I live in Toronto and I too just left my pumps running. Just disconnect
all the hoses and let them run preferably in one area. The pond froze
over but left a small hole big enough to let gasses escape and the
current was strong enough not to freeze the bottom. All my fish lived
and I have about 50 of them.

Koitoy wrote:
TheStealth Wrote:

Well winter is over here in Montreal and the ice is almost gone from my
small ~800gal pond. I have a few questions to ask before I start
cleaning
it out and reintroducing my goldfish.This will be my 3rd season with a
pond
and for the past two years I have managed to control the suspended
algae
with a few different versions of DIY filters but I always been getting
some
nasty string algae outbreaks. I want to know what can I do to prevent
these
outbreaks. I have heard that leaving some barley straw in the pond
will
help control it. Is this true? Are there other techniques to control
it?

The second this I want to ask about is pond de-icers. I have 13
goldfish
and have to keep them in two separate aquariums over the winder months
because my pond freezes solid. Next fall I am afraid the fish will
have
gotten too big to keep indoors in two aquariums and I don't have place
to
set up a third. I was thinking of leaving them in the pond over the
winter
but to introduce a pond heater/de-icer. Is this feasible? If so what
kind
of de-icers should I be looking at? Any model or brand that you would
recommend?

Thanks for any info.

Mike



Hi Mike, this is my first post. I have a deeper pond but here is the
technique I use in the winter. I use a small 700 gallon/hour pump and
keep the output hose only about an inch from the water surface. Close
to it I keep my pond de-icer. Or at least I used to before my de-icer
stopped working. It kept my entire pond (3000 gallons) from freezing.
When the de-icer quit this year I just ran the pump. I got ice- but a
pretty good size hole thru it. I really liked the idea of keeping the
fish in the garage though. Sounds like the best idea. My biggest
concern about running a pump strong enough to keep your pond from
freezing is that there may be to much current- which might stress your
fish.