Pulled cleaned and stored the pumps and filters, cleaned out leaves and officially put the pond to bed for the winter today. It was snowing off and on all day yesterday so it should stay cool enough now for oxygen exchange not to be in issue. I noticed that my first ever koi babies are starting to really show some color and am very excited about what they may look like in the spring.
How are your ponds doing?
Put the pond to bed today
My two ponds were officially winterized Friday. The deicers are in. Everything's cleaned and inspected. Found out that the quartz sleeve on the Fishmate UV had cracked pretty good. A replacement has been ordered and should be here soon. $20.00. Never had one of those crack or break before. I like to have everything ready to go right back in, so I cut new filters, checked any seals, cleaned impellers. Had another surprise too. The impeller on the small gold fish pump was the dirtiest I'd ever seen it. Had to scrub with a tooth brush. Makes me think about half way through the next year I might pull it up and clean it just in case.
Leaves are an all winter issue here. I rake, but two of my neighbors don't. So it's the gift that keeps on giving. I'll be pulling stray leaves out until they ice over. I don't net because the pond just spans too large an area and I can't keep the net from sagging into the water. One year a big branch flew off an old oak tree into the net, sunk the whole net to the bottom nearly on top of the koi. What a mess that was. Never again. Easier just to suck it up, grab the net and go for it.
Snapple, my neighbors' leaves are my problem, too. My leaf blower broke yesterday! Just stopped blowing. I took it in this morning for repairs but it might be a week or more. I've had the darn thing THIRTY FIVE DAYS. It was five days beyond the 30-day return period. The "workmanship" is guaranteed for two years from date of purchase, so hopefully I won't be on the hook for a big repair bill.
I'm curious about your UV quartz sleeve - when I read the instruction manual for my Laguna filter, it sounded like if the quartz sleeve leaked or was broken, the entire unit would fry out if the UV bulb got wet (i.e. electrify the pond). What do you think caused your sleeve to break? Do you replace your UV bulbs once a year?
I think something like this would be not too hard to make using PVC pipe glued into a base of some sort, then something curved on top to hold the net up: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=5163+5312+18061&pcatid=18061
It probably would not help with the big branches, though.
Elizabeth
Thirty-five days of use and 5 days out? Now, that's as bad as a refrigerator we had whose compressor went out one month after the 5 yr warrenty expired. The company did made it good. Hope that's the case for you.
I was as surprised as anyone could be to see the moisture inside the quartz tube. However, it was working just fine. I replace my outdoor UV's every other year, which equals about 12 months of use. The indoor aquarium every 15 months, different brand and it's in continous use. Why the darned thing cracked at all is a mystery to me. I'm nothing but careful around that thing and nobody fiddles with it but me. It's partially recessed into the ground under a faux rock cover by the back of the pond. Not exactly a high traffic area.
I think your idea of something curved with a PVC base is a good one. But remember me? Short on clever? Also short on storage space. But the idea is intriguing. The Foster Smith thing wouldn't work because the pond bottom is not perfectly flat in the places it would have to be flat, if that makes any sense.
This message was edited Nov 17, 2008 3:14 PM
Both de-icers failed at the same time! The front pond 1000 watt and the back pond 1500 watt quit on the first real cold night! Twenty degrees. Shuffled out to the coffeepot this morning, glanced out the back patio doors at the big pond, made my coffee and when fully conscious went "What The Heck!" Ran back to the window and sure enough, the pond was frozen over. Took a look out the front window at the small pond and ditto. I had two frozen ponds.
These were Allied Precision Industries (API) deicers and this would have been the third season of use for both. I climbed out of my footie jammies, into winter gear, and began the process of quickly thawing small holes in the ice and installing the backups. That done, I woke up DH to test the electrical circuitry and the deicers them selves. Both deicers blew GFI's where ever we tried them. One blew the fuse breaker at the box! All the GFI's were in good working order. They had done their job. What a way to start the winter ponding season. I think I take good care of them. I de-scale them and store them inside during the off season. They aren't subjected to any abuse. Just normal usage. These things are NOT made for the long haul. Now I'm off in search of bargains for new backups.
BTW, within an hour I had a large areas of open water and water temps at the bottom back up to 40 from 38. The fish were all moving around as they reacted to the deicer changing, so all is well there. Whew!
Scary!!!! Good thing you were home and not on vacation, etc.
Ponding is so much more expensive with all the "back-ups" we need for this hobby. So weird that both of yours failed at the same time, straight out of pampered storage.
Thay say you "pond" but really you "adopt". College might actually be cheaper.
DH is in the process of taking one apart to see if he can figure out why they fail. There's a short somewhere, obviously, but what causes it? Water must get inside. There are times when the wind really blows and they wind up getting slightly and briefly dunked under water. It cant be helped with the way they are designed. But it takes two years?
Snapple do you store your pumps in the water or dry? I left mine in water last year but thought I ready somewhere that you store yours dry. I am wanting to just leave them without water but was concerned about seals or whatever drying out. Do you think that would be a problem?
Weird that you had de-icers problems already. I did as well. I thought the one I put in died overnight but apparently it was my outlet not the deicer. I plugged it into another outlet and then put it on the ice, boiled the tea kettle and poured in on the ice in a small spot and within a minute I had a tiny spot with no ice. I also put in my back up de-icer and plugged it on a different outlet (just for safe keeping . . .). I am getting some more deicers tomorrow. They are 40 % off at the local garden center. . . All pond supplies are 40% off. It's a very scary place to walk into with my credit cards . . .
HaHaHa!!! mm that's too funny! If I take my husband I can sometimes control the credit card usage, but even then it's tough. Outlet problems can be tricky to handle. We've had that happen here too. Once we had defective GFI's. The back pond outlets will blow if they get a sharp bump on the post they're attached to. It's always something.
tetleytuna - I have a Danner Mag drive and a Savio pump. The Danners I've had for several years and they are always stored dry. This is the first winter for the Savio but I plan to store it dry too. I read somewhere what you read too about storing them in water so the seals don't dry out. It must refer to a different style of pump than what I have. In the literature that comes with both the Danner and the Savio under "Winterization" it says to remove the pump from the pond, clean the impeller and never to "leave the pump in frozen water". So that's what I do. They're thoroughy cleaned and dried then stored in an unheated shed for the winter. I havn't lost one yet so far. But I do make sure they are perfectly dry. Do you still have the stuff that came with your pump? See if it says anything about winterization.
Hi guys,
I am afraid winter is already hitting my li' pond; and I can't stop thinking about my goldfish outside. Today i went out and measured a half inch layer of ice on top :~( . Please bear with me, this is my lil' pond's first winter. I ordered a deicer already, but is not here yet! My lil' pond is only 18'' deep, and I am nervous about how long will the fish withstand being that cold in that shallow surface. Is there anyone out there with a similar pond size who did not have losses because of winter?
ps: We are keeping a "breathing hole" free of ice build up.
Thanks a lot. (I need to sleep better tonight) ;-)
I have never put a deicer in my goldfish pond and have not had any problems. I am planning on doing it this year though. I will be going to the farm supply store to see what kind of heaters and deicers they have.
Snapple, do not have the directions for my pumps anymore but if it works for you no reason it should not work for me.
Hey tetleytuna, how deep is your goldfish pond?
~Dulci
It is a two foot deep galvanized cattle pool that is six feet across.
Good!
That gives me hopes tetleytuna. :-)