new pond...problem...overwintering...

18 years ago

Hi there. Its been a while since ive been inthis forum. Three years+ actually. I had an exhisting water garden consisting of 4 performed ponds with connecting stream. My fatherdied two years ago and i lost the drive to run it.There was also a leak someplace and i couldnt find it. So on a happier note after two+ years being "Pondless" i have hired a crew to come put a new watergarden(Ponds) in. My lower pond is probably 14L feet by 10 feet wide. which is great but however i thought it wasnt deep enough for the benefit of the fish. So i went wading in it and found that its only knee deep which is only about 18 inches deep. I had originally wanted a 2.5 foot depth. But ended up with 18 inches deep instead. You see i have an open yard with sun and share the open space with a neighbor about 90 feet from my pond. No small kids ect. I do not have a fence around it like i SHOULD. but this is why i wanted my pond about 2.5 feet deep. I cant stand the idea of having a fence and it would look horrible being only around the pond and if i ever had to put up a fence around my property ide need to win the lottery! Anyways, i went shopping for some nice koi. 5 are about 10 inces long,4 of them 6 inches long and 8 under 4 inches long. I know thats alot of fish for a pond of this size. I also have some other connecting ponds where i will place a few in each. Many of the ponds being about 8 feet in size. BUt heres my Problem.....I live in cold zone 5 in MA.we have some good deep freezes. I have never overwintered my pond fish outside and one of the strong points of having this new watergarden was so that i can overwinter my fish outdoors. Does anyone think that i could put all my fish in my lower pond (the larger one) and over winter them safely there? Also i was told that i will need a Fountain pump to blow upwards to keep the water moving so that it wont freeze ( thus letting the gasses escape) will this be enough? If so what size pump do i buy? best/ most functional name brand and guestimate price i can expect to pay? I also noticed companies selling airators, are they worth the money and effort? I was looking at a keater and i actually bought one but its 300 watts...ouch! I already pay $500.00 a month to heat this house in electric and use a wood stove, ide like to try to keep the energy cost down if i can. So overall i need to know if this pond depth is ok and what should i use to over winter my fish? Thank you so much for anything you may suggest! have a nice day! Melissa

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Comments (3)

johnkr
18 years ago
Melissa, after a decade of bubblers, pumps and heaters, I was able to maintain a nice hole in the ice last winter with a Tetra aquarium air pump. It runs on 4 WATTS and cost about $20 at Walmart. I purchased the two air outlet model and added two of the large air stone strips. Aquarium air pumps are made for indoor use, so you will need to keep it in some weather resistant housing like a plastic shoe box.

I would recommend the aquarium air pump with a backup device. I have a 1500w stock tank heater ready to go if the air pump fails to maintain a hole. The stock tank heater can melt through ice very quickly, but I didn't need it last year.

My pond is three feet deep, but I never had more then six inches of ice.
maryo_nh
18 years ago
Missa, same here. I did last winter what John did - a two outlet aquarium air pump, and put even a splitter on one of the lines. We had three little air stones bubbling happily all winter. I live in Southern NH, near Nashua, in a locally cool spot that makes it the northern edge of zone 5; so our situation is pretty much the same. I used to use Tetra deicer islands and I had them in the water this winter to use if I had to, I even plugged them in for an extremely cold spell, but I don't think that it was really necessary. Those are low Watt and cost well under $ 100.

I had my air pump on a brick under a plastic shoe box and it sat on our little bridge, so it could get air all winter, stayed up out of the wetness on the ground, and stayed dry from the top. Then I put a few bricks on top to make sure it stayed put. Worked excellently and I could never find an increase in my electricity bill!

If you decide to go with the aquarium air pump and if you're interested, you can borrow one of my deicer islands for this winter to see how it works for you. I have three and I will only use one as the back-up.

:) Mary
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maryo_nh
18 years ago
And, I forgot to mention, we tied the air stone tubing to one of the deicer islands and floated it to the exact spot where our pond is the deepest. The lily pots are down there and the fish congregate between the pots. We had the air opening exactly above where the fish spend the winter.

:) Mary