Can anyone help explain how heaters work? Ive been searching ebay and see that for every 1000 gallons you need 1kw in a heater.
There seems to be two kinds of heater. The one that floats around and just keeps the area at the top clear of ice so the fish dont suffocate. Not what I want.
What i do want is something that will heat the whole of the water, very much like an aquarium heater. What is confusing me is how they work. Some come with pipework and some dont. Can anyone explain where they go as they all seem to have timers as well. Theres also gas, oil and electric ones.
Help, im confused.

Sandy, I was going to start a thread like this as well, for it's getting close to "that time". I'm interested in what others say.

i too want to know about this...lets hope someone can help us all!

my father-in-law doesnt use conventional heaters in the winter-time. He's used a livestock water heater for the past 3 years and it works pretty good, sits at the bottom heating the pond and it only gets a little light glaze of ice at the top easy to break up. The only bad thing I worry about is if it gets too warm that it bring the koi out of hibernation, but they've done good so far, none have died yet, thats a plus

I live in central NY and don't use a heater. I use a de-icer in the winter to keep a hole open in the pond so that the gases can escape and not kill the fish. You can normally buy de-icers cheapest at farm supply stores (versus online at pond stores).

Hey Debi, do you end up doing a submersible then too? How deep is your pond? Mine's 3 feet, and up against the addition to our house, so I thinking that'll keep it semi-warm, but I just don't want to take ANY chances.

I just dont want the pond temp to keep changing, it must be bad for them. I wanted a pond heater to keep it at a steady 12c through the winter so they can at least keep feeding.

My de-icer is round and it floats on the surface. The nice thing is that it is temperature controlled so will only come on once the water gets below 32 degrees which saves on electric.

Why worry about it and just let it get cold? The fish are fine not eating once the temp gets below 55 degrees (12 C).

Erika a proper pond heater fits into the line somewhere going into the filter so theres a constant run of water over it. Over here they cost over £200 so i have to either take them out to over winter or leave them. The pond is 4 foot deep so thats fine, but if you get really cold winters then 3 feet might be a bit risky. Whats the lowest temp you can expect Erika?

The problem Debi is that i have fantail types in the pond and i can only over winter two of them. I didnt want to chance them with the temps, but i have no choice now as hubby wont let me get another tank and he wont let me use the tub in the garden which holds 40 gallons. But I havent given up hope.

My next question is to do with the filter. Will it be ok to run through the winter without freezing, or should it be switched off when temp gets to a certain level and will the fish do ok without it? I know the bacteria will die but im expecting that to happen when the temp gets low.

I wondered about those. Seems that they're hard to find though... the only ones I can ever find are the floating ones and the submersibles. Here the coldest temp I can expect is probably 0. There's been years when it was like -10 below, but that was when I was a kid, and the whole global warming thing has really kept our winters from getting that cold.

Sands, I heard somewhere that shutting the filtration off is what you're suppose to do, because if the bottom of your pond stays liquid, and the top freezes, your pump could potentially drain the pond by dumping water on top of the ice.. ya know what I mean? Supposedly, some of the good bio-bugs survive the winter somehow.

I see "The Pond Man, aka, Scott" is viewing this topic. I will wait for his words of wisdom on the subject, he's the guy to ask, right?!

Ok then will switch it off when it gets cold enough to freeze

Sandy, fantails should be fine in your pond for the winter (mine our and we get very cold and over 200 inches of snow). As long as you have a de-icer to keep a hole open for the gases to escape. I wouldn't leave the filter running all winter. I turn mine off when the temps starting staying in the 50's.

Wow, you keep fantails out? I have Nessie in the pond, but I thought I'd have to bring her in!!

On another forum theres someone in Wales that has kept his blackmoor in a pond for 12 years and its huge. The temperature there will regularly get to freezing so maybe it will be ok to leave them out then.

What's the coldest temps you see Sandy?

Its hard to tell Erika, each year is different. We can get really cold snaps of -5 but with wind chill making it colder or we can get milder weather of around 3 to 5 c. We take it month by month here. Snow usually comes in February but can happen in November.

What do you normally get?

I bring in my Orandas, my Pearlscale and some of my Shubunkins babies. I keep Koi, Comets, Fantails, and Shubunkins outside all year round.

I'm expecting a winter of about 0 Farenheit as the average this year........ there's been times when it's been below 0, but that's been ages ago. We don't really get much snow anymore either. I think our biggest storm last winter dumped 5 inches or so? With my luck though, this will be the worst winter in the history of the midwest and we'll have 4 feet of it.

Thats what im thinking as well over here, would be just our luck wouldnt it?

hey all, i was looking on ebay to see what was available in pond heaters...it really is all a bit confusing!

can anyone explain to me how a heater is installed into the system...is it put in the water or does it stay outside the water like the filter.

here's one i've found on ebay

ebay

would this be suitable and am i right in thinking that you would attatch hoses to those outlets and the water heats by passing through the heater.

sorry for all the questions!

Jude

Im new to all this as well Jude but i think you put them in your pipework leaving the filter. I dont know exactly how you do it and swimming pool heaters i believe are cheaper.

i wonder can the actual heater be left out in the open then or would it need to be covered or sheltered in some way...i still haven't had a chance to look into covering my filter to keep it running for longer!

