Winter Protection for Ponds through severe ice freezes...

Perhaps folk can add their experiences as 'what works' for their pond, when protecting them from snow and ice...

Here's a diagram of a low cost effective way to vent ice I've used quite effectively on several occasions, using the layer of ice and snow to act as a layer to keep sub zero air from getting to the pond surface, while maintaining a reliable vent to keep toxic gases from building up below the ice

Quite effective in the event power failures affect heating elements or pumps... While deep drifting snow would close over such a vent arrangement, it sure would be reliable where snow is not deep or drifting

Regards, andy

Adavisus, I'm for anything that saves on the use of electricity.
I don't know however, if your device would work in our Zone 6b where we can have lots of snow and thick ice on the pond.
I use a small water pump to move the surface of the water and I also cover my pond to prevent the cold winds from blowing over it.
You say the device works for you and that is great, do you have much snow over winter?
Oconus.

Adavisus, I can't use anything like that up in our zone. It'd freeze solid in a couple of hours. We'll be hitting -10, -15, -20F long about December/January and I can guarantee that even with a foot or three of snow on top that's insufficient insulation to stop it from freezing. In addition, whenever I cut a hole in the ice the weight of snow is such that it pushes the water up through the hole so that you develop a slush layer that will also freeze - so I wouldn't be able to keep an air space open below the ice.

Being a person who likes to keep his money rather than donate it to the local power company I prefer using an air bubbler - it's worked great over the past several years even when I had 14" of ice last year! Only 4.5 watts.

My pond is 8x8x3.5 and I'm in zone 5. I have put a large gazebo frame over it. The legs are two sections that slide together and since I don't need the cover to be 7 feet tall I simply used only one of the sections for each leg. If I wanted to, I could make it shorter by replacing the tubing sections with some PVC or copper pipe the height I want. At first it was covered with bird netting to keep out the leaves and now I am covering it with clear plastic. I'll use the bubbler like DRH2. Two years ago there was 8-10 inches of ice. Last year there was no ice because the cover I made was so efficient. It just wasn't very pretty. The gazebo looks pretty nice and I can use it in the spring as a temporary greenhouse. Jessamine

The hole would freeze very quickly here too
think about the holes ice fishermen drill
they freeze back over very quickly

I agree that any hole you cut would freeze quickly but if you could keep the hole from freezing then the insulating of the ice and snow is worth it. The temp under snow and ice are much warmer than you might think. I have found that my cold hardy bananas and palms love and do much better under the snow than when thay are exposed to bone chilling temps. so I think you are both wright but keeping the hole from freezing is a problem for me as well. just remember that the ground in my area does not freeze when there is snow on the ground its only after it dries out that we get a hard freeze then i put pvc greenhouse type covers over everything. that might help in your case as well.

This message was edited Nov 24, 2004 2:22 AM