Hi Kaze, our neighbors don't hassle us. We have alot of people who love coming over to see the pond and hear the water flowing down the waterfall into the big pond. It's awesome. I don't understand how your neighbors can not enjoy it. As for your winters, I think they are similar to ours - 5 to 6 months of snow and cold! I live in Prince George, BC. My pond is 8 x 12 and 3 feet deep. I have it for about 9 years. The first few years, we had one pond de-icer. This keeps a 12 inch hole open all winter. These are designed to let the gasses escape not to keep the water warm. We never had a problem until the de-icer failed. Got too busy and didn't get to it so we lost all our fish. So, this should be all you need. Our pond has never frozen solid. In the spring around Easter, we get the ice auger out and open it up. It's normally about 12-14 inches thick of ice by the time we break through. We haven't had the de-icer in a while as the fish were inside. I am hoping to change that this year. I'm looking at building an insulated enclosure out of 2x4's, insulation and lightbulbs. This is a project I have been researching and if anyone else has tried this, any helpful info is greatly appreciated. Yes, you can keep your fish alive with one floating pond de-icer. Just make sure your power cord is out of the water or the ice will pull it in.
