if you have aeration turn it on and before you know it your pond will be nearly open! I have no reason to de-ice my pond fish wise but durring freeze up I turn on my aeration and pull the diffusers closer to shore. My reason for doing this is each winter I have a group of deer that feed at my food plot next to my pond but they leave for the winter as soon as the can't break thru the ice for water. Its amaazing that one day I will have 10 deer that seem happy, the next day the water freezes and they can't break thru and they are gone for the next 4 months!
In the winter of 2011 I had 22" of ice and a good foot of snow cover and I was worried about having a fish kill so I turned on the aeration at 8am in the morning, by noon the pond was starting to open up and by 5pm I had 30' circles that were open. Keep in mind though that this can be very dangerous for dogs, wildlife or humans though because the ice actually tapers like a knife blade because of the turbulance and constant movement of the water eating away the ice.
Ryan
