Koi Pond News March 2007

Or, everything you ever wanted to know and more about my pond.

On Friday, March 23, I measured the water temperature in my koi pond and it was 47˚F (8.3˚C) already! Last year at around this time it was only 41˚F. It really has been a warm year. The fish were up and looking really hungry. They had eaten all of their food from last year, so I had to run out and buy more. I forgot how expensive koi food is. A ten pound bag of Kaytee was $25 at the local Petco. That was the least expensive of the brands they carry which include the uber-expensive Hikari and my fall back brand Tetra Pond. I don’t like Tetra Pond, because it does cost a bit more and you have to drop it into the pond instead of throwing it in as the pellets weigh less. I prefer to toss it in from my porch; I’m too lazy to walk down to my pond. So that is the low down on food.

Two years ago, Sean came up with a great idea for keeping an opening in the ice on the pond. We have two ponds, a big pond and a little pond. They are connected by a waterfall. What we used to have was a sump pump on a shallow shelf under the waterfall in the big pond and have it pump the water into the little pond and then down the waterfall back into the big pond. For the new idea we took a smaller pump and put it into an opaque plastic box with lots of holes drilled in the sides and placed that on the shelf in the big pond and left it running. The top of the box was in the air. The ice could freeze right up to the box, but that didn’t matter, so long as the water in the box didn’t freeze and the water below the ice didn’t freeze. Also, we got the action of the sun on the contents of the box. This system worked very well for two years.

Until we got that flood last month and the pond flooded its banks and the pump was totally submerged and leaked oil into the pond, shorted out and stopped pumping. Disaster!!!

Then we got subzero temperatures for a week or so, and I had to use the old fashioned method of making a hole in the ice. I put a hot teapot on the ice in the morning with a rope on the handle, so when it fell in, I could pull it back out. It is an old Japanese trick that one learns from knowing an old Japanese person. Kidding, I learned it from reading books.

So, we went out and bought a Beckett waterfall pump. Anything made especially for a fish pond is expensive. We will try our brilliant method with a smaller box and the fish pond pump that really is submersible.

But this late in the season, and we will resume running our regular waterfall pump from the basement. That runs from an underground line from the pond to the well pump in the basement to the waterfall in the pond. We need to do a water change this year. Ah, spring. You gotta love it.