Concrete pond help

[makemlaff]

Hi everyone!

Hopefully some pond-keeper types out there can help me out.

I just bought my house in May, and it has this cute little rectangular concrete pond, I'd say about 4x6. It's lovely, it has lily pads in it, and some very nice frogs have taken up residence in it and have gotten very fat on mosquitoes.

I've been staring at this thing all summer wondering just what exactly goes into caring for it and have figured out a few things myself:

1) I need a pond pump or a fountain or something to aerate the thing;

and

2) I don't want to pour any chemicals in it to clear up the water (which is a tad bit murky, but almost no algae) because I'll kill the very nice frogs.

My question is - and I've gone trawling online to see if I could find any answers, to no avail - do I have to drain this pond for the upcoming winter months? I'm thinking that yes, I will, because I live in Delaware and it will freeze solid in the winter, which could theoretically cause the concrete to crack - right?

Thanks in advance to any knowledgeable pond-keepers out there willing to offer advice.

[HayZee518]

theoretically it won't crack the concrete because water expands when it freezes and because your "pool" is open to the air, the ice will push up and out of the pool. if it was enclosed as in an air tight jar it would crack whatever is holding it.

[pushkins]

Hayzee is correct there is no need to drain the pond over winter. A couple of things to think about, you do need a pump otherwise the water will stagnate and while frogs might like it, very little else will including your nose over time. As well if you drain it the lily pad bulbs will die over the winter, they do not like to be frozen at all.
I lived in Ohio for a number of years and had a moderate sized pond with Koi fish, I kept the pump going all year round, one of the biggest benefits is the splashing water will help keep that area of the pond from freezing over thus allowing ammonia (if you have fish) from being trapped in the water by an ice cap. Now that I said that, common sense also comes into play, if it gets cold enough....long enough even splashing water will eventually freeze over, so just keep an eye on it and if need be break off any closing in ice. If you do get fish, stop feeding them when the water temperature gets below 50 F, don't worry over winter they will not starve to death.

PS you can also buy pond heaters that specifically keep a circle of water ice free, they are not that expensive and are cheap to run, they don't keep the entire pond ice free just the 8" or so that is their size.

[makemlaff]

OK, thanks, guys. I just had this idea that the pond freezing and thawing would expand it or crack it or something - like a pothole in the road does when it ices up.

My pond didn't stink at all this summer, don't know why it didn't. It also didn't get algae in it - maybe because it's mostly shaded? Saw some solar pond pumps that had promise; otherwise, I'm running electric out to the pond and lord knows how much that'll cost...

No fish yet, as we have some big shorebirds and herons around here that I don't feel like feeding.

[HayZee518]

Harbor Freight has some submersible water pumps that will work and won't take you to the poor house.