well I pulled the filter and pump out today pond is icing over.Lotsa froggies at thr bottom under some leaves (not a lot which I left alone) I cut a hole in the side of a basket (pond plant basket) held it down with some stones for a hiding place. Goind tomorrow to get my pond floater thingy pulled out the last of the plants and closed up shop. It was really kinda sad. Hopefully they will over winter ok.

I could hear the song "I'm all out of Love I am so lost with out you" playing in my head LMAO

As for areating the pond I have nothing to house the unit in so I can not put it out in the weather. is that going to be ok or is there something else I can do outside of the heater floater thingy

Thanks Chris

Hi C2, My aerator is doing fine inside the dog house. If you did use one you could put it inside anything with a lid, wooden box, rubbermaid container and just set it beside the pond??? But everyone knows I am very PRO aeration :rolleyes:

I can use a rubbermaid box? I have that Iwas not sure of it sucked outside air in or what I figured...well I dont know LOL I will try it. Thanks I have a real nice one too

Yeah but thank god I dont need scuba steve to get it positioned LOL.

I am glad the water just seems so still and dead with out something in it.

Chris

If you use a rubbermaid box, just make sure to drill a few holes in the side of it to allow air to be sucked in! If it gets too cold you might have to put some insulating material around the inside of the box too. Now you can get to missing your fish like me!!

OK went to AA (aquarium adventure) OMG that store is amazing HUGE indoor pond with Koi the size of my arm so yes I got to play with about 10 very friendly fishys made me feel good.

Got my floater and was talking to the pond "expert" at AA and was asking about how to placce my aeration in the pond. He told me NOT to AERATE that you do not want the colder top water to go to the bottom where the fish are. Now I am really confused and not sure what to do.

To aerate or not to aerate that is the question?

You can cover the aerator with any plastic sort of box as long as it's not air tight. I suggest an upside down plastic shoe box or small Rubbermaid or other storage container.

To aerate or not to aerate, that is the question!

Which is more dire? Not enough oxygen so you suffocate or having it be just maybe a tad colder? I'll take the cold! Kidding aside, water does stratisfy by temperature with 34 degrees F being the heaviest. If 32 degrees were the heaviest, all our ponds in cold climates would freeze from the bottom up instead of the top down and bye-bye fish. If your pond is under about 4 feet deep, there really isn't much temperature stratification going on. If it's deeper, then you might want to elevate the air stone so it's just maybe 3 or 4 feet down and not on the bottom. I think KK did that. BUT, the thing is, the fish are on the bottom. The fish could use some nice oxygen down there and maybe a little water flow so thing's don't stagnate too much. So, it's a matter of balance. I think as long as the aeration is light for that size pond, it should be fine. My 153 gallon pond is two feet deep. Before I started putting an air stone down there, most of the frogs would die over the winter from suffocation but now they don't. I don't think they mind a little water mixing. The person at the store seems to be repeated the standard "expert advice" regarding ponds and winter which is turn off all water movement. They probably never had an actual pond. I keep my main waterfall going all year as do a bunch of people in the forum. I think if I didn't, I would have a lot more dead fish. For those that can't keep the falls going due to just way too much cold, aeration can save fishy lives.

well that was all I needed to hear. I 100% that my pond is so shallow anyway that the temp dif could not be very different from top to bottom.

setting it up tomorrow.

I even asked about the stagnent water and no movement just seemed unatural and harsh live and learn I guess. Thanks bunches as usual. :P

BTW I wish I had falls LOL

C2, I am sorry but I don't trust what the sales people in the pet stores say. Most often they are wrong. Not all are like that but you can't take that chance. You did the right thing by posting here and getting a second opinion.

Good luck with winter!

Well said Robyn! I always like to read your posts. You are great at explaining things in the technical form and making us understand it all a little better.