Winter in your water garden is a beautiful time of year. However, you must be prepared. The fall of 2009 was very mild but now we begin 2010 with some of the coldest temperatures to begin a new year on record. Your water feature may need more maintenance than normal this winter.

First of all...don't unplug it! If you unplug your pump, the water may stay in the pipe and freeze. The expanding water could split your pipe and cause a costly repair next spring. If you have decided you don't want to run your feature, you'll need to take the pump out, bring it inside and store it in a frost-free location. That may not be possible until it thaws a little.

Only a small hole is necessary in the ice to keep your fish alive. If your waterfall is running and you can see open water somewhere, you're okay. And if the pond freezes over temporarily, your fish won't suffocate immidiately. You have a few days before you need to worry as long as your pond isn't overstocked or full of leaves and debris. It's actually more important that the carbon dioxide gets out than the oxgen gets in since cold water holds oxygen so well.

As the ice continues to form, you may have to add water everyday. You didn't want to hear that did you? If you have a pond with a skimmer, the water level is critical for your water feataure to run. More and more of the water in your feature will turn to ice above the water's surface and reduce the level of the water in your pond. It is important for the life of your pump, that the water level in the skimmer stay full. It may seem like it is leaking, but it's just freezing above the water level.

Pondless waterfalls may be completely iced over and that's okay. As the water starts to freeze, ice forms a dome over the feature with the water flowing under it. As long as you have enough water in your resevoir that you can't hear the pump struggling to run, don't worry about it. It will thaw eventually!

Deicers have trouble keeping up in these temperatures. We have had many calls from customers indicating that their deicer isn't working. It most cases it's working but it's just having trouble working at it's best efficiency. Also, your pump and deicer may not be able to run off the same circuit. You may have to temporarily run your pump on a heavy duty extension cord from another outlet on a different circuit.

Some final thoughts. On the left are pictures of the ponds at our house taken on January 4, 2010. We still have not added deicers to either pond. You can see from the photos that the ponds are completly frozen over as all the ponds are here at Cool Ponds as well. The pumps are still pulling water into the skimmers effectively and there is still open water at the top of the waterfalls. We have added water on Jan 4 and will need to add water again today, Jan 6. Remember these are not normal temperatures and this is not normal winter maintenance for a water feature.

Hang in there and let us know if we can help!

317-786-3670
901 E Hanna Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46227
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info@coolponds.net