Hi, It sounds like your pond is about the same size as mine. I am in the NE zone 7.

Leaves: I always use a net in the fall to remove them so they don't rot on the bottom or make it toxic where my fish hang out for winter. I don't know if this is the best approach or not but I too like a clean pond. The problem with no leaves is its hard for the frogs to find cover for winter. I do lose 2-3 every year. I would like to find something I could put into the pond for the frogs like the filter material at the bottom of my skimmer for them to get under but won't make a mess.

Hole in the ice: I don't use a heater because mu pond installer said it draws the frogs to the warmth and they die when temps get colder. Basically it screws with their natural timing for hibernation. I also never liked the idea of adding very hot water to melt ice for fear of harming the fish. I use a fountain pump with a 3/4 inch outlet placed at about 12" deep. This is often referred to as a bubbler pump. You want it to point straight up and disturb the water to about 1-2" above the normal water level. If need be you can add a short length of hose to accomplish the correct affect. In extreme cold it may start to dome over. I break the ice dome when needed to keep it from closing over. This has worked for me and about 15 KOI since 2004.

If anyone has ideas on how to protect frogs in a fish pond I would like to hear them.

Mike

Nice pond, Mike! I like the pebble bottom-- do you keep it this clean just with a filter and scooping leaves?

I don't pour water on the ice to melt, I sit the pot (filled w/ boiling water) on top of the ice until it melts a hole.

Do you keep your bubbler running all day long in the winter? And I worry that keeping something aerating all winter will keep the water colder than if the water was still. Any ideas?

I appreciate the info about frogs and an electric deicer. I really like our green frogs and don't want to do anything that may hurt them. :) I think I'll start another post with the question of how to provide an underwater winter habitat for them.

Thanks!

Thanks for the pond complement. The pebbles give surface area for the good bacteria to grow on so they can do their job. The leaves are only a problem in the fall so I just net them out. I also run a skimmer and bio-falls until it starts to ice up. The bubbler runs 24/7 once I shut down the falls. It may cool the water some but it seams to get the job done. Without it the hole would close up very fast when the temp is below 25F.

Our pond is about 1600 gallons and 3 ft at it's deepest. For the last 3 yrs we have left our waterfall running with our submersible pump. The first year we bought 2 de-icers from TSH that are used to keep water troughs from freezing. One was submersible and one floated. They both have guards on them to not only protect your fish, but also the liner of the pond. I placed the floating one in just as soon as the pond started freezing over and did not realize until the following month how very expensive it was to keep that thing running. It cost us over 75.00 to keep our pond from freezing that month. Although it was and exceptionally cold winter that year, we decided to just continue keeping our waterfall going. If you are ever in the Springfield, Oh area let me know...I would gladly give you one.

mbhoneybee, wow. I didn't realize it was so expensive to run one of those! You sealed my "no deicer" decision! I'm going to try and figure out if I could use my filter/ fountain with no fountain-head instead of buying a bubbler. Hopefully I have a few weeks before the surface ices over... *sigh*

You can make a lightbulb deicer cheaply and it works very well. I just don't know if you need a deicer in zone 6. A bubbler, yes. I run the skippy all winter long too.

just to add in my experience with my 900g pond. I keep the main filter/pump and a small bubbler running all winter. This works for a good portion of the winter. The bubbler keeps it from freezing all most as much as the pump.

What i did last year (just once since it was a mild winter) was once the ice froze solid, including making the ice domes over the pump outlet and bubbler is to take a cordless drill with a paddle bit and drill a large circle of holes around the bubbler area. Then you can just lift a big circle of ice out. This was much quicker and cheaper then melting a hole down to the water with the deicer or pot of hot water. The fish are 3 feet down, and didn't seem to mind the noise.