I am starting fall preparation chores at my house, and that includes getting the pond ready to close down. I bet most of us northerners know this, but just to remind everyone: NEVER break the ice on your pond with a hammer! The fish do need gas exchange in the pond and having an unfrozen space is important, but the shock waves created by banging on the ice can kill the hibernating fish. A pot of boiling water placed on top of the ice will usually melt you a hole pretty quickly if you need one.
Never break ice with a hammer!
They also sell low voltage floating devices for livestock that keeps an area of the surface from freezing as well.
(thanks for the reminder, though, Sylvi!)
Equilibrium
Sep 16, 2005
Great suggestion to use a pot of boiling water. I do this myself.
Stock tank heaters have their pros and cons. If used, they must be constantly monitored. In good conscience, I can't recommend them because fish have a tendency of congregating under them in the warmer waters. Not good with the wild air temperature fluctuations many of us get in cold zones. Fish truly can't adjust fast enough. Many who have used them as a quick fix have reported fishicles.
I guess we've been lucky, but I've been using a pond heater for the past five winters and have had no problems. Same is true for the pump, which has run all but the first winter. Between them they've kept all but the edges of our small pond from freezing over. The fishicles must happen if the power or the heater fails?
stock tank heaters are great, but last winter we left the waterfall running all winter and no problems. The fish came thru great and I have to admit, the sound of running water in asnow storm is weird.
I don't think we will =ever use the heater again
Hmm--maybe we don't need the heater, either. The pump I referred to above powers the waterfall, which ran all winter. The fish, frog and tadpoles made it through without problems. This has been the story for the past four years. An extended power failure would be an issue, however. It is odd to see the dark gap in the snow. The pond sits right on the edge of our patio, only about 20 feet from the house and in clear view. We also have an airstone, but find that it is the least effective because the air line occasionally ices up.
KNEFF
We left the waterfall running out of need, my Dh and I both had serious surgeries last year and when it came to shutting down the pond we couldn't do much so we left it run. That's the way it will be this year. All of the critters came thru just fine, and I didn't have to worry about the fish hanging around the heater, I worried about them getting to cold or burned.And the deer seemed to like the water open for them. Birds too.......