December
2002, January & Febuary 2003
This month involved our battle with the leaves & the first steps of winterizing.
December
5, 2002
Ice
Finally the leaves stopped falling but in their place came ice. With temperatures
dropping down to 10 degrees at night & barely reaching freezing during
the day, the pond began to freeze over. At one point we had a half inch of
ice on the pond. Something had to be done to allow the water to "breath"
or poisonous gasses would build up. Bad news for the Fish.
We
purchased an OASE
Pond-Vent Ice Reducer 900. This gizmo pumps warmer water up from the ponds
depths to the surface. This helps keep an area ice free which allows gasses
to be exchanged & keeps the water healthy for the fish.
As you can see from the picture below, the pump works like a charm. That large dome of snow in the middle of the ice hole is the pump's float. Unlike the illustration that came with the pump, the fish don't seem too thrilled with this gizmo. They have taken up residence at the other end of the pond as far away from the pump as they can get. Its our guess they don't like the current it must be generating. We are considering possibly lowering the pump's output to help calm things down a little.
February
17, 2003
The
Icy Depths of Winter
Well it seems our wonderful OASE Pond-Vent Ice Reducer 900
wasn't up to the challenge of a New England Winter, especially this one. With
temperatures in the teens & often dropping to single digits, our pond
is now completely frozen over. In
fact we're not exactly sure where our pond is anymore. With approximately
a foot of ice in the water & another foot & a half of snow atop that,
the pond is no where to be seen...
Although when this picture was taken it was balmy 19 degrees you can see from our thermometer's telltale needle that at some point the temperature had dropped all the way down to zero degrees Fahrenheit this Winter.
Things had better warm up soon or its probably curtains for the fish. We'll probably go with a floating electric heater next Winter. The pond vent deicer system seemed like a good idea but with its filter clogging every few weeks & the fish's dislike of its water circulating effect its just not up to the task. Then again we're not sure anything would have worked this Winter. *Brrrrrrr*