I am so scared for my fishies! I had to put the Thermo Pond heater in today. There is just the smallest amount of water showing and at -31 I thought it was now or never. It is only a 100 Watt thermo pond, now I am wondering if this will even work good enough? I tossed it in there an didn't check if it worked first :blink: I was so friggin cold with my a** sticking out of that tent and my head stuck in there with all that humidity that I think my brain wavered! I guess I will know by tomorrow morning if it is working or not. I have that stupid Allied one in case of emergency. I really want to try and pull the ice out of there, at least chip the hole a little bigger, but I guess that is a BIG NO NO!!! What if I could just break the ice gently before it got too thick? Wouldn't my fish be okay since they are down there 9 feet?? Well 8 feet now I guess??? Do you think it would be okay if I just tried to do it gently??? HELP!!! :unsure:

You can break the ice as long as you're not creating shock waves. In other words, if you put on protective water gloves and use your hands to open the ice or gently tap on the ice with something like a regular hammer, that should be fine. Now, if you bang on the ice with a sledge hammer, that's a no no. You can also try using hot water. Someone once told me to boil water and put the metal pot with hot water on the ice to make a hole. Of course, if you don't grab it (maybe tie it to a string), once it goes down, you wouldn't get it back until spring.

I use 1800 W de-icers. I just put them in Sunday. My big pond got its first ice yesterday morning. We are having our first snow right now. I don't look forward to driving home in it because of the (other) idiots on the road. Your 100 W de-icer may not do much. Is an opening staying in the ice where the aeration is or is that the same place that you put the de-icer?

Don't do it KK; you're gonna fall in yet.

That'll give you a nightmare for sure! :o :P

Keep the thermo pond heater on. Maybe buy a second one. I use three.

Is your heater in the hole in the ice, or on top the ice. An inch thick ice is okay, it'll melt through; but a foot thick ice is too thick to melt through.

KK, how thick is your ice? A foot thick???

Tia

Tia, KK wrote "

Sounds like KK's guessing a foot thick..... :( But they're still 9 feet down; she's forgetting the ice is on top. :P

Wow! Now that is some thick ice!! No wonder she is scared the poor kid.

LOL, you guys are soooo funny. I said the pond is only about 8 feet deep now, but that is because it wasn't full when winter hit!! I wanted to leave room for the ice to expand etc. I think the ice is only about 2" thick but I won't be sure until I get a better look at it and try and break some ice, gently. There is still about a 1.5 foot circle where the aerator is keeping the ice open, so yes, that is where I put the heater. I'm not sure how I will get in there but where there is a will there is a way :rolleyes: I am headed out there now, will let you know how the operation went!

KK, if you remove ice you may want to add water.

Hoping you don't lose any fish from breaking the ice; I tried to warn you. :(

Well I am back in from my ice breaking mission. You don't have to worry about me falling in or breaking the ice cause it is 6 inches thick :-( I poured a kettle over one spot and kept chipping away at it so I could get a measurement. I am really disappointed :unsure: I imagine it is thicker than that around the edges, because I took the measurement close to the hole. :(

OH KK I feel for you I would not want to have that stress. We got 6in of snow and it is 10 F this morning and that puts me in crazy mode. But you situation would send me to the deep end. Good luck girl we are all root'n for ya.

Be careful not to drop large chunks down towards the bottom trapping the fish between ice layers. The guy I get fish from lost a big koi from ice shifting down then fish swimming up then refreezing above trapping them. And well we know how much you love the fishies but dont get yourself hurt while doing that if you were unable to post I wouldnt get my daily smile :P

C2

I've had my 1000 watt Allied de-icer on for a week. The water temp. has been staying steady at 38F every morning at 7.30 when I go out. Guess it's working cause it's been cold. OK...not as cold as sommmmmmme..but cold for me. lol :P
There's really solid ice an inch thick in one corner blocked by the plant. I'd put the backup Allied one in ( hopefully you have the protective cage ).

Hi Sadie, I didn't get the guard for my allied as I couldn't think of anything it would need to be caged from???? It would never touch the sides and it certainly wouldn't touch the bottom. Could you let me know what your heater does to your electrical bill??? I heard they are really bad. That is so awesome that your water temp is staying at 38F. I am scared to look out there this morning, I HOPE the thermo pond actually worked!

KK, put your big girl pants on and go out and check. :lol: :D I am anxious to know how it faired too. :)
I hope the heater works for your pond and your fish will say a little warmer so maybe you can relax a little bit for the holidays....

tia

KK, the thermo pond heaters aren't designed to warm the water, and won't. According to company literature they're tested to keep a hole in the ice down to 30 F below zero (-30 F).

You don't want to pay the bill on the bigger 1,000+ watt ones if you don't have to. You can easily get an idea of operating cost if you think of a 1,000 watts requirement as running 10 each 100 watt lightbulbs 24 hours a day. Essentially keeping every room in the house lighted 24 hours a day.

Ok I just learned something. They don't heat the water. I thought they did. :blink:

Ah, I gues it is working because there is still a hole where the aerator has its opening and the heater got pushed to the side and now ice is forming around it, so I guess it is working???????

