Content
- If there is a risk of frost, keep the garden pond free of ice
- Ice guard for the light frost
- Ice-free with pond heaters
- Important for the ice-free in the pond
- Tips
Fish need air even in winter
If there is a risk of frost, keep the garden pond free of ice
Especially when a fish farm is operated, it is necessary to keep the garden pond ice-free over winter and to prevent complete freezing. With the appropriate equipment, the oxygen supply is maintained in permafrost and counteracted the formation of rot.
Although we have almost become accustomed to mild winters in Central Europe, a shallow garden pond can freeze relatively quickly even in light frost. If it is first covered with ice, it comes through the leaves and the mud on the pond bottom to undesirable fermentation processes and the formation of biogas. Both have a negative effect on the plants, animals and microorganisms in the ornamental pond, since oxygen is now scarce.
Ice guard for the light frost
With the commercially available ice holdings, it is possible, at least in moderate frosts, that the pond will not completely freeze. The floats made of thick polystyrene are anchored over the lowest point on the ground and provide an ice-free zone, which is only as large as the inner diameter of such devices, which should be at least 60 cm.
For larger ponds, several ice protectors can be used in different places, with heavy permafrost in combination with air vents, which provide a slight water movement at a depth of approx. 30 cm.
Ice-free with pond heaters
The electrically operated devices, which operate on the principle of an immersion heater, prevent complete freezing. The size of the ice-free section at the pond depends on the current water temperature and the electrical power of the stainless steel heating rods, which protrude approx. 25 cm deep into the pond water and are fixed to a polystyrene floating body. Some technical device features:
Important for the ice-free in the pond
Begin with the use of ice holdings as early as possible in late autumn, but at the latest when ground frosts set in and before freezing the shore area. Even with a simple bubble wrap, the freezing of a garden pond can be prevented when it is laid down with the air-filled pebbles on the water surface.
Tips
It is important to avoid freezing a frozen pond by drilling, sawing or even with a pickaxe. The noise and the extreme sound waves cause the fish to panic, which makes them flee towards the pond floor, where they finally freeze and die.