DS got me a new Water Gardening book for Christmas, so my reading has brought up some questions and inspirations. What better place to bring them up than here?
1) Can anyone recommend the most efficient (to own and operate) pond heater/deicer? I've refrained from getting one for three years, but the time has come. Tips on which one (and where to buy) are most appreciated.
2) Does anyone use plain, unscoopable kitty litter instead of clay soil? Granted, my soil is nuthin' BUT clay. But kitty litter would be so much easier to handle when I'm potting up new plants, or dividing old ones...thoughts? Encouragement? (Warnings???)
3) Speaking of potting medium, I had a real "Aha!" moment when reading through this book. (Or maybe a "Duh!" moment :)
Up 'til now, I've put my veggie filter plants directly in the pea gravel, or potted them up in soil and sunk the pots into the filter area. But this book suggested potting the plants in pea gravel. Which would make it much easier to lift the tender ones out in the fall, and remove the worry that the potting soil is leaching into the filter area, and hastening the need to clean it out.
Any other new pond ideas floating around out there? (C'mon spring....)
Got a new book = lots of questions and ideas!
Terry, I've used a couple of different de-icers and we've found that keeping the pump running keeps the water open enough with out a heater. We arrange it so there's a strong current of water just under the surface in the deepest part. I've been through three heaters and this has worked out the best so far. My pond has iced over a couple of times in past winters after heaters have died. I think at one point it was iced over for a week or longer. Amazing the fish did OK.
I tried kitty litter last year for my lotus that I planted in a large tub. I'd test the litter first in water. The stuff I used was supposed to be a natural clay... but once it was in water there was a oily film on the surface. It didn't hurt the plant but I don't know if it would bother fish.
Do you have one of the smaller prefab ponds or a dug one? I don't heat my pond at all and the fish live through the winter. I have three different depths and the most I have gotten so far is a thin layer of ice.
I keep my tender plants in pots so they can be lifted. The plants in the veggie filter go right into the gravel. My thinking on this, is that it is the roots that do the cleaning and I have not found potted plants to be as efficient. This is just my personal experience. :)
I pot in plain old clay soil. I don't find it to be any messier and it only clouds the water briefly.
Thus far, the best thing I have learned-put your money into a good pump! Even though my veggie filter did an excellent job, I may splurge on the $$$ filter too.
'chele, this pond (one of two) is fairly good sized, roughly 6' x 10' x 30" - it's a free-form shape, installed a few years before we moved in back in 2000.
The first time it iced over (four years ago this winter), we lost a LOT of fish because of the trapped gases. I've floated various things (like a ball) to keep a hole open, which I can do again (but it's not foolproof, and if the open hole is out in the middle, I can't do much to wiggle the ball and keep a decent air hole open - guess I could tether it...)
Sue, I can't let my pump run - I'm afraid it will drop the water temps too much, and I'll end up with a pond o'slush.
As to planting, up til now I've planted in plain clay soil, too. But our soil is so hard, digging up enough for a new container is a pain in the rear. (Not to mention, DH dislikes it when I dig up holes in the yard, and my beds are too full to go digging in them.) That's why I thought the kitty litter would be easier to use for new/repotted plants.
With the plants in the veggie filter, I really like the idea of putting them in mesh baskets filled with the same pea gravel as the filter medium. That way in the fall, I can lift the entire basket to move the tender stuff to the makeshift "pond" in my GH. When they're in the filter, they should be able to do just as good a job as if I plunked 'em right into the filter medium.
Terry, I think you'd be surprised how the moving water keeps it open. It won't turn to slush. My pond ices all around but keeps a good hole where the water is turbulant. It the coldest temp there might be a bubble of ice that skims over the pump but the water stays moving underneath and it doesn't take much to break the bubble. Temps can get well below zero here.
We tried a heater once that is used to keep water thawed for livestock animals. It was way too hot! My fish were swimming around and looking to be fed in January. The regular pond de-icers work the best but they aren't very long-lived.
Terry, I have one of those expensive heaters. The one everyone says not to use....that it's too expensive to run. This is very true...but...we have it on a timer and it's only on a couple hours a day. That's more than sufficient considering our cold winters. Regarding your kitty litter question, I've never tried it and have no intention on it. I'm very hesitant because I hate to mess with what works. I'm not planning on doing anything new this year at my home; but, hubby and I will most likely be helping AngelSong in the Spring putting something small in.
For de-icing, we tie bricks to milk cartons and drop them in. Maybe a half dozen or so. They don't move around much so they pretty much stay at the perimeter of the pond. We used the heaters in water troughs up in OH when we had cows and they worked great but we've not used them in the water garden.
I started using kitty litter two years ago and I love it. I still put larger rocks over the litter at the top of the pot or the fish will kick out the litter. I have no idea how they do it with no arms or legs but they do. To prevent the clouding in the water garden, I dunk the pot into a galvanized tub and let it sit there until it clears - just a few minutes - and then put it in the pond.
