This idea hit me like a ton of bricks two days ago.
As some of you may know I have a hot tub setup during the winter months inside the temporary pond encloser ,so I feel like I am swimming with the fish. Only my water is 104 degrees and theirs is 33.
Hum .If I could only get 4 or 5 degrees two them their would be no ice at all.
I took a very small pond circulation pump and hooked it up to a 1- 1/4"dia flex hose about 15ft long. When the tub is not in use the hose loops from the pond pump up into the 104 degree water and back out into the pond. That puts about 12ft of hose in the tub to warm the pond water as it flows slowly through the hose. The temp. of the water being dumped back in the pond is 64 degrees. After runnng it for 3 hr it raised the temp. of the 3500 gal pond from 33 to 36. I will have to make sure it doesn't get to warm. I am sure I will beable to keep the pond about 38 max. degrees this winter.
The best part is , my dear wife thinks I put the hot tub there for her. hehe

Interesting idea but won't that cost you a pile of money heating the hot tub to heat the pond but maybe you have a pile of money.

How cold does it get were you live?

Hi BB. I live about 20 miles from Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. It is not uncommon for the temps to go down to 0 degrees F. So far the coldest it has been is 27d F.
It aready cost x amount of dollars to run the hot tub for us. So I don't know if I could put a price tag on having complete control on your micro climate and peace of mind, know the fish are safe.
This is a experiment, so we will see how it goes. So far so good.

Wayne you are always thinking. That is kinda what I pic Kk doing runing heated water through tubes to keep the temps more at bay. So are you foing it this year or thinking for next. I would love to see a pic of the hot tub setting that you are talking about.

C2

Sounds like a good idea. You are using the hot tub any way!

Wayne, great idea! Cost may not be an issue for you, but I'm wondering about the fish. Will that temp put them in the danger zone for bacteria infections?

I've thought about doing a similar thing using a water heater, or even heating pads under my stream. Like waterbed heaters.

Except I've read heating a pond may not be a good idea in freezing conditions because it's very difficult to maintain 75-80 F degrees; so what you end up doing is warming the water enough for bacteria to grow, but not enough for the fish to fight it.

John

I totaly agree Jb. It would be setting yourself up for disaster to bring the pond temp up above 40d. Alge would grow parisites would attack the fish and when the next power outage comes the temp. would drop to fast and stress the fish.
My only goal would be to have zero ice.
As I said in the first post 38d max.

HHHhhhmmmmm, maybe I will ask Santa for a hot tub!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seeing as my deck is so close to the pond! Let us know how you make out Wayne. Couldn't you use less feet of hose if the temp got too high?? That way you wouldn't be putting "as much" warm water back into the pond! Clever ideas you have! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Wayne. I coldn't remember the "magic" number. It's 40 F. eehh? Thanks. That'll keep the ice off. :D

That's a neat idea! I would think the hot tub would then have to be working and on more often to keep up its temperature so it would probably be expensive. Having your pond area enclosed though puts you many steps ahead of neighbors with ponds out in the exposed air. Is your pond and hot tub area fully enclosed with green house plastic? Is that right? Have you thought of heating the air itself in the pond "room?"

Thats right Robyn, the hot tub is under the same encloser as the pond. I wouldn't entertain the thought of heating the air thought. The area is 20ftx30ft with a 10ft ceiling. That would! be expensive.

...

The first picture is inside the encloser were you see the hot tub . The 2nd pic is outside the same day.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q147/wa...csaustin013.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q147/wa...csaustin018.jpg

Heres a skill testing Question since we cann't do much on the pond.
What kind of tree is this that I have in the forground inside the pond encloser?
Hint: It requires some protection from Canadas hard winters.

WW, it reminds me of a Monkey Puzzle tree [Araucaria araucana]. That's my guess anyway. :)

wayne love your dog!! very pretty there. I have German shepard best dog in the world your lot looks like a picture.

So which is the hot tub the box in the corner?

C2

Oh your good tic. That is what it is. Kind of rare around these parts

Yes C2 thats the hot tub with the insulated cover on it. You can see the hose looping in and back out. I got it now so the water being put back into the pond is about 40 degrees. So far so good .NO ICE.

Ok Wayne I see you lurking.. Your not going to tell yet are you?? :rolleyes:
Your going to make us wait and keep us in suspense aren't you? :huh: You sly guy.. B)

I didn't see the pic of the dog. Very nice. It looks like the one we had when I was a kid. Loved that dog. :wub: She was the best dog we ever had!

tia

Wooops I spoke to soon didn't I? [embarrased] You were answering while I was replying. Geesh I am a doe doe... :rolleyes:

I have trained Trigger for search and find, just for a hobby. He is really good at it.
Children like to play hide-go-seek with him. I put him in the garage and they hide anyware in the bush. When I let him out ,I point to the ground were they started and say "find". He has no problem tracing their steps.
I always tell the kids," Hide quick, He can only count to 20. haha

I want to know WHY my pond enclosure isn't as tropical inside as WW's???

The difference between the two enclosers is that; (1) mine butts up to the house. Any house has a certain amount of heat loss through the walls and windows. I am just capturing some of that heat loss in the temporary encloser.
(2) The hot tub has heat loss which is captured in the encloser
(3)The coldest it has been here is about 26 degrees F . I think you have been much colder.

Any plants in the encloser now are native or can withstand some frost so even in a power outage all is fine.
Your encloser is topnotch K (first initial basis now) . Just keep that hole open.

w