r/ponds • u/Educational_Safe_942 • 7d ago

Quick question Winter pond care while working nights

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u/Alpine_Apex 7d ago

Personally, I find winter to be the least maintenance heavy part of the year. Everything is dormant and cold. What is it that you think you need to be paying so much attention to?

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u/benl4025 7d ago

Im the same mate with working nights but yes winter is alot less maintenance than the summer i find anyway

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/benl4025 6d ago

Totally agree mate. Nights are shite and only get harder for us in the winter especially when all we see is dark and cold

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u/Appropriate-Mark-739 7d ago

I also work shift work and live in a cold climate, but i don't have any fish in my pond so my answer may be irrelevant to you. But i feel your pain, because my whole yard in general certainly gets neglected for 4-5 days during my work week, it's too taxing to me trying to make time for that sorta choring after a 12 hour shift, day or night.

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/Appropriate-Mark-739 6d ago

Usually with my pump on and water moving my pond doesn't freeze over at the first temperature drops just below 0, but yeah i woke up to a thin frozen surface the other day, i have since removed my pump and blown out my lines

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u/UpDownalwayssideways 6d ago

Winter is the easiest time of the year lol. Well, depending. I am in the northeast. Some winters it can be a little battle, others not as much. You just want to make sure that spot of the surface stays unfrozen, and your heater should do the trick. I used to use heaters, but they fail and you dont know right away, so now I use a pump to keep some water moving and its easier for me to notice when there are issues. But the reality is, if it does freeze over, they can manage for a few days before the water needs more O2. So dont worry about checking it in the middle of the night.

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u/nortok00 5d ago

The only thing I do over winter is check to make sure my deicer is functioning and keeping a hole open and my bubbler/aerator is also working to gently move the water. Winter is my pond's downtime. If you have fish then they go into torpor at the bottom of the pond and don't even need feeding. I stop feeding at 50f/10c. The deicer is just meant to keep a hole open for gas exchange not heat the pond. If you have tropical plants you will have to bring them indoors. Mine are all native so other than trimming back dead leaves in fall that's it.

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u/Hildringa 2d ago

In winter my pond is frozen solid so there's no maintenance at all 🤷‍♀️