Well I have been putting this off for a month, but today I have to put my pond to bed for the winter. It is freezing cold but I have to get this done before I wake up one morning and everything is frozen! The water is still green! I can't believe that! I have to pull the pump up which I am not sure will be that easy with the winter cover on :-( I have a question for you all. How should I store my pump for the winter? Just indoors? Or indoors in a bucket of water? I have a new aerator to install as well. I haven't seen the fish in a few days. I guess they have gone to the bottom to start their hibernation. Well I guess rather than talking about it I should get my woolies on and get at it :-( Bbbbrrrrrr

Hey KK,

Yes, submerge your pump in a bucket of water indoors. That will help keep pump seals etc. from drying out and cracking.

Johnny is right. The older submersible pumps should be stored in water. The newer ones seem to be ok without doing that. If you still have the instructions, refer to those. I store my Mag Drive pumps dry. My largest pump stays in the pond year round but I bought a spare just in case which is still dry in the original box.

Unless your pump is in a skimmer why dont you just leave it in the pond. Nothing will happen to it over the winter.

KK, I was whining and crying about how cold my pond water was yesterday when I had to put in that black pipe. When I put my hands up to my elbows in the water they ached and the water is 45 degrees. Now I feel like a little baby :blink: I hope you didn't turn into a popsicle ;)

This is what I did about 2 months ago to fix my green water. I took some quilting batting and wrapped around my filter (it has the pump inside) and tied it with nylon rope that they use for waterskiing. The water cleared up in about 3-4 days. Now remember my pond is small and my pump is inside my filter. This may not work for you but I thought I would just throw that in there. I can't take credit for it. I was it on someones pond blog and thought what the heck I'll give it a go. The fish seem to really like it. It gives them another place to hide. I am anxious to see how well it works next year.

I'll think warm thoughts for ya!

I did the quilt batting thing too, but I just have tooooooo much water volume and need a way bigger filtration system. Thanks for the "warm thought" Tia. It was nice to get it done although it was very messy. I didn't buy the right tubing to go from the diffuser to the air stones so I just sank the diffuser in there until tomorrow. The new aerator is working really well. I decided to put my aerator house in the pond tent. I don't think you are supposed to do that but there is a lot of ventilation in there so I think it will be fine. When I was down at the clay pond I was standing on the ice and my missing 6" Sarrassa Comet swam by. The ice is too thick to get him so I was really sad because he will surely die this winter :-)

What is a pond tent?

That's a bummmer about your fish and it's a big one too. You don't think the fish will make it through the winter? Didn't you say the frost depth was something like 17 feet?

My pond tent is just my cover for the winter. I hope it works :o
Like my dog house aerator shack, LOL
Our frost depth is 12 feet, there is no way those poor little fishy's will make it but I will be going down there everyday trying to cut them out of the ice once they slow down. It looked so weird to be standing on the ice and seeing a fish go by. Not like I am not upset about that enough and now there is a stray little kitten meowing at the door. My husband yelled NO WAY, so I am in pout mode. I put some food and a little warm bed out for it as it is cold out tonight :-( Sorry I know that this is not pond related, I am just so upset about the poor little kitty :unsure:

KK, I love your enginuity! If covering your pond makes you feel better, that's all that matters.

I just want to note after reading your comment; cutting them out of the ice. Be very careful using a sledge hammer, or any striking action against the ice. The shock waves can be harmful/even deadly to the fish.

I honestly think your fish will be fine, and seriously doubt your pond will freeze solid.

KK, Again thanks for the great pics. It really is a tent! Looks pretty elaborate. You must have put a lot of time into it. Do you get much snow? I was looking at your suroundings in one of the pics and it reminds me of the desert a little bit.

As for the kitty. It's probably to cold for the shirtless guys to help you out huh? :rolleyes:

Thanks JB! I have an ice auger I was thinking of using provided we dont get a dump of snow before I can get them out. It is my clay pond that is iced over and is only about 17" deep but thank you for your optimism. Yes, having the cover over my other pond makes me feel better, LOL, even if it doesn't help much. I have since improved it alot and added another couple of layers of poly but haven't got around to taking a picture yet.
Question: Out of the nine feet depth, at what depth should I have my air stones? I was thinking about 4 feet?

