RIP Our Garden Pond

[Kong]

Our garden pond has been totally frozen over for the past week with 6" or so of ice.

There is a pump which takes water from the bottom of the pond to to top of the waterfall where is cascades down. Today however it seems the pump has sprung a leak, meaning all of the water has been pumped directly out of the pond and into the garden. Cue 1/2 ton of ice suspended above the newly created caven beneath.

Below is the scene which greeted me when i came home from work today. A big hole in the ground filled only with a broken iceberg and approx £1500 worth of dead koi carp emtombed beneath





I dont think the home insurance will cover it!

[al1991]

Why are Koi Carp so expensive?

[Jasandjules]

Sorry to hear that OP.

Poor little fishies.

[Toyless]

My sympathies.

Makes my filter leaking 25ish litres of water onto new carpet I cant lift to help dry a drop in the ocean.

[ali_kat]

Shouldn't the pump have been turned off when the water is frozen that thick?

[Tunku]

Look on the bright side, the fish will have suffocated in a pond that size all iced up before the remaining water went.

[headcase]

The fish would have died anyway, you should never allow a koi poind to freeze over like that, gasses get trapped under the ice eventually suffocating the fish. The pump needs to stay running to keep the filters alive, you could have added air stones to keep more water moving in an attemp to stop the total coverage of ice. Another method is to boil a pan of water then sit the pan on the ice therby melting a pan sized hole in the ice, do that evey day during the freezing period would save the fish.

[oakdale]

Have I got this right?
You've either left the pump running through all that freezing weather causing the pond to be emptied because the ponds been frozen over?
Or have you restarted the pump with the pond frozen over?

Either way, I can't make my mind up if you're just stupid or cruel.

[Kong]

headcase said:

The fish would have died anyway, you should never allow a koi poind to freeze over like that, gasses get trapped under the ice eventually suffocating the fish. The pump needs to stay running to keep the filters alive, you could have added air stones to keep more water moving in an attemp to stop the total coverage of ice. Another method is to boil a pan of water then sit the pan on the ice therby melting a pan sized hole in the ice, do that evey day during the freezing period would save the fish.

Interesting, thank you for the advice. I dont think the pond had totally frozen over. There was a small gap at the bottom of the waterfall where the water was always flowing.

The pond is bigger than it look in the photos, its shoulder height in depth at the deep end and several metres long.

The koi seemed quite happy, they go into semi-hibernation in the winter anyway and sit at the bottom. The size they grow to depends on how big the pond is.

There were 12 in total, 10 of which were over 8 years old. Shame.

[Simon_m]

Too shallow as well, should be at least 3 feet deep.

This happened to my pond last year, I switched the pump off and it promptly froze over. A few weeks later when it did thaw all my adult fishes were dead

Some of them had floated up and become frozen in the ice, not nice having to wait for the ice to melt and scoop em out.

Amazingly there were some babies still alive, they have reproduced and the pond is thriving again.

I invested in an external filter and left this running this year, even with the very low temps recently the pond has not frozen over completley. I have also positioned all pipework so that if it did burst the water will drain back into the pond.

[Kong]

oakdale said:

Have I got this right?
You've either left the pump running through all that freezing weather causing the pond to be emptied because the ponds been frozen over?
Or have you restarted the pump with the pond frozen over?

Either way, I can't make my mind up if you're just stupid or cruel.

The reason the water was emptied was because the pump had sprung a leak. Even if it had been summer the fish would still have died. Perhaps i should have made clear there was enough of a gap for the waterfall to flow back in.

[IainZ]

headcase said:

The fish would have died anyway, you should never allow a koi poind to freeze over like that, gasses get trapped under the ice eventually suffocating the fish. The pump needs to stay running to keep the filters alive, you could have added air stones to keep more water moving in an attemp to stop the total coverage of ice. Another method is to boil a pan of water then sit the pan on the ice therby melting a pan sized hole in the ice, do that evey day during the freezing period would save the fish.

The bacteria in pond biofilters go inactive below about 5 deg C.

Edited by IainZ on Friday 10th December 22:12

[E31Shrew]

I bought a pond heater this year and its been superb. Fountain flowed and there was always a 2ft diameter hole, clear of ice

[Steve in Stoke]

I have one of those pressurised pumps that is sunk into the ground, and it has been running fine through this cold spell. The pump is at the far end of the pond at around 50" depth, and the returning water leaves an unfrozen patch about 2ft diameter so gasses don't build up.

