Neil Law wrote in message . ..
On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:12:29 GMT, "rob" wrote:

Hi All,

Got a pond of about 2000gal. Deepest spot is 4'10" about 3 feet around. I
will have ice covering the pond for approximately 3 months in the winter.
Do I have to have an opening in the ice for gases to escape? Should I heat
the bottom of the pond or the surface?

I use a couple of things.

1) An Oase Pond Vent Ice Reducer (basically a small pump underneath a styrofoam
disk). See http://www.pondsonlinecanada.com/misc4.htm.

2) Roof de-icer cable along the bottom of the pond coming up through some PVC
piping. Got this idea from somebody else in the Ottawa area (I'm from Waterloo,
Ont.).

That would probably be moi, about the de-icing cable:
http://members.rogers.com/swatsons
But ever since the Great Fish Disaster of February 2000, we have also
run a bubbler to get a bit of active circulation and gas exchange.

At 4'10" deep, the OP probably doesn't need a heater to prevent it
freezing to the bottom, and if it's only 3' across, he can probably
put boards (or slabs of styrofoam) across to help shelter it. (At 18"
deep by 10' across, that's not really an option for ours).

-- Kizhé