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Overwintering patio pond

Would it not depend on how much insulation that "green house" can provide as to if it will work or not? Personally I think it looks way too thin. But to be fair, the cold we had last time was very unusual. (Yes, my pond and fountains froze solid for a few weeks)
 
That’s what I was thinking too, it doesn’t look up to the job.

Does anyone have experience of these things? Do they insulate at all? There are a lot of plastic greenhouses online that look similar to this but I’m not even sure if they’d work.
 
I had a greenhouse similar to that one many years ago & it was fine for the first season but the plastic covering didn't seem to be UV stable. It disintegrated into little holes, leaving just the internal mesh support & then it leaked!
I would like to think they were better now.
How big is your patio pond, could you rig something up using a cold frame on bricks, one of those aluminium framed poly carbonate ones?
 
The Miniaturist said:
I had a greenhouse similar to that one many years ago & it was fine for the first season but the plastic covering didn't seem to be UV stable. It disintegrated into little holes, leaving just the internal mesh support & then it leaked!
I would like to think they were better now.
How big is your patio pond, could you rig something up using a cold frame on bricks, one of those aluminium framed poly carbonate ones?
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I’d only need it for the coldest winter months and then would pack it away once the weather warms up so doesn’t have to be too robust.

The ‘pond’ is only around 80cm dx 100cm w x 60cm h, not big.
 
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My patio pond is one of those square ones with 'porthole' style windows in the sides. I was planning on buying a big roll of bubble wrap & winding it round a couple of times then making a kind of removable lid with a wooden frame covered in bubble wrap. As long as I leave an airspace I think it should work.
 
By far the greatest heat loss would be from the surface. Limiting (not stopping) airflow from the surface would help enormously, but inevitably your talking about keeping a finite amount of heat in a tub of water, it will eventually freeze regardless if we have an extended period of cold weather like last winter.

I would suggest you could look at both insulation and a heater.

I would add that my own experience is with an in-ground pond, but I will be doing the patio pond thing in the next year or so.
 
Depending on how far from your house the pond is, you could try an air pump sited indoors and run the airline to the pond. I think you would need to insulate the air line and maybe build a low wooden frame over the pond covered with bubble wrap.
Just some 2x1 battens with bubble wrap stapled over and perhaps a bit of excess wrap laying on the ground and weighted down with soil or sand.
 
I have accidentally left bubble wrap outside, and it did not last long, although not insulated as well I would suggest a tarpaulin, very cheap too.
 
foxfish said:
Depending on how far from your house the pond is, you could try an air pump sited indoors and run the airline to the pond. I think you would need to insulate the air line and maybe build a low wooden frame over the pond covered with bubble wrap.
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Unfortunately it’s the other end of my garden so won’t be possible.
Miniandy said:
I would suggest you could look at both insulation and a heater.
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The only thing putting me off a heater would be the running costs. I wouldn’t mind installing a heater and setting it to around 10 degrees Celsius. I just feel the thing would be on all the time in the winter and electricity costs aren’t exactly cheap these days.

My other option would be to house the fish in our office/shed we have in the garden. Either in my old rimless tank which has been kept outside for over a year including in snow, so unsure how stable the silicone would be on this now. Or in a large plastic storage box instead. I would have to more than likely install a heater again but hoping it wouldn’t have to run as much as compared to using one in the patio pond as the office/shed is insulated.

Cheers
 
This is a common issue for those who keep farm animals. Trying to stop water trough from freezing solid.
Aside from real elaborate measures some simple insulation is your next best option. Whether that’s sitting the pond inside a larger container and then insulating the gap, or going with the greenhouse you previously mentioned.
I’m not sure if they’re any good, but the glass / plastic would aid in focusing any sunlight.
 
Fresh manure piled around the outside of the pond, bagged might work. That is how they used to raise rhubarb and chard, by piling it around the cloches in December.
 
Just saying............ a "generic floating pond heater" is not designed to heat the entire pond volume, it will only heat a small area around the heating element itself, the idea being it stops ice forming a complete seal on the water, and in so doing it does allow for gases to exchange.

To heat the entire pond volume you would need an additional pump to move the water to the non submersible heater. Some koi pond owners do do this, the heaters can be had for around £100

HOWEVER with most koi pond heaters being around 3Kw it will not be cheap to run.

Some figures.
1kwh of electricity is roughly 30p so that means a 3kW heater will cost 90p/hour or £21,60 /day but that said, once the water is up to temperature the heater should switch off.
The average "ice clear" heater is only 200W so that means it will only cost 5p/hour

The Oase ice clear heater has its own built in (non adjustable) thermostat so it will not be on 24/7

As for a bag of animal 💩, no.

Me? I am going to do what I did last year.🆒🥶
 
I think they’re going to have to come inside by the sounds of it.

I might give the cheap ‘greenhouse’ a go first of all with some polycarbonate sheet on top of the pond too. If that doesn’t do anything I can always bring them in.

The white clouds actually survived fine under a sheet of ice last year but were finished off when the thing almost turned into a solid block of ice. Took the pond over a week to melt after that! However this time I have some ranchu which by all accounts are no where near as hardy as their common goldfish cousins.
 
Might be worth enquiring if your local fish shop have any poly boxes they need to get rid of. The boxes they ship fish in are only a little smaller than your pond. You can quite easily 'cut and shut' them. Heating up a knife gives a clean cut edge and some contact adhesive will join the sections back together.
 
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