Catherine, you are a very nice person to be able to respond to Catfish without losing your temper. He is not a nice person. He is rude and always looking for a fight. I have never seen him post on any thread without being insulting to someone. He cannot understand that because of that behavior, no one listens to him except other rude jerks. The only thing to be done is to complain to GW monitors and get him warned and then kicked out when he continues his diatribes. You can get a heat gun at Harbor Freight fairly cheap if you won't be using it a lot. They go on sale frequently. They cut out when they get too hot so don't be surprised that they need a rest in the middle of your repair. The more expensive ones do it as well. I have one of the Harbor Freight ones and a more expensive one and when one dies I just turn on the other. You may have a problem getting the crack cleaned out enough for any product to work. Let us know how your attempts work. Does the crack go all the way around the bottom? I have the same type of tank you do and I left the water in it all winter but it did not crack although I expected it to. I am wondering if it did not because I left the quilt batting on top. When I did pull the plug there was only a small amount of water left in it. Curious. Sandy

Yesterday it rained all day, much of the time really pouring. I did not even go outside, it was so nasty. This morning when I went to visit the Stocktank I saw that all the Azolla I had was washed away. I had it in one of those floating rings. I few specks did survive here and there floating around the pond. I am thinking maybe the Azolla is for ponds with still water? My water is not still. My pump puts out a nice splash gush that reminds me of an underground spring bubbling up. The fish love to play around in there but none of the surface is still, it has quite a bit of up and down movement in it. Since its above ground and oval 4 feet by 7 feet the whole things reminds me of a boat. My mailman called it a bathtub :-(( I like the boat immage much better.

My 2 cents worth. We have occ. prolonged periods of below zero temps, mostly less than a week, but below 20F for up to 3 weeks at a time. 2 years ago I dropped my plants to the bottom, left my eight 4" goldfish/comets in and had a 100w de-icer with a tiny airstone about 18" under it. My pond is 5'x5'x28", 300ga. Everything survive and flourished, except a couple tropical type plants. Last winter, I did the same thing, but when we had a long stretch of sub-zero temps, my de-icer froze over for almost 3 weeks. When the temps got above 15F it opened up again. But I lost all my fish, several hardy water lilies and all of my pickeral rush. We had no snow cover to help insulate the pond. It didn't freeze to the bottom, but I think the toxic build up killed the fish. THIS winter, I'm going to use a 1000w stock tank heater, and put a sheet of insulation or plywood over most of the pond, as well as use my little air stone. Yes, tank heaters only run when the temps are below their thermostat setting. So while they do cost money to run, not as much as most people think IMO. I run 2 or 3 for the sheep all winter, and my electric bill isn't that high. Certainly not as much as replacing plants and fish. An added note - no matter which way you go, please be careful if you have children or pets if you have open water or thin ice. The birdies love it, but you don't want a serious accident! Again, just my 2 cents!

That's a great question Sheepco but this will only be my 5th winter here. Each one has been different and every year people say it's an unusual winter! The weather and climate maps are little help because we're so affected by our elevation being a couple thousand feet above what surrounds us. Going by the coldest one so far, it was in the low teens, even some single digits every night for 2 or 3 weeks and in the 20s during the day. I think that's truly unusual. The western regional climate center has historical data for the town and it says average low of 19, average high of 46 in January. It does warm up a great deal when the sun comes up, even in the deepest winter. I have also discovered that the nearest source of straw bales is about 80 miles away. I can get hay but that's pretty pricey. I think I'll hope for a "normal" winter. Vanessa