Closing Your Pond for the Fall cont...
Getting your water garden ready for winter..Brrrrr!!
Fish have to breathe too...
Your pond fish do require having access to fresh air during long periods of
frozen ice in the winter. One way to accomplish this is simply to do nothing!.
Just let your waterfall continue to run as it has all season and the moving
water will not freeze and provide the needed air exchange. Even in severe
cold, ice will form over the moving water, but the flow will not stop. A couple
of concerns with this option would be first, a temporary power outage that
might allow water to freeze in the line blocking the water flow even when
power resumes. Secondly, in a severe winter ice dams can form on a waterfall
or stream weir causing water to back up and start a leak that would never
occur in the summer. For these reasons, if you expect to be away from your
water garden for extended periods over the winter, we would suggest one of the
following alternative methods.
One option is to disconnect the pond pump from the waterfall (or use a separate pump
175 gph or larger) and place it on a shelf about 6-8" below the water surface
with the outlet pointing up so that it creates a bubbling, mini-geyser at the
water surface. When plugged in, this moving water helps prevent total freezing
of the surface. Even after a power outage, when the pump is turned back on it
will quickly melt through any ice that has formed on the surface. Be sure your
pond pump still has a pre-filter attached to the inlet during the winter. If your
primary pre-filter can't be used, most pumps come with a smaller built-in or
attachable pre-filter that will usually suffice. It is recommended that you
do not place the pump in the bottom of the garden pond since you would be mixing
the relatively warm water in the bottom 6" of the pond with the much colder
air above-- lowering the overall water temperature and possibly stressing
your pond fish.
A second option is using a small air-stone to provide a source of air exchange.
An inexpensive aquarium air-pump can be used to run the air-stone but it must
be protected from moisture. Tetra, however, does manufacture an air-pump that
does not need to be protected (The Tetra Luft Air- pump). In either case,
the air pump is placed at the side of the water garden and the air-stone is placed on
a shelf (about 12" deep) or suspended off the bottom at a depth of 12-15".
The bubbling from the air-stone provides enough water movement to keep an
open air hole for very little energy cost in all but the coldest winters.
A final and overall best option is to replace the pond pump with a floating de-icer
during the coldest winter months. Simply set the de-icer in the pond,
anchoring it with a stake or stone so that it doesn't touch any exposed liner.
Plug it in, and you're done! A built-in thermostat will turn it on when
water temperature drops below freezing and off when it is not needed. This
is probably the most trouble-free approach, but de-icers do use more electricity
than any of the previous methods.
Saving some Electricity $$$$...
To save some electricity, a de-icer need not run all the time. Simply,
place the de-icer in the pond with the plug hanging outside of the pond near
an outlet. During extended (5-7+ days) periods of ice cover, just plug your
de-icer in and run it for 1-2 days to allow any toxic gases under the ice to
vent. The exposed heating elements will melt a hole through the ice cover
within a few hours. The round shape of the de-icer will prevent any damage
from ice forming around it when it is not plugged in. A pond pump set up on a shelf
to bubble water can also be run only as needed in the same manner. The goal
is just to prevent more than 7 days or so of uninterrupted ice cover in your
pond. A few days to a week of ice cover for a healthy garden pond is not harmful.
However, if your water garden is relatively dirty and/or has an extra-large fish load,
we recommend maintaining a continuous air hole with your de-icer or pond pump.
In fact, for very heavy fish loads, a bubbler in addition to a de-icer may
be needed.
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