Pond Heaters ????

BADGER.BRAD

BADGER.BRAD

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Hello all,

After installing a power outlet for a pond pump/filter System this coming Winter ( I'm hoping it's a long way off !) I Intend to leave my Goldfish in my Pond , The Pond is only Relatively small and is only about 18 inches Deep so just as a bit of protection against ice for the fish I intend to buy a heater/ anti Icing device. Do these have a thermostat so It will only activate should it get really cold. Is there any point in buying anything other than the smallest available ?


Thanks all
 
I used to have a pond heater but disconnected a few years ago when the insulation started to fail and thus trip the RCD. I suggest that you need a deeper pond. my pond has a section which goes down to just over 2 ft. This is to ensure that it is highly unlikely that it will all freeze. Nevertheless, I did use the pond heater to stop even surface freezing but winters have been rather mild recently. I do not think I have seen any ice this winter. I do not think that the heater I had was equipped with a thermostat. I just turned it on occasionally to melt the ice but even in the past this was rare. It rather depends where you live. By the way the biggest threat to my Goldfish is Herons. Interesting to see evolution working. The gold fish are spotted easily and are the first to go. A few of the fish were dark blue and as time has gone on almost all the fish are now dark blue and thus not easily seen by herons.


Dave
 
HI I used to keep Koi carp for many years, but stopped a year or two ago due to not having too much on my plate , DAVE is right a deeper pond would help mine was 6ft approx. and the fish would still huddle together in winter, the last couple off years recently I wouldn't have switched my heater on no need to hardly any ice, but if you are not increasing the depth then I suggest you buy a heater

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BADGER.BRAD said:
Hello all,

After installing a power outlet for a pond pump/filter System this coming Winter ( I'm hoping it's a long way off !) I Intend to leave my Goldfish in my Pond , The Pond is only Relatively small and is only about 18 inches Deep so just as a bit of protection against ice for the fish I intend to buy a heater/ anti Icing device. Do these have a thermostat so It will only activate should it get really cold. Is there any point in buying anything other than the smallest available ?


Thanks all
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It depends where you are but in our garden in London(bout 7 to 8 miles in a straight line from Trafalgar Square) we have a pond about 5 feet by 7 feet and I think only slightly deeper, at the deepest, than your pond.

We had goldfish in it(started with 5 and when we passed them on to someone else there were over 20). We did not use a heater and it did freeze over sometimes but the fish did not appear to be harmed.

On a few occasions I melted a hole in the ice by gently pouring some hot water on the ice, but in some years I did nothing to the ice. Most years the fish would disappear towards the bottom of the pond as it got cold and we wouldn't see them for 2 or 3 months.

However, that was in a mild area of the country and with a rapidly changing climate extremes of weather could be more frequent. I don't know about the size of heater but even the smallest pond contains a surprisingly large volume of water.

Dave
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, In my previous house with a large garden we had a large pond 10X5 feet and about 3 foot at the deepest I just used to leave the fish to get on with it with the surface freezing up to 1 1/2 inchs on the really cold days, We lost every fish bar one Shubumkin when we once went away in the caravan to a Heron ! The Koi and grass Carp were quite a size after buying them at about an inch and a half I was gutted ! Although the climate is warmer than in the past my pond did freeze quite a few times this year as we are very exposed on the edge of farm land as far as the eye can see in Shropshire. I think I'll go with the idea of a heater but as some of you have done in the past just switch it on when things are looking grim !
 
I used to have a heater but now just keep the pump going during daylight hours which even following our coldest (Surrey) nights soon provides a hole for ventilation. A cheap football may do the same.
 
We have 2 ponds and for many years have used a polystyrene box about 2 feet long with a small hole cut in the side at the bottom so it floats on the pond like an igloo
This keeps an air space free when the pond freezes
 
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