I feel for you. The weather is absolutely colder here too. The waterfall froze last night so I will need to pull the pump today to avoid the problem you had. You are not the only one who had had that problem, by the way. Sandy

Thanks for your response. Now I'll just have to wait to see if they survived. Can't see them at the moment with the ice chunk still on top.

I too, feel your pain. My pump is in my skimmer (with low level shut off valve). Last year waited too long and leaves cut the flow and pump turned off. It was cold enough to freeze and split a pvc pipe to skippy.

Got my pump, wf, and skippy turned OFF last weeek!!

I hope things work out for you!!!
fred

Dang. The weather here is just plain crazy. For a while it looked like we would have a regular winter but the temps went up to 50oF this past week. Now they are colder but no freeze expected anytime soon. I'll have to leave the waterfall going. Which means I have to watch out for your situation as well as keep the pond topped off. The cold air causes a lot of evaporation. Sandy

The ice cracked in several spots and some fell in before we could refill the pond to its previous depth (well water, have to do a little at a time.) Spotted 2 (one of my biggest and a "baby" from previous year. My husband had to rescue one of the big ones (not sure if it was the same one or not) when it got trapped between a chunk of ice and the side. The weather warmed a bit, but didn't let enough ice melt to see if they are okay. Thanks for all of your support through my calamity.