Mike, "BINGO", it's all about the money. I'll do some research in reference to more energy-efficient pumps. Our spare pump is about shot anyway and should be replaced. So, that solution should be doable. Good idea! Nancy, I didn't know the UV lights didn't last long. Our filter is above ground but is almost completely surrounded with thick landscape stones with a cover. It's also located under our breezeway that connects the house to the garage. Don't think it will ever freeze but it's good to know that we should keep an eye on it. Lsst, in the past, without fail, I've always thoroughly cleaned the pond in early spring and in the fall. In addition, I'm usually on leaf patrol all year because we have huge trees. Some that shed in spring and some that shed in the fall, so, there are always leaves to contend with here. This September my mom was ill and I spent 4 months in middle Georgia. Honestly, when I returned home and saw the pond, I was surprised ANY of the fish were still alive. The boss is excellent at building things and the technical stuff; however, if the water is clear, the boss thinks the pond is clean & healthy for the fish. I've been playing catchup ever since my return. Hardin, if I had that cold and snow to deal with all winter, I'd be a nervous wreck. I did live in NJ for 3 years in the 80's and every winter there...I WAS A NERVOUS WRECK! Thanks again, everyone. I'm always learning around here. Bon

Mike, Thanks for the heads up with the EA UV for the Savio. I know you've had a lot of trouble with the UVs so I'm sure you know all about them. My Savio is post-recall and I've had tremendous results with it, running it only a week here and there at times. I'm sure if a homeowner truly had a problem with a Savio UV, post recall, that this would make for a nice lawsuit. It would be hard for me to imagine a better setup for a UV than the private chamber utilized in the side of the Savio skimmer. It is just a nice design - and it works for me. I'll look into the EA UV unit when it becomes time to replace my bulb/lamp. Vickie, I feel I'm right ahead of you on your issues since you're doing roughly the same thing I did last summer, and we are using some of the same equipment. You are correct in thinking that our climate and setups are going to be perfect for all kinds of algae growth. We'll get algae early in the year, pre-spring for sure when nothing else is growing and the water temp is cool. Then because it is a new pond you'll have the algae out competing the young, small plants you pot in both your bio-falls and pond. It will take weeks for the bio-filter we have to even come close to doing a job on the extra nutrients our water has... and it still won't keep up except once you get tons of submerged or floating aquatic plants established. Mikes recommendation on WH is a good one but unlike him I wouldn't worry too much about the fish mixing w/ the WH because with that size bio-falls you're going to need all the extra filtration you can muster! I would put them everywhere you can, or are wiling to accept, and then fertilize them the way drh1 recommends, search stump remover - I use Gordon's, because last year without it my new pond only did so-so with the WH and I think it was because they didn't have any extra help. This year with David's (drh1) recommendation of a tspn a week they are absolutely thriving with big long floating roots (filtering). Now even though I seeded my biofalls media with Microbe-Lift several times last year I was still having some green water. It went pea-soup green about six days after the initial filling. Then it went CLEAR overnight about six days later. But because my bio-falls box, same as yours, isn't so big and the plants outside of it not so established I started to get a little green water again and some string algae on my stream and rocky areas. I got the Savio UV from www.practicalgardenponds.com and added it to my skimmer box and it really did well, for me. I still battle the string algae but I'm resigned to that fact since it is largely a problem of lack of fine filtration. I've changed out my filter media (was lava rocks) in my bio-falls a couple of weeks ago, going to Springflo media instead (started over on the biofiltering as a result). I'm cleaning my prefilter in my skimmer more often, sometimes when I add H202 or stir-up the mulm in the pond I'm cleaning the pre-filter twice daily, just depends. I also added some activated charcoal to the skimmer box recently. Because I was trying to get a hold of the string algae problem I may have had more and more mulm accumulating on the bottom of my pond, or maybe even having some of it become suspended in my water and floating; so, I did add a Pondcare product known as Accu-Clear to help bind the small particles together and I think that has helped with filtration and water clarity. I'm just hoping that with a couple of good sweep-outs of my pond, yes sweep as in using a broom, I hope I can get ahead of the detritus that accumulates. And I have to say, I fear for you in as much as I see you have installed a rock bottom to the pond. I know there are many that do but I would be too worried that this is going to make maintenance tougher. I think that it is smart that you stay proactive with insisting on relatively clear water because having particulates and other growths floating around makes it harder to get back to that CLEAN SLATE look you started with in the beginning. Good Luck, I hope that some of this information can be used to your advantage.

