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| Did yours do ok?
The water in my pond never even froze on the coldest of days! I am in zone 5 in Mass and although we had a warmer than usual winter, there were many days subfreezing. All i did was place 2x4's across the pond and lay a Solar Pool Cover on top to keep the cold out and allow solar radiation in, and it worked! It was like a mini greenhouse effect. The temps in the water never got above the 40's, but never dipped below the 30's. How did your living things fare? Did they survive? Mike |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Hi Mike: My pond never froze over either. I, too, had a solar pond cover on mine which the wind blew off because it never had a chance to freeze to the surface of the pond. I did a walk around this week and scared five to six frogs in my top pond. When I cleaned my settlement pond last fall I had to put over 100 taddies in a pail till I was done. I got so tired of removing them I left about a foot of silt in the bottom of the pond. I may end up moving out so the frogs can stay. lol My fish are up and begging for food, but I haven't fed them yet. There is lots of algae for them to graze on right now. Oh yes, and there are the things you hoped wouldn't live though the winter: like the darn pennywort I put in the pond last year that took over the whole surface. It's sprouting from under the rocks surrounding the pond. I think I'm sorry I ever put it in the pond. It took me 3-4 hours to clear the surface of the pond last fall. I had to cut through the stuff with a hacksaw blade. All my marginals are growing and need to be divided. My whole top pond is covered in duckweed. My lotus plant that I overwintered in the house (which I thought had died) is now sprouting since I moved it outside. I have got my work cut out for me though. I have to totally rebuild my top pond due to erosion. But it looks like Spring has spring. Ponders, start your pumps!!!!!!!!!!! Jenny |
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| This was my first winter with the pond. We never got below 10 F this year. I turned off my pump Dec 1st and put a cheap air stone in the pond. There were a few days in Late Dec, early Jan that the pond had a thin layer of ice over the surface everywhere except where the air stone was. The pond was completely thawed by the end of Jan. All my fish are doing swimmingly :) I have 13 large comets and at last count about 30 fry from last year. I rebuilt my falls last weekend , added two skippy filters and a second pump. Started the bad boys up and now I have beautiful clear water and my fishies are happy. The water temps is 60 F but we are going to get down to the 40's over the next few days so it will likely cool down a bit then back up to the 60's by Wed. The one thing I added to my pond last year I wish I wouldn't have were mosquito fish. I was told they wouldn't survive our winters so thought if I don't like them I wont get them again. Well guess what, I don't like them because they produce millions of mosquito fish a swarm my pond. And guess what, they survived our very mild winter :( Hopefully next year we will have a good cold snap that does away with them . |
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| pcan, maybe you can advertise them on craigslist for free, maybe as feeders? |
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- Posted by pashta_2006 Z4 ADK NY (pashta@aol.com) on Wed, Mar 21, 12 at 18:43
| LOL Smurfishy, that's BAD!!! Last fall I moved all my fish(except one that I couldn't find because it was black) to a friend's deeper pond. My ice melted this week enough for me to pull out the chunks. There was that elusive fish, swimming around! Also a frog!! That was a surprise. Got that pump going and added the Microb-lift. Ready for summer!
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| Hi! I'm from waaaaaaaaaay different continent than you are - from Europe, and I guess you all know that we had a very awful winter. We had over -30 F!! And just today I measured our lake's (yes, lake, not pond) ice, and it was 1,5 feet thick!! It was like ...... REALLY?? But I hope my fishes, frogs and other natural stuff survived, I soo hope my lotuses survived. They were in 3 feet deep water :) Greetings from Estonia, Europe |
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