Since our colder months haven't shown up yet, this is the test month for the electric bill. Fortunately, everything else that are big power guzzlers like the AC and pool filter are shut off. I won't mind if that part equals out. If the bill is bumped up more, then we'll buy a smaller one. With our temp.s right now about 1/2 the pond would have solid ice over it so the thermostat is working ( I hope. lol ). With the floating part being broken, I hope the thermostat isn't. :o

I am beginning to think ponding in the far north is a stupid idea! My ice is over 12 inches thick today. My thermo pond "hole in the ice thingy" is almost covered over with ice from the turbulance of the aerator which is now covered over too! I can see there is a little hole in the ice still through the hole in the top of the thermo pond. I should have thrown that allied in there! No I am in a bind :(
I think I have to go to town today and buy an 100 foot extension cord to run from the electrical shed to the pond as I want to run the allied off it's own breaker. To put the allied in I am going to have to dig out the back of the pond and try and get to the zipper at the back door to open up the back of the garage. SOMEHOW I am going to have to get through a foot of stinking ice to even get the allied in there. I am going to try the pot of hot water and sit it on the ice with a rope tied to the handle. This is going to be an impossible feat I just know it. Maybe I should just go back to bed and pray for a Chinook :rolleyes:

Ok Kk I really feel for you!! and what is a chinook??????

What about a heater inside the tent? would that keep some heat in is that even possiable. A Co-worker down here had show koi and he kept his water heated through coils that would go through his basement heat the water and put it back in the pond HUGE SET UP but something on a smaller scale possiable. You are very mechanical is there something out there that can do that?

C2

KK, I can't imagine what a pain in the caboose that is going to be. :o It was only 29 degrees here last night and when I went out to check the fish this am my hands were freezing! :blink:

Don't turn into a popsicle yourself today trying to get the allied in. :)

Good News!! It has warmed up to -7C, that's like 20F (for y'all southerners :P )
I am hoping this will help the pond a lot!! A chinook is a warm wind that can last a few days and warm things up HUGE!! We don't get them this far north, but around Calgary, Alberta, they happen often!

KK, are you still planning on putting in your allied?

KK, obviously turbulance from the aireator is causing problems with the thermo pond heater. I don't think the thermo pond heaters are designed for having a constant splash on them. How big of a unit is the Allied? Will it fit into the hole from the thermo pond heater. You might have better luck removing the thermo heater, and placing the allied in the same hole.

Then get an ice auger, drill a hole farther away from the aerator, and place the thermo in the new hole.

If you can get a boiling pan of water to melt through 6" of ice I'm shocked.

Another idea KK, and I've done it.
1. Find a short box or similar (wood preferred, I used rubbermaid container)
2. Extension cord and fixture with 100 watt light bulb.
3. Blanket. (I use moving blankets).
4. Turn the box upside down over area you want to keep thawed (over the thermo pond heater), and place the light inside the box.
5. Cover box with blankets.

Note 1: reason for short box (similar) is because heat rises, you want to keep the heat low as possible.
Note 2: You need a hole in the ice already. The heat from the light bulb probably won't melt the ice. It didn't mine.
Note 3: Do not seal the box tight against the ice. You still want a place for gasses to escape.


Good Luck MIB. :( :unsure:

Hey JB, those are great ideas! Thanks for sharing. Actually now that the temp has warmed up to -5 today, my thermo pond heater is actually loose, so I can pull it out and put the allied in the hole. I should have put the thermo pond in before all I had left for a hole was next to the aerator and turbulance. LIVE & LEARN, I guess! I will be so much smarter next year ;)

KK Wrote:

That's exactly right, KK. That's what's so nice about Robyn's forum; having a place to share experiences, learn from each other, and hopefully have a little fun doing it. Colloboration is very powerful.

When worse comes to worse, the box (upside down large rubbermaid tub) with light in it idea worked for me on a completely exposed pond at -20 F (No cover, not including wind chill). One thing though I forgot to mention, prop one edge of the box up a bit, or something so it'll vent. I'll update my original post to include that.

In fact, thinking about it; I'm wondering if we shouldn't think about a forum chapter under ponds devoted to "Winter Ponding". As I've already forgot where I posted my experiences for successfully running pumps/maintaining a stream in below -10 F conditions.

JB, if you click on your user name you will see your profile. At the top of the screen you should see something like "Find all topics by this member". Click that and you can find all your topics but not all your posts..

Tia, I don't know what we would do without you! You are like our computer Queen!!

Thanks, KK! I am not an experienced ponder like some of you on here so I answer what I can and get tickled when I get to! :)

Yes, it is nice that everyone can add something to the group! If you ever have a bird question, I am your girl! I used to breed them and raise them, but hubby got sick of all that so I am down to one bird now ( a lot quieter that's for sure) :D

JB, what's MIB? :unsure:

It's John's and mine's little secret :P

Oh my, oh my, oh my!!! KK :o :D ROFLMAO

Glad you covered for me. I didn't know what to say. :P

Thanks tia, I tried it. :D It only shows the threads "I" started, no links to threads I didn't start. Maybe I should just start my own thread on ponding the frozen. But I don't need it for me; I was thinking a repository of winter ponding stories/solutions for everyone.

Cheers,
MIB :wub: (in training, could be, something like that) :P ROFL
John

Yea JB it will only show topics that you started. It doesn't log all your posts. :(

I think that is a wonderful idea to start your own topic. We all could benefit from it. Then maybe you could find it easier too. ;) It would be nice if it was pinned.

Tia, check your inbox! KK

Got it! Thanks!! :lol: