Thoughts on a de-icer?

[RedFish]

I'm thinking of getting this de-icer, http://www.pondsonlinecanada.com/misc11.htm ( considered most energy efficient)

There is also this one http://www.aquariumsupplies.ca/floating-pond-heaterde-icer-watts-p-1656.html

My pond isn't very large, nor deep, either will do the trick.  But we are planning a larger pond system next year, (still either heater will work with the new plan).

I was also thinking of covering the pond, since we can easily get several feet of snow dumped on us rather quickly - If you got 2 feet of snow dumped on it, wouldn't you have to shovel out the pond, if you had a heater running?
DIY pond cover - http://www.pondexperts.ca/winter_pond_cover.htm

Any thoughts, do you run a heater?

[asmackay]

I used this 200gph power head pointed at the surface of the pond, it consumed 11watts or power and worked on all but 4 days when I had to pour boiling water to remove an ice cap.  It worked well and was cheap.  I attached an intake tube as a pre-filter.

I plan on making another for my 3000G pond.  Much cheaper to make and run than a commercial de-icer.


in this pic it kept half the pond open.

[new2salt]

I ran this - http://www.homehardware.ca/Products/index/show/product/I3284886/name/de_icer_pond_floating_1250w with the pump and fountain running all winter for 2 years, in about 500 gal.
First winter all I ran was the fountain - it was OK to about -10 C then it froze up.
2nd a & 3rd winter used the heater & fountain
It cost as much or more than the average car blockheater, to run all winter.
Never had a problem with snow or ice.
Think you would be OK with DIY cover and extra flow from additional powerhead.
Just my thoughts.
Gave up on the pond after Herons cleaned out all the 3 year old goldfish and commets.

[Rybren]

I used this 200gph power head pointed at the surface of the pond, it consumed 11watts or power and worked on all but 4 days when I had to pour boiling water to remove an ice cap.  It worked well and was cheap.  I attached an intake tube as a pre-filter.

I plan on making another for my 3000G pond.  Much cheaper to make and run than a commercial de-icer.


in this pic it kept half the pond open.

I used a slightly larger (400gph) pump on my 2000G pond.  It worked wonders, I never lost a fish. 


Using a heater is, IMHO, a waste of money and energy.

[Fishnut]

I have a tetra brand de-icer.  Yeah...it's way more expensive to run so what we did was put it on a timer.  It would go on at 9pm and off at 9am.  When it got super cold out we would just bite the bullet and leave it on but that wasn't too often.  We had a bubbler going all the time in the pond as well so in addition to the timer, we monitored the ice build up in the pond.  If we could get away with it, we turned it off completely.  I was a PITA to keep an eye on but with the small pond to keep clear, we didn't need to have it running all the time.

[RedFish]

Wow that's excellent.   So forget the heater, and use a $25 powerhead instead?   

My pond is all about the plants, there are no fish, so I just want to keep it from freezing solid.   It is only about 100 gallons.

This still works when 2 feet of snow fall on it, the snow just melts away?

[asmackay]

I found during big snow dumps,I needed to go out and uncover the hole in the ice but light snow would melt into the water.  a couple times I needed to open the ice on very cold days with boiling water.  If the pump has higher flow I think it would avoid any effort to remove snow or melt ice.  I'm going to use higher flow pump on the big pond to see how that works. 

I agree a heater is way too expensive to run compared to a pump.

[Anja]

We use a de-icer for a few days only usually in January or February, when it's very cold for more than a day or two in a row. For the rest of the winter a large airstone is enough to keep a hole in the ice.


Our pond is small, about 250G. We regularly overwinter 3 goldfish in it and since last year a handful of rosy-red minnows.

[White Lightning]

I have used a de-icer for two winters and it worked wonderfully. I am not sure of teh brand. I bought it at princess auto for about $40. Not really sure how much of an impact it had on the hydro bill bt I really don't think it made that much of a difference.

[SouthR]

I do the same as asmackay. Instead of using a heater I just dis-connect the hoses from my pump and point the outlet straight up, still keep the filter going (if filter on bottom) this way it keeps the water flow going and that area will not freeze, gases are being exchanged and no extra cost to run pond. You will see will the outlet is that it will get ice over it, but the water still flows no problem. My pond is around 5500 gal and never had a problem yet this way, now has been going 4 years this way.


Richard

[FishPassion]

Not sure if this may help you folks or not but one of our surface wells on the farm freezes on the top occasionally on really cold winters.  I used to leave an incandescent 40 watt bulb burning inside the well which kept the water from freezing but was not reliable because we could never see if the bulb burnt out so I purchased a floating cattle stock tank de icer around 40 bucks (try ritchie feed and seed or Co-op) should work the same in a pond...