Pond Winterizing

It's good to have my blog back in operation.  I needed to do some updating to my trusty old computer so it could play nice with Blogger again.  I think we're back on track now!  And I'm still hanging on to my trusty old laptop with my beloved Windows Vista operating system.

We've finished the damage clean-up from the freak storm of early October and have moved on with more normal fall duties. 

One of the fall duties I don't really relish is winterizing the pond.  Timing is critical with the winterizing process because I overwinter my fish and plants right in the pond.  I pull the powerful waterfall pump and replace it with a much smaller pump attached to an aerator that will keep oxygen in the water without introducing as much air-chilled water to the pond as the waterfall pump.  This ideally isn't done until the fish have gone into "hibernation" for the winter.   Pulling the pump while the water is still too warm may decrease the oxygen supply and cause fish die-off.

Speaking of hibernation, though, fish don't really hibernate.  They go into a state of "torpor" where their body temperature decreases, their metabolism slows, and all body functions are on super slow mode.  It is important to stop feeding fish when the water temperature gets this low, as their digestive systems have essentially shut down. Any food they ingest may sit in their stomachs and spoil, causing illness or death.  During this time, they usually don't show any desire to eat and more or less just hang out around the warmest pockets of water in the pond.  This state of torpor or dormancy usually happens when the water temperature is below 50 degrees.  Their slow movements and lack of desire to feed indicate the right time to winterize the pond.

The reason I don't relish the pond winterizing is exactly because it shouldn't be done until the water temperature is 50 degrees or below.  Winterizing involves wading into the pond to cut the plants back to the crown.  If you've never gone wading in 50 degree water, please feel free to take my word for it.  50 degrees is doggone cold!  I'm not very good at working with gloves, not to mention the fact that I always manage to reach beyond the length of the glove, filling the glove with a slosh of icy water, which in turn freezes my hands even more.  I usually resort to just taking the gloves off and reaching down with a sharp scissors to trim the plants as quickly as I can.

After all the trimming and skimming of debris from the pond surface is done, I place the bubbler pump and filter in the center of the pond and anchor the pond de-icer just adjacent to the bubbler.  This will assure that an opening to allow oxygen into the water remains throughout the winter. 

All this moving around in the pond usually makes the water pretty cloudy so I run the waterfall pump for about 24 hours after trimming plants and placing the winter bubbler and heater.  This clears the water and makes it easier for the bubbler to keep the water fresh.  After the water is cleared, the waterfall pump is pulled, rinsed off, taken into the heated garage, and stored in a bucket of water.  It's important to keep these pumps submerged in water all the time to prevent the seals from drying out and failing, which will destroy the pump.

The filters are also pulled from the biofall unit, rinsed, dried, and stored.  Then, I fill the pond to its fullest capacity, and the pond is ready for the winter.  It just needs to be checked periodically to make sure the bubbler is still working.  I don't turn the heater on right away, even though I've placed it in the pond.  I check the pond daily as the temperatures are falling so I know when it is time to turn on the heat.  The heater doesn't need to be started until a significant portion of the pond surface begins to ice over.  If heated too soon, it has the potential to warm the water enough to bring the fish out of dormancy and that isn't desirable.   Once that balance of heat and aeration is established, a weekly or even once every two week check on the pond is all that is necessary over the winter.

In winters with large snowfalls, it might be necessary to sweep some snow off the ice to assure that oxygen and sunlight are available to the fish.  Even though they are dormant, oxygen and light are still critical to their well-being.  I discovered a few winters ago, though, just how tough those fish might be. 

It was a winter with record snowfall.  In November, December, and January, I made my every couple weeks treks to check on the pond.  My last trip in January, I broke through the crust of snow and sank down to my waist.  By the time I managed to wiggle and pull myself out of that predicament, I realized that I couldn't really even tell where the pond was anymore, so I didn't know where to start sweeping.  Furthermore, I didn't know where that heater and bubbler were underneath all that snow and didn't relish falling through the weak ice and taking a mid-winter dip in that part of the pond.  I decided to resign myself to replacing fish come spring.  

More snow fell, but in the spring it did thaw.  As soon as I could, I went to look for the fish I knew would all be dead from lack of oxygen.  My first find was not good - there was one of my big white comets caught between two layers of ice on the edge of the pond.  It was good-bye to him.  I looked and didn't see any other casualties, but didn't see any live fish either.  I checked regularly, and after about two weeks of daily thawing, I came out and found all six of my remaining fish, lazily floating around the deep part of the pond.  Yup, they're tough.  And I'm lucky.

This year, my fish will have a warmer winter.  When the plum tree was broken to pieces in the storm, one branch of it fell into the pond, taking with it a cast iron blue heron statue that normally stands on the edge of the pond.  We pulled by tree out, but getting the heron out required wading into the pond so I opted to wait until I had to wade in for the fall cleaning.  As I pulled the heron out, I realized that its beak had been pushed into the rocks to the bottom, and right through the thick rubber liner of the pond.  When I pulled it out, the pond began to leak at a remarkable rate.  Hmmm.  Now what to do since it was really too cold to start trying to dry and patch at this time of year? 

We decided to take the easy way out.  We filled the 75 gallon rigid liner from the front fountain with water from the pond and then went fishing.  Now, my fish are all safely tucked in their winter home in the garage with their bubbler fountain and filter system.  I realized the first night that I also needed to cover the top of the tank with a net.  Koi will "leap" if they are stuck in a place that they perceive is too small for them.  I came out in the garage to find my largest calico koi lying on the concrete floor beside the tank.  Apparently he thought he deserved a larger home.  He was still alive, so I put him back in the water, swooshed a little water slowly through his gills, then let him go.  He gave me a look of gratitude (all right, this is the point where my husband is really, really convinced I've lost my mind, but I swear that fish was grateful), then swished his tail and swam away.  Not being convinced he was smart enough to not do it again, I covered the tank with a net I usually use to keep leaves out of the pond skimmer in the fall.  So far, they seem to be doing fine.

And I am taking the hole in the pond as the sign that it is time for my dream of having a larger pond to come true.  Next spring...