Wintering my Fish

I've got a pond (~800 gallons) with 13 goldfish. I live in Montreal, Quebec
so leaving them outside in the winter is out of the question (the pond is
currently solid). At the moment I have them indoors in two aquariums (one
30 gal and one 20 gal). Next year I fear the fish will be too big for these
small aquariums so I was thinking of maybe getting one of those Rubbermaid
Stock Tanks and Putting it in the garage for the winter. My question is
does anybody know where to buy one of these in the Montreal region??? Or
know where to buy a similar product?

Mike

Most farm supply or feed stores carry them - here in Ontario TSC an Co- Op
farm supply stores carry them or can get them - look for a place that
carries cattle feed etc in Que.
Gale :~)
"TheStealth" wrote in message
...
I've got a pond (~800 gallons) with 13 goldfish. I live in Montreal,
Quebec
so leaving them outside in the winter is out of the question (the pond is
currently solid). At the moment I have them indoors in two aquariums (one
30 gal and one 20 gal). Next year I fear the fish will be too big for
these
small aquariums so I was thinking of maybe getting one of those Rubbermaid
Stock Tanks and Putting it in the garage for the winter. My question is
does anybody know where to buy one of these in the Montreal region??? Or
know where to buy a similar product?

Mike

"TheStealth" wrote in message
. ..
I've got a pond (~800 gallons) with 13 goldfish. I live in Montreal,
Quebec
so leaving them outside in the winter is out of the question (the pond is
currently solid). At the moment I have them indoors in two aquariums (one
30 gal and one 20 gal). Next year I fear the fish will be too big for
these
small aquariums so I was thinking of maybe getting one of those Rubbermaid
Stock Tanks and Putting it in the garage for the winter. My question is
does anybody know where to buy one of these in the Montreal region??? Or
know where to buy a similar product?

How deep is your pond? You may be able to leave them out if can keep
the pond from freezing solid. Do you know for sure that it is frozen
all the way to the bottom? A foot of ice on top feels solid but there
may be water below. If so, all you need is a bubbler to keep a hole
open.

JMHO

John

TheStealth wrote:

I've got a pond (~800 gallons) with 13 goldfish. I live in Montreal,
Quebec so leaving them outside in the winter is out of the question (the
pond is
currently solid). At the moment I have them indoors in two aquariums (one
30 gal and one 20 gal). Next year I fear the fish will be too big for
these small aquariums so I was thinking of maybe getting one of those
Rubbermaid
Stock Tanks and Putting it in the garage for the winter. My question is
does anybody know where to buy one of these in the Montreal region??? Or
know where to buy a similar product?

TSC if you have them - they're all over S. Ontario, but I don't know how
wide their distribution is. Walmart, sometimes.
--
derek

I would think that you would also need to run a de-icer in the stock tank,
even if it's in the garage. But then again if you put a de-icer in the pond,
along with a bubbler you should be ok. Currently I have no ice on the pond
thanks to a de-icer, it was about 12 degrees last night. Oh, another
thing... If you find and decide to use a stock tank, look into a stock tank
de-icer. It's much cheaper if it doesn't say it's for a pond! ;o)
Janet in Niagara Falls, Canada

--

"Gale Pearce" wrote in message
...
Most farm supply or feed stores carry them - here in Ontario TSC an Co- Op
farm supply stores carry them or can get them - look for a place that
carries cattle feed etc in Que.
Gale :~)
"TheStealth" wrote in message
...
I've got a pond (~800 gallons) with 13 goldfish. I live in Montreal,
Quebec
so leaving them outside in the winter is out of the question (the pond is
currently solid). At the moment I have them indoors in two aquariums
(one
30 gal and one 20 gal). Next year I fear the fish will be too big for
these
small aquariums so I was thinking of maybe getting one of those
Rubbermaid
Stock Tanks and Putting it in the garage for the winter. My question is
does anybody know where to buy one of these in the Montreal region??? Or
know where to buy a similar product?

Mike

Stock tank would be in the garage which is heated so no need for the heater.
Thanks for he info though. I will have to look into bubblers and heaters as
well maybe.

Mike

"Janet" wrote in message
...
I would think that you would also need to run a de-icer in the stock tank,
even if it's in the garage. But then again if you put a de-icer in the
pond, along with a bubbler you should be ok. Currently I have no ice on the
pond thanks to a de-icer, it was about 12 degrees last night. Oh, another
thing... If you find and decide to use a stock tank, look into a stock tank
de-icer. It's much cheaper if it doesn't say it's for a pond! ;o)
Janet in Niagara Falls, Canada

--

"Gale Pearce" wrote in message
...
Most farm supply or feed stores carry them - here in Ontario TSC an Co-
Op
farm supply stores carry them or can get them - look for a place that
carries cattle feed etc in Que.
Gale :~)
"TheStealth" wrote in message
...
I've got a pond (~800 gallons) with 13 goldfish. I live in Montreal,
Quebec
so leaving them outside in the winter is out of the question (the pond
is
currently solid). At the moment I have them indoors in two aquariums
(one
30 gal and one 20 gal). Next year I fear the fish will be too big for
these
small aquariums so I was thinking of maybe getting one of those
Rubbermaid
Stock Tanks and Putting it in the garage for the winter. My question is
does anybody know where to buy one of these in the Montreal region???
Or
know where to buy a similar product?

