In your area, zone 6, it would be very unlikely that you would need a heater. In fact a heater is not needed for a pond in any zone unless you have tropical fish and then the cost would be prohibitive. A de-icer is used in some cases where there is a thick ice cover on the pond but it is not a heater.

It is not necessary to heat the entire volume of water, all you need is a hole in the ice. An aerator would do the job just fine at far less cost.

I agree. I'm in 6b and my pond started out at around 800 gallons, just a little more than yours. I would sometimes get a crusting of ice around the edges, but it never froze over completely. As has been said, a de-icer might be needed in extremely cold winters, but not a heater.

Thanks both of you. The reason I am worried is that one side of the pond is exposed and not protected by soil. Do you still think the pond will be OK with a bubbler/de-icer to keep a small hole open? The concrete is about 6 inches thick on the exposed side.

I think it'll be fine. As long as the pond surface does not completely freeze over, there shoudl be no problems.

OK. This year will be the first year of experiment with a pond. I have to research into some useful/interesting water plants.

I have a 700gal pond + stream. I keep the water running all year and this keeps a hole in the pond in winter. Two years ago, however, my pump failed and the pond froze over for a month. You could stand on it! Actually the hose to the stream got disconnected and the pond water was continually disturbed by internal circulation until I turned it off when I thought the pump was broken.

In any case, the fish were fine under the frozen surface. My lillies are fine down there also.

Have any of you tried to use this pond heater? I have a 300 gallon stock tank in my green house and planning on making this device to heat my fish.. I wanted to post on this blog to see if anyone has seen or experienced this device?

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_DMiYSoffBA

-jG.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pond Heater

So I built a backyard pond it is about 200-300 gallons of water I am getting a turtle koi fish and gold fish my question is do I need a water heater for my pond since it’s small.

I have a small pond in my backyard it homd about 300 gallons of water I have a turtle koi fish and gold fish in it also frogs do I need to have a water heater for this or would I be fine ? I live in Iowa