Hi Jenny, First, the more important questions: Nope, leaf peeper season hasn't started yet! That's usually the end of September - first week in October (for the Champlain Valley). Already many motels and Hotels are booked solid. Shoveling snow?? When one is retired it is irrelevant. You get up, you look out, you say "oh, it snowed last night; looks like 18". Isn't it pretty". You have another cup of tea/coffee; go back to bed or not. Wait until Spring to shovel out. Not-a-problem! Now to your questions: First let's deal with some heresy: a hole in your ice DOES NOT MATTER! Gasp! WHAT DID HE SAY??? Nope, it's all about providing a surface for gas exchange. IF... you're using a heater, a light bulb, stock tank heater, etc. then it IS about keeping a hole open since that is the only surface over which the gas exchange can take place. However, with an aerator the gas exchange surface is in the bubbles...NOT in the hole that may or may not be in the ice. All that air you pump in there has to go somewhere otherwise you'd have the equivalent of one of those air-hockey games only with an "ice puck" floating on an air cushion! But that doesn't happen...the air finds a way out - through a crack, through the edges, though a hole. So if it "domes over"...so what? The air is STILL finding a way out. And because you are pumping air in it is the aggregate surface area of all those bubbles that is providing the surface area for gas exchange...and it is HUGE! With a stocktank heater in our neighborhood with our winters you might get a few square feet for a hole although at -20F you might find it disappears! But the aeration approach continues to put out 10's of square feet of surface area every minute!!! As a result not only will you keep more than enough oxygen in there (not really that much of a problem given that the metabolisms for the fish are almost non-existent as well as the microbes involved in consuming organics - and oxygen - aren't doing too much...but still not exactly zero!) but you will be stripping out ammonia and carbon dioxide and other gases you wouldn't want trapped under the ice. This is the real benefit of the approach to using aeration. As to the plastic tent? Not sure it does too much although it does allow me to see the hole for an extra couple of months. But I've had it get ice inside, even an inch or so ABOVE the water level... but still not really relevant as long as the aerator/bubbler is doing it's thing. Note the ice auger in one picture...I went out to check one fine February day (think high of -10°F!). Couldn't really see a hole in the ice under the teepee. Drilled a hole and looked...yep, everything was working fine. But the ice melted out under the teepee more about a month before it melted out of the pond so there is some solar benefit. The real purpose of the floating thing is to hold the aerator above the bottom of the pond. As to adding a stock tank heater on the coldest days?? I wouldn't bother. If you lived in zone 6 or 7 you might have some impact on the temperature in or around the heater but in my zone (and I suspect yours) adding even a 2500 watt heater is akin to performing a particular bodily function into the wind! Yes, it probably will melt out a hole, but once the heater is down near the bottom of the pond with an outside temperature of say -15° or -25°F I suspect there will be no measurable impact on water temperature. Having a heater on hand, however, does provide a way to work on thawing out a line if it develops an ice plug. I don't own a heater since, as mentioned above, I use other approaches for that problem. Like I said.. it works for me and as posted in the URL above it works for other folks as well. The problem is to understand that you are not really trying to HEAT the water to some acceptable limit but rather maintain a surface area open for gas exchange. I like cheap. I like what works...and so far, over several years, it has worked for me. The biggest factor will be whether your pond depth and volume will provide the heat transfer necessary to keep a water layer below the ice, i.e., making sure the whole (no pun intended!) thing doesn't freeze up! ---David

True, you could say that. That is until someone manages to find this thread, then you'll have to explain why you made the earlier statement. At the same time I have to laugh. Notice how when the pressures on now you admit you don't know anything about cars. If that is the case, why are you offering advice on how to deal with them? This situation underscores one of my biggest pet peeves, where real technicians, who care about their careers, and their customers vehicles have to deal with uneducated, and inexperienced people who advise their friends/relatives incorrectly, and try and make it look like its wrong for us to earn a living repairing cars. I wrote the post a month or so ago about my customer who lost his Caravan in an accident. My first thought was I was glad he was OK, the second thought was the responsibility that he and I shared when his airbag system had failed last year. It was his responsibility to have the car repaired, mine was to be trained and equipped to do it correctly for him. It does not get any more serious than that, and I hope georgia can get her car repaired ASAP, you never know whats around the next corner and you definitely don't want to find yourself in the position of saying "I'd pay anything to be able to go back and fix this and then maybe __________ wouldn't have gotten hurt"