Northern states, pond management during the winter.

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T

tunerX

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 8, 2007
1,165
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Thousand Islands Region Northern New York
What are people doing to aerate their ponds during the colder months of the winter?

My dug pond is roughly 60'x100'. I was looking for a low cost solution that will keep about a 20-30' diameter unfrozen hole in the ice. I was running a quiet one 14000 pond pump but that gets expensive, especially since I will be running two of them in my house for my large aquarium.
 
What ??? no pix !!!! :ROFL:

Use a perforated & weighted hose often used for administering ozone in dead lakes for cleanup. And a regenerative blower or oilless compressor. You will have to use an expanding coil on the bottom to keep that much space open.

Dr Joe

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I want a hole that big for gas exchange. I have a ton of water plants and fish in my pond and if it freezes over completely, I could have a big fish kill. I don't dredge the pond so all of the plants that live in the spring and summer, hibernate in the winter. The decaying material eats up all the oxygen. If there is ice on the pond then there will not be any gas exchange and the O2 levels will drop.

My pond is a just a big hole that was dug into the ground then naturally filled with ground water; nothing too impressive, unless you like holes in the ground.

The quiet one works fine but costs 270WPH and has to run 24/7 for the whole winter.
 
You don't need that big of hole for gas exchange.One 3' circle should be more than enough.Dr Joe is right that air is the cheapest way to go.Bringing warm water to the surface keeps it from freezing Keeping a bigger area open just brings down the temperature of the whole pond.
 
I have maintained a 20-30' hole with the Quiet one and didn't have fish kills when the neighbors ponds were getting them with holes smaller than 10'. Last year was a bad year here with actual temps getting to -24 without wind chill. The neighbor lost all of his channel cats, bass, sunfish, perch and koi. The only thing left were bull heads.

The pond is 16 feet deep in the middle and there is plenty of earth contact so the water at the deeper levels doesn't get too cold for the fish.

I am looking for a solution that will be less than 270 WPH.
 
OK then, how about alternating pump cycles. 1hr on 1/2hr off, when it's warmer (during the day?) increase the off time. You won't have to change anything and should be able to reduce power consumption by at least 35%.

Or how about a miniature R/C icebreaker to run around in circles?

Dr Joe

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I could play around with the timing, maybe but a controller and relay with a timer and temp sensor.

I could also just put gravy on the ice and let my Akita go at it. A can of gravy has to be way less then running a pump all day.
 
tunerX;1307254; said:
I could play around with the timing, maybe but a controller and relay with a timer and temp sensor.

I could also just put gravy on the ice and let my Akita go at it. A can of gravy has to be way less then running a pump all day.
Click to expand...

any pics of your akita?:headbang2
 
Hey...Hey...Hey this is a fish site!

Ok now that that was said...got any? ;)
 
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