Terry, here in Lower Michigan I use a stock tank heater, it had it's own on and off switch according to the temperature, pond is 1400 gallon and fish survive every year,I got the heater at our local TSC store (farm supply)As to planting medium I gave up and bought Aquasoil, plants are happy and so am I,really easy to use doesn't cloud water and stays put in the pots, the Koi don't seem to like it, no digging, AND it's reusable. when I repot I just rinse well and reuse.
Hmmmm. We have Tractor Supply/TSC stores here, so maybe I'll check them for deicers on hand. Although I also like Vic's idea of the tethered milk jugs (empty jugs are plenty easy to come by with three thirsty kids, lolol.)
I think I might try the kitty litter in the spring - I can experiment with a few pots for my smaller pond (no fish, so the risk is less), and I'll see if I can't find some that doesn't create an oil slick...
I really hate to break over and buy the aqua soil when our clay soil is soooooo everywhere. But the kitty litter struck me as a (possibly) less-expensive alternative.
I leave my pump running too. There is a trick to NOT turning your pond to slush. You want to suck the water from a less deep spot and also release it to a less deep spot. If you keep the pump in the deepest spot, you are sucking out the warmest water and replacing it with cooler water. My pond is roughly 11x14 with a one foot ledge, two foot ledge, three foot spot and almost four foot spot. Where the trickle of moving water goes back into the pond, it does not ice up at all. The rest of the pond only gets a thing coat that is easy to break.
I keep mine open with a pump,I worry too much about a heater coming in contact with the liner and melting it.I usually use a smaller pump and keep it right at the surface shooting across,it works great......and it goes to -25 here......
Crested cick, we anchor our deicer to the middle of a 10 foot 2x4, It spans one end of the pond and doesn't come anywhere near the liner. Don't have to worry about melting the liner. Fish were swimming around it today, as my DH says"they were worshiping the heater". P.S. he's a preacher
We tried keeping the waterfalls going and being in Michigan we ended up with an ice mound, just to cold.
Well, for the time being, we've plugged back in the pump for the bog garden and waterfall (elevating the pump from where it normally rests.)
As long as our temps don't act like they did three years ago (December didn't get above freezing), we should be okay. I may still wind up with a deicer if the forecast starts looking bleak :)
I use Kitty litter and have had good sucess with it.
Betty
Terry,
I agree with poppysue and run my pump for as long as I possibly can, the fish have to have the O2.. There comes a point where I have to turn mine off though. I use Greg Bickals do-it-yourself deicer that many ponders swear by. It's easy and inexpensive to make and run and works great. Here is a running cost comparison:
Greg's Deicer 50 watts x 24 hours a day x 30 days / 1000kwh * .0962 (cost per kwh) = $3.46
Stock tank heater 1000 watts x 24 hours a day x 30 days / 1000kwh * .0962 (cost per kwh) = $69.26
I am in Chicagoland zone 5a and this keeps an opening in the ice during the coldest of days. Here is the link: http://www.geocities.com/bickal2000/pond.htm (scroll down past the floating greenhouse for deicer plans)
If you turn off the pump and only use the deicer you have to be careful. You might want to add a bubbler to add O2 to the pond. Recently, my pond iced over completely and I was afraid of loosing water so I turned it off. The deicer was working fine and dandy but the water was a bit too warm with no aeration and I lost all of my large koi. It made us sick but it's too late now :(.
I've used kitty litter for lilies and personally I don't like it. It's very messy. You have to put a ton of rocks on top of it to keep it from floating up and to hold the lily tuber in place. Half the time the tuber comes floating up even with the rock. IMHO, there is nothing better than that clay soil that we all try so hard to get rid of. It holds the lily well and they thrive, especially if you give them extra fertilizer.
My veggie filter is planted if pea gravel and I am more than pleased with it. No need to add dirt, there is enough muck floating through to keep the plants thriving.
I'm into serious overkill here, but we do three things: The pump is running so the waterfall is working. Our pump is in a skimmer box to the side of the pond (submerged about 18"). We also have the typical, expensive to run, thermostat controlled pond heater. It kicks on when the water is 40 degrees or less, and heats the general area it is in to about 45 degrees. The fish hang right below it, but show no desire to eat. We also run a bubbler attached to a basic aquarium pump. We travel a lot, and feel like doing everything gives us a better chance for success. The three things are plugged into two different circuits, so if one fails, or a cord goes bad (which we had happen recently) something still works. If we have a total power failure we'll still have a problem, of course. It's been in the teens for the past few days, and we have no ice. Last winter when it stayed below ten degrees for three weeks, there was ice on the fringe of the pond, but still 45 degrees in the middle. The only disadvantage I see to running the pump is the massive crop of string algae that thrives in the moving water. I pull bunches of it whenever there's a decent day.