Charlie's Pond
Getting Ready for Winter

By Charles Drew
First published in the newsletter of the Hamilton and District Aquarium Society, September 2003
Aquarticles

It may only be September but cold weather will be here sooner than you think. Many people had bad losses last winter. Most of these could have been prevented if only a little care had been taken. In mid October or very soon after, the cold air and water causes the water plants to stop growing. It is then time to get my pond ready for winter.

First I net out all the leaves that got in despite my leaf net. I now change at least ten inches of water getting all dirt and waste off of the bottom. In my koi pond which is 42 inches deep the lily pots sit on concrete blocks stacked three high. I put on my long underwear and my chest waders and slip into the pond. With a little set of pruning shears I snip off all open leaves and buds. Then with a home made device I lower the pots to the bottom of the pond. I usually keep the filter and UV going until there is danger of freezing.

It is about the first week in November that I shut off my pump, drain my filter, remove, clean and store my UV indoors and then remove the pipe from the pump to the UV so that it will not freeze at the surface and split. The pump stays in the pond where it is quite safe. Next I get out my air pump. It sits in a styrofoam box with a brick holding on the lid so it will not blow away during those winter storms. You need a fairly strong pump because the oversize air stones should be suspended about mid level in the pond. I use a large styrofoam ball on my air line to hold it at the desired level. In spite of all this care you will still find it necessary to go out every couple of days during extreme cold periods and use a kettle of boiling water to open the hole. Don't try to open it with a hammer or axe because the concussion can kill your fish. More fish die from methane gas buildup in their pond than for any other reason.

Three years ago I built a long, shallow pond in which to propagate water lilies. About October I started to panic. Were the lilies going to survive the winter in such shallow water or would their crowns freeze? Then came an idea. I made a greenhouse type frame that could be folded for summer storage and covered it with plastic. It worked so well that a Japanese Umbrella Plant even made that mild winter.

Last winter I found myself with more small goldfish and koi in this pond than I had time to get out. Also I had no room to move them inside for the winter. I had an air bleed-off line from my fish room handy so I dropped in an air stone and wished for another mild winter. As luck would have it we had one of the coldest winters on record. At the end of March I finally lifted the plastic cover for a peek. I was amazed. They were all alive except for a few that had gotten trapped on top of some lotus pots and could not get down deep enough. The water depth was only eleven and a half inches. If you think that was amazing, I had a koi that was missed in an above ground pond with a plastic cover and no air survive in ten inches of water. This proves to me that if you can keep the wind off of the ice surface and take advantage of what winter sun that we do get, the ice will stay thin and the fish will survive provided that you did your other Fall chores. It is now time to get to work and good luck.