Winterizing my pond

OK, time to winterize. As soon as I'm done posting here, I'm off to do a bunch of work.

I remove all floating plants, into the compost pile with 'em. All marginal plants get cut back and sunk to the bottom of the pond. Take a hand net and scoop out any crud available at this time. Leave some crud on the bottom, Mr. frog needs a comfy place to hibernate! Try one last time to catch some of this year's goldfish babies, as their survival rate has proven to be pretty poor over winter. Big fish have no problem.

I live on a partially wooded lot, backing onto a 15 acre forest, so fallen leaves are a huge issue. I make a tent out of pond netting to catch the leaves and defelct them to the sides so I can remove them easily.

I take a 5 gallon bucket, stand up a 5 foot piece of wood in it, then fill the bucket with pebbles or sand to hold it vertical. Then I place the bucket in the center of the pond so the wood serves as the center pole for my net tent. This way I put the net over everyting and all leaves fall to the edges where I can easily dispose of them.

Also put in a de-icer, it comes on when it gets freezing, keeps a hole in the ice to let nasty gasses escape. Other people keep their pump running all winter, but I choose not to do this as I had a bad experience my first winter (don't ask).

[fishfreek]

What a great post.

Thanks for the info on how to winterize a pond.

Just curious did your pump freze?

Obviously I am asking for the benifit of other current and future pond hobbiests.

Oh yeah, the net gets weighed down at all the edges with rocks, I have a friend who uses tent pegs, that works too.

No the pump didn't freeze. 1st winter with the pond, it got like below 10 degrees F. every night for a week, the stream froze in such a way that the water was spilling over the edge and in to the yard. I didn't discover this till half the pond was empty. Too cold to use my garden hose, I had to carry like a zillion 5 gallon buckets outside in freezing cold weather to refill the pond. Thats when I decided to get a de-icer and leave the stream off!

I caught three more baby fantails outta there today, including the one I've been trying to catch for a month! Purty little white/orange thing with a reall long tail. Raising 6 babies up inside this winter for spring restock.

Also, I just couldn't let my tropical lilly die. A new one would cost about $25 in the spring, I'll probably spend that much on electricity for it! Brought it inside in a barrel (Plastic, but looks just like a half whiskey barrel, really good) Put a shop light over it, will get a heater tomorrow.

I'm tired, time for frosty beverage!

[Fishinapond]

GREAT idea with the post!!! This was my first winter with my pond, so we had a service winterize it. They used a wide weave net which sunk in the middle and a lot of leaves spilled through or rotted over the winter. It cost a lot to have it cleaned in the spring and they pulled out A LOT of muck.

I'm planning on doing it myself this year and I'm sure your idea will save MUCH work.

BTW, any idea where to buy chest waders for a 5' female?

Dag, you drug up an ancient post!! No problem though.

BTW, any idea where to buy chest waders for a 5' female?

Sporting goods/Fishing shop for the waders, they should carry many sizes. Unless you fish too, get cheap ones.

Insofar as winterizing/cleaning goes, try your best not to fear the muck! it wont make you sick, it's just mud and leaves (well, fish poop too). Just bite the bullet, do your cleaning, hose down the waders and jump in the shower! I don't find it to be any more digusting than fertilizing the flower beds!

Only thing I would add to the above post, for your center "net/tent pole" do NOT use treated lumber (deck wood) it is full of poisons, arsenic and such, you don't want that stuff leaching into your pond.

It's that time of year!! Time to bump this post and go get to work!! Have not change my methods since last year, so the post is still accurate.

[BlueCrystalMan]

So at what point should winterizing begin? I'm in eastern PA... Late October? November? Not sure what I'll do with myself once its all closed up.

Should I remove the pump and clean it or just leave it in there? My local nursery runs a seminar in the fall to close it up, and I'm definitely going to be there. I do have some burning questions in the meantime...

BCman:

When you see the leaves on the trees just begin to change color, get to work! Fall of '[acronym:6616a8ee99="Actinic lighting"]03[/acronym:6616a8ee99], I was late, what a leafy mess in my pond, ugh. (kind of funny, dates on posts are virtually the same, goes to show timing can change each year)

With your Pump, you can, and probably should, clean it, but then return it to the pond, or keep it in a bucket of water. It's my understanding that once a pump has been submerged, it should stay wet. I believe if you let it dry out, it has a chance of having the various internal seals and gaskets dry out and crack. No personal exp. here, as I just leave mine in the pond all year, even though turned off for the winter.

My local nursery runs a seminar in the fall to close it up, and I'm definitely going to be there. I do have some burning questions in the meantime...

Good idea to attend that seminar, if they have info I didn't cover, add it on to this post. What other questions do you have? I'll try to help...

[stevoawsome]

To winterize my pond i put a circulator and a heator

stevo

[joeliowa]

1st year that we had our pound I ran a heater in it but pulled it out to soon april then we got a bad cold spell and we lost all the fish. Last winter we brought all the fish in side and set up three tanks , This winter I'm going back to the heater and will try to run the pump as long as I can.