Hey TLC! We live down on the river bottom so the funny hills in the background were probably carved by the river a million years ago, LOL They are desert colour as the picture was taken in the fall, in the summer they are very nice a green. It is very picturesque at times. The tent did take me a lot of planning, it is actually a portable garage converted to work for me. As for the kitty.....his name is Little Dickens and he is currently sitting on my lap all nice and warm and fed ;) After the silent treatment, my husband brought him in this morning. He is a little brat as he keeps climbing on the parrot cage :o I had to post a picture of him (sorry) I thought of sitting him beside the pond to make him legit <_<

Putting the air stone down 4 feet in the 9 foot pond sounds good. You don't want to disturb the very bottom but you also want some oxygen down there for any fish that go all the way down.

I'm so glad the little kitten is inside now. I suggest cleaning up his eyes. If they still collect goo, he might have a virus. If you can take him to the vet for a check up, that would be good. He's a cutie! Do you have any other indoor cats?

It looks like the "mountain" in your photo has ATV "roads" or some kind of path over it?

Is it the pond under the tent that is 9 feet deep?

Hi Robyn, thanks for your reply. Yes it is the pond under the tent that is 9 feet deep. Yes our hills have quad trails which is nice for us. I will clean up Little Dickens eyes, they don't look too bad and he is otherwise clean and his ears are good. I will take him to the vet this week. I have a 14 year old cat that needs to be put down as her "back end" has gone wobbly but of course I am putting it off as long as possible. My Moms cat is also living here until their new home is finished. If I have any more questions about Little Dickens I will post them in the appropriate spot! :-) I got my new air line today but we are in the middle of a freak blizzard so I will do it tomorrow as the diffuser is turning the water nicely.

KK, he is a cutie pie! I see why you couldn't resist!

It looks like your place is pretty remote. Is the green barrels you filter?

ya the green barrels were the filter. I won't be using them again. 2 of them just weren't enough to filter all that water. I am building a huge new filter for the spring. No more messing around, LOL. We are 8 miles from a town of about 25,000 so it isn't too bad. We have most of the basic stores, but only one really crappy pet store. They are so unfriendly and that cracks me up cause the store is called Friendly's Pets.....GO FIGURE!!!!!!

KK, I hate to keep pestering you with questions but why is this pond 9 feet deep? Was it already there when you moved in or did you dig it?

Oh that's no problem T! That's why we are all here to learn from each other :-)
I made the pond that deep because of our cold climate. I figured the deeper it was the greater chance I would have to keep it from freezing solid. Even with the aerator I have concerns about it freezing. We get -55 here and it can last for a month straight. I am going to see how this winter goes. This is my first winter with this pond as we just built it this summer. I am going to see how it goes this year and if the aerator does a good job and the fish are fine I will probably pull the liner and fill it in a bit. I hate that depth! You can't see the fish and I would like to see what is going on down there! I made the pond a rectangle shape and raised 2 feet off the ground with 6x6 timbers so that it would be a lot easier to pull the liner as all I would have to do is to take the top "cap" off of the timbers and pull it out. Ya I know, it would never be that easy because catching all the fish in that depth would SUCK!!!!! I would have to pump it down and get in there.....creepy! There is alot to be said for a small pond and there are days when I wish I had one! I never would have built such a big pond if my Koi hadn't grown so big in my clay pond and I could have left them in there.

K!, I can see why it is so deep now. It makes sense to me. I never thought about the fact that you wouldn't be able to see the fish. Bummer..
9 feet is a long way to go down to catch all the fish. Whew! Better you than me ;) Let's hope that it doesn't freeze that far down and you can fill in some next year.
It sounds pretty extreme to me, all the work you have to do to be able to have your fish. It truly is a labor of love for you. :) :)
Just curious here, how in the heck did you dig this? With a backhoe and shovel?

Brrr -55 is cold, cold, cold! :blink: Make sure you keep your woolies on! :)

Holy smoke KK! Where are you at again? -55 has to be zone 1. I thought you were closer to my temps, -20 or so. Dang, -55, no wonder you're worried.

I don't think 9 feet is unreasonable at all. A few years ago, I went to a holiday party for the local koi club. We went to this super rich couple's house. Their koi pond was 10 feet deep here in Zone 6/7. He scuba dived to clean the bottom! The water was crystal clear but there was no life in the pond but these 3+ foot koi. He had a filter system that was in a building and a waterfall that was like 8 feet high. When you have a lot of depth but not much surface area in comparison like KK's pond, it seems awfully deep! My little 153 gallon pond is only two feet deep but it's very narrow so cleaning down there feels like you're in a coffin. When it's empty, if I duck down, nobody could see me!

T, yes we dug it with an excavator! My husband actually did it on my birthday for me :-)

JB, I am in Northern British Columbia, Canada. We are in a little pininsula of zone 2. All our surrounding areas are a zone 1.

