What do I do?

[White Lightning]

This was the first year I have ever had a pond so I am not sure about a lot of things. It's been a lot of trial and error; building it as well as maintaining it. Hopefully I have better luck next year with the water quality. A friend of mine said I probably didn't need a filter for it but I beg to differ.
Anyways, I was wondering about shutting it down for the winter. I am going to bring in the one remaining fish and hope he sustains the change in temperature. I am going to slowly climatize him to the tank. But I was wondering, do I fully empty the pond water and leave it or can I fill it back up and allow it to freeze for the winter?

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[The Pond Boy]

Hi,

Keep the water in your pond and let it freeze.
Thanks,

Greg Veldhuizen
The Pond Boy

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

I hope you dug it so it gets wider at the top, when the water freezes it expands and can somtimes strech your  liner so it rips easier.

[White Lightning]

Wow...this is an old post.....

I was just looking at the pond today and noticed that all the fish are still there. I guess the heater did the trick and allowed them to survive over this relatively mild winter.

[washefuzzy]

Glad to here that. 

[White Lightning]

Just thought i would share a picture of the finished product.

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[Laura]

thanks for the pics - the fish are beautiful.
You mention in the earlier post that you used a heater - can I ask which product you ended up buying?

[White Lightning]

Thanks Laura!
I would have to dig it out of the shed to see what brand it is. I remember buying it from Rona last summer. It worked well enough to keep the pond from completely freezing over.

[Rybren]

Rather than using a heater, you can run a submersible pump with the output directed at the surface.  This will keep the pond from freezing solid and will keep a hole in the ice (95-ish% of the time) for gas exchange.  For those rare occasions when the hole freezes over, a bit of boiling water will open it right up again. (Don't chop it open.  My understanding is that the vibrations COULD be harmful to the fish).  The pump will also likely be much cheaper to operate than a heater. 

I used this method for the 4 winters that my 30" deep pond was active - I lost a grand total of 1 comet during this period.  (I had 20+ in the pond plus 2 butterfly koi)

My experience only.


Jerry

[asmackay]

Good advice.  I just put in a pond this year and was looking for different solutions for winter.  My pond is 32" deep, and the heater options look expensive to run all winter.

[White Lightning]

To be honest, I did not notice any difference in my bill. But then again, my wife looks after the bills. I figured that if there was a huge increase she would have mentioned it.