Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help pond freeze

i have a 1/4 acre pond by my house. from no rain it is down to a little more then 6' in depth. is thier anyway to keep from having a freeze and loosing all my fish? i put aerator in 2 foot of water and turned off until ice starts to form. any help would be deeply apreciated. thank you
paul

Your pond is a leaker. However all earth bottom ponds without a liner leak at least a little bit. Amount of leakage is the major factor. No well-sealed pond in MI should ever be down more than 2 ft during the worst drought unless it leaks. Your leak is somewhere in the height above the current low waterlevel. Well-sealed clay lined ponds in NW OH typically go down 12" -18" in drought conditions. My neighbor just "topped off" his pond by adding 18" of ditch water to his pond due to a slight leak. My pond is curently down 6" from full; Sept, Oct, & early Nov have been quite dry. Fall and spring rains should have the water level to over flow pipe by April or sooner.

You will have some problems trying to overwinter your fish in 6 ft of water in western, central MI winters. Aeration can help you overwinter your fish but you will cool the water temperature lower than 39F especially in such a small pond with only 6 - 8 ft of water depth. If you decide to aerate put your diffuser in 2 ft of water in the beach area. Every degree lower than 39F adds additional stress to your fish. Low temps alone can be as harmful as low dissolved oxygen. You want to try and get some more water in your pond before freeze up. Water pumping may be necessary before freeze up. You may have what we call a ground water pond in NW Ohio. As the surrounding soils become saturated the water level increases and pond is typically full in the spring and low during periods of low rainfall and when upper ground layers loose water saturation.

If adding water is not an option, I would try and keep snow cover off 50% of the pond; maybe in strips or clear an area for ice skateing. This would be more beneficial than shallow water aeration with only 6 ft of water in the pond.

thank you so much. the pond sits in a low area on my property and is mostly clay. it is probably close to 100 years old and i believe it used to be spring fed. the pond has been more like a swamp for many years and this past spring i put many hours into it getting rid of the duck weed clearing the edges and aerating. it was so bad birds could walk on the surface of it. i think i lost a lot of the water from evaporation because i not only have the bottom defuser but i also had a fountain running. the fish are very healthy and the water is good. i will probable try to put a well next to it and pump as much water into it before the winter comes full force. would 8' in depth be enough? this spring i will have it dug to about 12' thanks again i really apreciate your advice.
paul

Bill, Interesting you should mention the 2 foot drop and the pond being a "ground water" pond. That is what had happened to my pond this year in Upstate NY. I had put it in the preious fall and the soil was very heavily clay based iwth one spot that was questionable that I tried to address with bentonite. We had a very wet spring and early summer and I have a seasonal creek that has always fed it. When we got to late summer we had a streak of no rain for over 8 weeks. My pond dropped about 2 feet. ( Fortunatly the pond is 12 to 14 feet deep and did not cause too much of a headache. The sides are a sharp drop off to 4 feet deep with a shelf and then a sharp drop teh rest of the way. ) What the drop rate ended up being was about .42 inches a day. I had hoped that this was due to the new pond being dug and not totally settled. We recently had a bit of rain and the seaonal creek filled it back up ad has been running ever since. Thus the pond has remained full. Also last year over the winter the pond remained full. Thus after your comment about a ground water pond a light went off and I think that is the boat I am in. If we have enough water that the ground is soaked or frozen, I dont seem to lose alot of water.

So the million dollar question here is what do the people out your way do with a ground water pond to help it hold? I think the bentonite is not the best answer due to the sharp drop in the sides. ( interesting that it is holding the 90 degree cuts without erosion if the soil does not have enough clay content ) Or could this truly be a pond still settling in? ( This was a dug out pond )

On the up side all the fish seem happy and healthy and going strong.

I also was wondering if I should move my areator from the bottom ( 12 feet deep ) to something shallower for winter? I also will have the seasonal creek feeding it throughout the winter and if it is like last year it will have a fairly steady flow. Also I only areate about 4 to 5 hours a day now due to the nd being unde a 1/4 arce pond. What shoudl I do over the winter? SHould I have it on longer to keep a surface hole open or should I adjust the times once I find out what will keep the hole open?

Thanks all and as always gereat to learn from everyone here.

actspaul - 8' ft should be enough water to easily overwinter fish if some snow cover can be removed on a regular basis. Try not to let deep snow lay on the surface more than two weeks at a time.

Eric - People with ground water ponds in my area let them rise and fall with the water table. Not much else thay can do except get frustrated trying to keep them full.

If your creek moves water all winter you should not need aeration. In-coming water will be oxygenated, and in-coming water will cause a fairly rapid turnover of water volume and supply DO to a 1/4 ac pond under ice & snow cover. You shouldn't have a fish kill under ice unless you get 3 to 5 ft of snow on the pond for 2 months or the stream stops. I think continual stream flow should provide adequate oxygen for fish survival.

thanks bill you dont know how much i apreciate your advice.
paul