Mike

Pond is only about 1.5ft deep (maybe 2 at most). Will have to check to see
how frozen it gets. Maybe after this cold spell.

Mike

"John Bachman" wrote in message
...

"TheStealth" wrote in message
.. .
I've got a pond (~800 gallons) with 13 goldfish. I live in Montreal,
Quebec
so leaving them outside in the winter is out of the question (the pond
is
currently solid). At the moment I have them indoors in two aquariums
(one
30 gal and one 20 gal). Next year I fear the fish will be too big for
these
small aquariums so I was thinking of maybe getting one of those
Rubbermaid
Stock Tanks and Putting it in the garage for the winter. My question is
does anybody know where to buy one of these in the Montreal region???
Or
know where to buy a similar product?

How deep is your pond? You may be able to leave them out if can keep
the pond from freezing solid. Do you know for sure that it is frozen
all the way to the bottom? A foot of ice on top feels solid but there
may be water below. If so, all you need is a bubbler to keep a hole
open.

JMHO

John

"TheStealth" wrote in
:

I've got a pond (~800 gallons) with 13 goldfish. I live in Montreal,
Quebec so leaving them outside in the winter is out of the question
(the pond is currently solid). At the moment I have them indoors in
two aquariums (one 30 gal and one 20 gal). Next year I fear the fish
will be too big for these small aquariums so I was thinking of maybe
getting one of those Rubbermaid Stock Tanks and Putting it in the
garage for the winter. My question is does anybody know where to buy
one of these in the Montreal region??? Or know where to buy a similar
product?

Mike


I have a pond about the same size as yours and I live in a similar
climate - central Wisconsin. The ice on nearby Lake Winnebego is about 3
feet deep this time of year. We've had continuous sub-zero deg C weather
for about 10 days and about 6 nights in a row of sub-zero deg F nights.
This winter I faced the same dilemma as you anticipate for next winter.

I'll tell you what I'm doing, and in the spring, I can tell you how it
worked out. The pond had intermittent surface ice, starting around late
November. In mid December I shut off the circulation pump and put in a
bubbler at the bottom of the pond and I left a heater plugged in. I used
a small pond heater (28 watts ?). That kept a fairly large hole in the
ice (about 1 - 2 feet diameter) depending on the weather. All was good.

Then we had our first cold spell of the season. The air temperature went
down to -20 deg F one night. In the morning the pond was solidly frozen
over and the bubbler had stopped. The heater must have developed a leak,
it triggered the ground fault interrupter and that shut off both units.

I used a couple of gallons of boiling water to bore a hole in the ice. I
ordered a new heater, and I found an old aquarium bubbler and dropped the
air tube into the hole in the ice. It took 3 days for the heater to
arrive. In the mean while I had to pour a couple of gallons of boiling
water into the pond every 4 - 6 hours to keep the hole open.

The new heater arrived a few days ago. The weather has been relatively
mild since then, night temperatures around 0-5 deg F, day temps about 20-
30 deg F. So far the new heater is maintaining the hole.

I'm sure I didn't cook the fish with the hot water, but I probably did
cause the pond water to warm up slightly for minutes each time I added
the hot water. My bigger concern is that some of the fish may have been
frozen in. I'm sure there was always at least a foot depth of liquid
water at the bottom of the pond, even on the worst days. Would the koi
and goldfish stay down there? I'll find out in a month or two.

To get back to your original post - if you decide to leave the fish
outside and use a heater in the pond, keep a back-up unit handy. In the
coldest weather you might want to run two units.

Good luck,

Rich

First off, my pond is about 500 gallons, 28" deep at the deepest part
and I am in Zone 5 (Chicago).

I lost all my fish my first winter even with a bubler. A bubbler would
not keep a whole open. I even had a product that was supposed to not
use a lot of energy and keep a whole open (I forget the name), and that
didn't work here either.

The 2nd winter, I used a large Rubbermaid container (maybe 50
gallons), my outdoor filter, a bubler and brought the fish inside. It
was okay, but 1) had to feed them, 2) had to change/add water
frequently and 3) created some odor and a lot of humidity in the house.


This is the 3rd winter, and I decided the fish are too big to bring in.
I bought a pool cover (basically heavy bubblewrap) and covered all my
pond except a strip about 2" by 20" for air to exchange. This helps
keep the heat in and supposedly reflects heat in during the day. I
also have a bubbler and 2 300W heaters. I have only used 1 of the
heaters, except when it got very cold. For a few days, the pond
started to freeze over completely, so I plugged in the other heater for
a few days. I also added a second bubbler as on day at the end of
January I saw 2 Koi up by the opening, even though it was only about 35
degrees out. I thought maybe they needed more air. I placed the
bubblers and heaters near the deepest part of the pond where the Koi
will congregate. At last look, all is Okay.

Basically, my advice is to use a multi-tiered approach if you are in a
very cold area and can't bring in the fish. Use a cover (on the
surface or build a frame above the pond), use a bubbler for air and to
help prevent freezing, and use a heater for the coldest times.