will still need to keep an opening in the ice with either a submersible pump or an aerator but thats about all .You have to be worried more about the hot summers than the cold winters unless you can build your pond with either artificial shade like a shade sail or near a tree .Tree's will drop leaves so that is something to think of .I have a shade sail I made myself .You want it close to electric and you will need GFI breakers or outlets that are sufficient for pump and whatever else you may want like an aerator .Dedicated circuit also is better do not overload a circuit .You will want near where you spend the most amount of time for the best viewing .The only place you may need to remove fish is in the farther north areas ,not anywhere around where you live .I would love to dig mine deeper in the future the deeper the better for the hot summers .I would love to go 5 feet or more as it gets really hot here .

 

[Culchie]

Thanks Sissy. It can get hot here I know. But I was hoping by keeping the water moving by waterfall or fountian it would help a bit. If I put mine at the location I'm at now, It will mainly be in the morning til about noon sunshine. I also want to put a bridge over it to give a little more shade. If anyone has a pond my size and DIY, please give me an idea of what the cost was (not counting the bells and whistles). Just the neccesities. 8' x 12' x 3' deep.


Wayne

 

[sissy]

well my liner was 25 by 30 and cost 199 dollars on sale .Pumps you can get the new one at lowes .They have the new energy efficient ones that have an automatic turn off in case of low water .Filter will depend on what you want to spend .Rocks that will depend where you get them .Aerator if you want one ,Bridge with all the wood and screws cost me 25 dollars to build and I had some leftover would .I like to sit on it and look down at my fish so priceless .

 

[addy1]

Mine is around 5 foot deep. Keeps the fish cool in the summer, lots of non frozen water in the winter. Look on line at the type of liner you want, the type of pump, add around 100 for pvc, what type of filter? the diy filters run around 55 or so for the media.
The price can really vary depending on how you build it.

 

[taherrmann4]

My pond is about 12x15 or something close to that (getting old and cant' remember) it is 3' in a third of the pond and about 2' deep in two thirds of the pond. I have a 15' creek/waterfall, 25' creek and another 10' creek all these are fed from one external pump. I have a skimmer and two filters one on the waterfall/creek and the other on the 25' creek. All my rocks came from my neighborhood so that was free. I bought my skimmer, and two filters but I would suggest building your own filters lots of savings there. The pump was somewhere around $400 I think. I don't even notice it on my electric bill. I am thinking of adding a filter bog this year, so that may be something you might want to consider. I think all my filters, pumps, liners, and skimmer, plumbing was somewhere around $2000 but that was 7 years ago and it may not have cost that much.

I am in zone 6 so my pond will freeze but i use an aerator to keep a hole in the ice. This year I have not had to worry much about it freezing as it has been very mild. I would suggest going to 4' deep if you could, it will help keep it cooler in the summer. My pond gets a bit of sun during the day (until my trees get bigger) so it will heat up, the waterfall helps but it faces south too. If you plan on keeping koi I would go the extra depth it will not cost you much more in liner just the physical work of digging the extra foot.

Good luck.

 

[sissy]

builds muscles .

 

[Culchie]

Boooooooooooooooooo Physical work. ooh: :lol:

 

[sissy]

remember with pain comes joy .Just keep repeating that to yourself with each shovel full of dirt and every night when every bone in your body is screaming at you ,are you nuts it hurts LOL

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I think I figured mine up around $1500 for everything. Main pond is about 6x14x3 deep, plus a stream feeding down to a second small 3x3x1.5 pond, and the waterfall is made with about $200 worth of hard sandstone bricks. Two pumps, two barrel filters, lots of pipe and rocks and plants. Everything was bought new when I built my pond last year, and considering what went into it, the price really wasn't bad.

My pond is surrounded by trees, so through October I spend about every day netting leaves out of the lower pond. However I didn't have a choice about the location, and the trees definitely help keep the water cooler in the Summer. Despite 100 degree temps in July, my water never got above 80 degrees, and the trees create a canopy that seems to help hide the fish from flying eyes.

Winter seems to be the time that most people struggle with. Your zone doesn't really tell you much of anything about what to expect over the cold months. I'm in zone 5, but I live at high altitude, and my pond hasn't frozen over more than a couple days at a time all Winter, and yet I will get a sudden overnight freeze that leaves a thick enough layer of ice over the pond the next day that the cat can easily walk across it.

Overall, the deeper you can go, the better. Unless you live in Yellowstone, this rule is true for ponds everywhere. At the very least, deeper water means more volume, so the temperature will change slower and cause less stress on your fish.

It's funny, but the labor of digging out my pond didn't seem that bad. What I had the most trouble with was carting the wheelbarrow back and forth, dumping out all the dirt I had dug up. THAT part took real effort!

 

[adavisus]

If you check out your historical weather data for the average number of days of continuous freezing temps thaty is likely to occur that will indicate what depth a freeze will occur. Here, a week of sub freezing stuff is about the worst to expect, causing maybe a 6" ice plate on a pond

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[sissy]

The most my water has ever froze to here was barely 2 inches and that was last winter when we got hit bad .The snow on top of the ice was at least 15 inches deep before I brushed it off to find the opening in the ice .I guess my advantage to not freezing so much is that it is not far from the septic tank .

 

[sissy]

winter for 1 day .this fencing is at ollies 2.99 .I took the pic last week when i was at ollies.The snow is almost gone and it got up to 52 degrees