Wow Robyn, that sounds like a dream pond to me. I am looking forward to this summer when I can start making mine pleasing to the eye instead of it just being a box! I am going to do a waterfall, it will just need some engineering to make it look good!

KK, you can probably totally disregard everything I ever said about freezing. Sorry. I have no idea what -50 is like. I thought living in -20/30 was bad enough, or should I say, good enough advice for almost anyone. WRONG AGAIN!

I know the difference between -10 and -20 is big enough. I say above -10 no problem, below -10 that's when I pay attention. Just that little 10 degrees, I've found makes a lot of difference in the behavior of ice. Who know what ice does in -50, we know frost line is 12 feet! Yikes! Ours is like 48 inches!

So, like, your telling me NOW that my fish in the clay pond will be fishsicles right? :o Gasp!!! And here you gave me some hope only to take it away! :blink:
Luckily I wasn't that optimistic and I have come to terms with the fact that I can't do anything about it. I think I will change my name from KoiKrazy to the Ice Queen :lol:

KK, I gave you hope because I remember while planning my pond reading somewhere about ponds (bodies of water) and why they don't freeze solid.

I was worried much like yourself, because again, our frost line is far below the depth I wanted my pond, and again like you I didn't want a block of ice either (Fishsicles).

Again, although the ground freezes 4' or so here, my pond doesn't come close.

I believe the explanation may have been in the Q&A's at aquascape.com , I just haven't had chance to find it to show you.

LOL, okay we will hope again! I am going down in the morning with the ice auger to check the ice depth. I am sure I will be dilligent with keeping the hole open until the snow gets too deep to trudge down there. :unsure:

I would just like to say that adding a air pump during the winter is not needed for oxygen. The only purpose would be to keep a hole open in the ice. There are millions more oxygen molecules in the cold water than in warm water. We use air pumps and heaters to just keep a hole open and let the methane gas that builds under the ice out. Yes with those temps you have to use a air pump to do so because a heater would not last.

I disagree that aeration is never needed to keep the oxygen levels up during the winter.

While water holds more oxygen at cold temperatures, the water at the bottom of a deep pond (in relation to the surface area) will be low in oxygen over the winter if
1. There is poor circulation.
2. There is a lot of decaying plant or animal matter down there.
3. There are a lot of living animals using some oxygen down there.

I used to just run a de-icer on my 153 gallon pond which is 2 feet deep. Each spring, I would find a bunch of dead green frogs, most of them. Then, I started dropping an air stone down there. I have lost very few frogs since then. While I kept an opening in the ice, that was not enough to keep the oxygen levels high enough in the bottom of the pond to sustain the frogs' lives.

Stupid question time. :rolleyes: Can I use an aquarium bubbler ( and just keep it covered ) for the pond instead of buying one of those fancy aerators.

Sadie, I guess you could use an aquarium bubbler (aerator??) if it would be big enough to do any good?? I am such a huge fan of using aeration, I think it is a must in all applications. I don't aerator my large clay pond because of the super huge surface area, but I am going to get one of those windmill aerators (when I save up!) and....if any fish actually make it through this winter. If it is killed right off I will be tempted not to put fish in there again, as I can't take losing all those poor little babies :-( But we will see what the spring brings.

I've got my 350gph pump kicking some waves (which I did all last winter) plus this year I'll have the de-icer. Just want an extra little boost on air and cash is tighter than tight at the moment. Sudden crash from 2 paychecks to 1 doesn't make happy spending sprees and of course oil and property taxes just have to take a leap this month. :angry:

Well I think that will work just perfectly. My husband made me quit my job to stay home and I really miss that extra paycheck because it was just "my" money. And...because he isn't into the pond thing, he doesn't contribute to it :-( I still have a bit of money in my "pond account", but that won't last much longer. I may get a job just for the winter so I have the money to build my pergola and waterfall in the spring :rolleyes:

Yes, Sadie May, you can use an aquarium air pump, air line tubing, and air stone. You have to cover and protect the air pump from rain and snow. You could, for example, cut a cord opening in a plastic shoe box and stick it under there. A rock on top would help keep the box from wandering off. Most aquarium pumps are pretty weak so if you hook it up, you might not get any bubbles. But, there are plenty of higher output indoor aquarium pumps that will provide good aeration into a few feet depth of a pond. If you have a pump, you won't know until you hook it up and see what comes out! With air pumps, if the power goes out, pull the lines out so they don't get ice in them. I wonder if a check valve under water would keep water from backing up the line with the power out. I use air line check valves on my aquarium pumps but out of the tank to keep water from draining back to the air pumps which are at a lower elevation (opposite of the pond configuration).