I've used the deicer for the last four years. I lay a couple boards across the sides of the pond and lay a piece of plywood over the deicer on the boards. This keeps the snow off it and holds the heat down so the opening is bigger. I don't cover the whole pond with the plywood just a 3x3 section or so.

My pond store recommends turning the pump off. It would circulate the cold water to the bottom if left on and make the water colder. So I've always turned it off.

I quit feeding around 55-50 steady. I haven't lost any fish over the winter yet. Actually I find babies in the spring.

thanks for your reply shelly, what's a deicer exactly? that's very interesting about the pump, i never thought of it cooling the water down by turning it over, but surely if i had a heater in the pipework this wouldn't be the case. How do you find your water qualitly over the winter with no pump and filter on, does the water get very murky? and do we still need to do water changes in the winter as surely adding new cold water to the pond wouldn't be very helpful!

thanks

jude

Also, Shelley, how cold does it get where you are? You're northern PA, right? What kind of fish do you have in your pond?

Sorry to bombard you with questions, hehe

deicers keep an area of the pond from getting iced over. Useful for if you go away for over xmas or cant get to the pond often to see if it freezes over. It doesnt heat the pond, only a small area around it. I think as well you have to watch it doesnt get near the liner or it will melt it.
If your pond is heated then you dont need to switch the waterfall off but you need to feed the fish as they wouldnt go in to hibernation. If you choose to not heat the pond then switch off the waterfall as suggested, and Loz told me to do the same thing as well, so will do that when we start getting water temperatures below 10c. In the winter the fish stop eating below a certain temperature and go into hibernation so theres no need for water changes at all through the winter. If your pond has been running for a while and youve not done any water changes then its best to do a big one now and clean out the filter. You wont need to do a water change again until spring when the fish are active again. Always clear out the bottom of the pond as well as you can at this time of year as the bad bacteria hide in the muck and keaves at the bottom of the pond and are active in the spring before the fish are, which is when your fish are vulnerable to bacterial attacks.

Yeah, about that, what's a good way to clean out the bottom of the pond? Mine's littered with acorns and cat litter from the plants.

Maybe a fine mesh net might reach, or a pond vac, but they can get expensive.

i use a pond vac on mine, i have an oase pondovac 2, good little vac that, lot's of extensions (easily vac a 4' deep) and lot's of attachments, and ones for varied gravel sizes

also, one of my lfs' rents out a pond vac for £25 per day.... could be worth an ask at yous?

thou i have seen hozelock manual vac around the £40 mark

I honestly never thought about that..... hmmmmm........ I have a few good stores that might rent one, hopefully it's cheaper than what you pay though, jeesh!!!!!

I'mma look on eBay and see if there's any deals. I wonder if I could just make one?

don't buy the manual vac's they are useless i spend £40 on one and couldn't get it to work at all!

also if you rent a pond vac out at £25, after 4 times of hiring you could have bought one outright, i think they are such a good investment...esp if your doing weekly water changes!

to heat or not to heat....no maintainence during winter would be great but not seeing much of the fish all winter would be horrible!

does anyone have a specific heater they would recommend...?

Renting is fine if your only doing it say once or twice a year (that is if you have a large pond and don’t need to do changes). So it's only £25 once/twice a year, it is ok if you can't afford one out right.

I’ve not used manual, if would come with guarantee thou, if it is useless you can always return it?

Think my vac (oase pondovac) is around the £200 mark, my got if for me for my birthday, and he certainly wouldn’t have paid that for it, so, yeh try ebay.

Still researching this heating malarkey and i came across this article which i thought was good

http://www.koicarp.org.uk/koi_dry_goods_heating.htm


at what temp do you stop feeding again? and how long can fish go without food? i'm quite scared about the prospect of winter approaching and the fact that this is my ponds 1st winter!

Jude

Mee tooo Jude, Jon's already prepared for my unheeding worries all winter.

Last year i swiched to wheatgerm food when water started to fall belwow 10C, i stopped feeding altogether when it went below 5 or 6C. I think i probably stopped feeding for about 3 maybe 4 months?

i think i was on wheatgerm October, stopped feeding mid November to Febuary, and wheatgerm again March until pond temps back up.

This is in southwest UK, where we don't have really harsh winters (usually) couple days of heavy snows our lot on the most part.

this was the topic i was looking for http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...topic=37056&hl=

hope it helps

Thanks Lozbug, that's very helpful, i have some wheatgerm already so at least that's a start! i think i'm going to have a go at an un-heated pond as i can't really afford to spend anymore on the pond this year as it's cost a fortune so far and then we had a bad run of luck there using up even more money!

i'm soooo glad this forum exists, i have learn't so much this past year it is unbelieveable!!

Jude

You and me both Jamoko. Iwouldnt know what to do without forums.

have you ever seen ice around edges of buckets and such? it is very jagged and would seem to puncture fish... I dont have a pond atm i have my three goldies in a 100 gal ruber maid tub sitting on the ground. I will have to leave them out because they are just to large to bring in this year. It has been suggested that i put insulation around the sides. Will this really work? or should i get a heater as well? or just a heater? Here in Portland Oregon the winters are mild for the most part maybe a week or two below freezing so im not sure exactly how the thick rubber sides will insulate or not.

Demi