Even last year when we had a week of -10 nights, it still didn't freeze up. I wasn't convinced with the pump at first but in this weather it is fantastic.

[Urban Sports]

Oooofff

Not good, poor fish!!

Not is this case but coi are very resilient, my Father In Law has a collection of them, some are just over 20 years old and they are still swimming around under the frozen pond, albeit slowly

[Urban Sports]

headcase said:

The fish would have died anyway, you should never allow a koi poind to freeze over like that, gasses get trapped under the ice eventually suffocating the fish. The pump needs to stay running to keep the filters alive, you could have added air stones to keep more water moving in an attemp to stop the total coverage of ice. Another method is to boil a pan of water then sit the pan on the ice therby melting a pan sized hole in the ice, do that evey day during the freezing period would save the fish.

I suppose it does depend on whether or not the filter is working, like I said above every year for the last 20 or so my Father In Law's pond has frozen over, sometimes for a good few weeks.

They are always alive and kicking come spring time.

[oakdale]

Using a pond heater is a good idea (to keep a hole in the ice for oxygen) but the water feature should not be left running in freezing conditions.

Water contracts and becomes denser as it cools, but only down to 4deg c, after which it expands and starts to become less dense as it cools further, (thats why ice forms at the top of the pond and not the bottom).

As a result of this, there is always a temperature gradient of 4deg between the surface and the bottom of the pond while the pond is not frozen solid, but if you circulate large volumes of water, the temp is near zero at the bottom, which koi cannot survive for long, (also the pump may empty the pond).

ETA As shown in the OP's pictures.

Edited by oakdale on Friday 10th December 22:44

[Tunku]

Urban Sports said:

headcase said:

The fish would have died anyway, you should never allow a koi poind to freeze over like that, gasses get trapped under the ice eventually suffocating the fish. The pump needs to stay running to keep the filters alive, you could have added air stones to keep more water moving in an attemp to stop the total coverage of ice. Another method is to boil a pan of water then sit the pan on the ice therby melting a pan sized hole in the ice, do that evey day during the freezing period would save the fish.

I suppose it does depend on whether or not the filter is working, like I said above every year for the last 20 or so my Father In Law's pond has frozen over, sometimes for a good few weeks.

They are always alive and kicking come spring time.

One must assume they are in a pond, not a puddle.

[Simon_m]

Kong said:

headcase said:

The fish would have died anyway, you should never allow a koi poind to freeze over like that, gasses get trapped under the ice eventually suffocating the fish. The pump needs to stay running to keep the filters alive, you could have added air stones to keep more water moving in an attemp to stop the total coverage of ice. Another method is to boil a pan of water then sit the pan on the ice therby melting a pan sized hole in the ice, do that evey day during the freezing period would save the fish.

Interesting, thank you for the advice. I dont think the pond had totally frozen over. There was a small gap at the bottom of the waterfall where the water was always flowing.

The pond is bigger than it look in the photos, its shoulder height in depth at the deep end and several metres long.

The koi seemed quite happy, they go into semi-hibernation in the winter anyway and sit at the bottom. The size they grow to depends on how big the pond is.

There were 12 in total, 10 of which were over 8 years old. Shame.

Sorry OP, I have looked at your pictures and there is no way that your pond is several metres long and shoulder height in depth. If you did have 12 koi in that pond they didn't have a very good life

[Kong]

Simon_m said:

Kong said:

headcase said:

The fish would have died anyway, you should never allow a koi poind to freeze over like that, gasses get trapped under the ice eventually suffocating the fish. The pump needs to stay running to keep the filters alive, you could have added air stones to keep more water moving in an attemp to stop the total coverage of ice. Another method is to boil a pan of water then sit the pan on the ice therby melting a pan sized hole in the ice, do that evey day during the freezing period would save the fish.

Interesting, thank you for the advice. I dont think the pond had totally frozen over. There was a small gap at the bottom of the waterfall where the water was always flowing.

The pond is bigger than it look in the photos, its shoulder height in depth at the deep end and several metres long.

The koi seemed quite happy, they go into semi-hibernation in the winter anyway and sit at the bottom. The size they grow to depends on how big the pond is.

There were 12 in total, 10 of which were over 8 years old. Shame.

Sorry OP, I have looked at your pictures and there is no way that your pond is several metres long and shoulder height in depth. If you did have 12 koi in that pond they didn't have a very good life

Pfft do i have to get a tape measure to prove? Anyway as i said, koi grow to fit their environment. People have koi in MUCH smaller ponds than ours, they just stop growing. Ours have been the same size for a couple of years now.