Winterizing

[bucs_hothead]

As that wonderful time of year comes around and it starts getting colder I got to thinking. What do all of you do to your ponds to prepare for winter? Anything special? We stop feeding our Koi and Goldfish once the water temperature dips, but other than that we just fight to clean leaves out as they fall. We also go through one last really good cleaning of all of the filters. Early fall we take our Plecos out and move them to the 55 gal inside, I'm sure they hate the downgrade, but it's probably preferred over death.

Also, what do you do in the spring, when it's time to start feeding again? I usually get in and stir up the gunk then pump that filthy water out and replace, probably around 50%, then another 25% a couple of weeks later.

Seems like I'm forgetting something. Do any of you have those "Power Pythons" or something like that? It's like a gravel vac for your pond. I saw an ad for one once, but didn't think anything of it.

Happy Winter!

[bucs_hothead]

*NUDGE* *BUMP*

Anyone?

[Iggy]

I bring my goldies indoors for the winter - my pond is only 180 gallons and 3' 2.5' deep - and here in the Great White North that spells 'Popsicle'

I have a 200gal tank in my office (7.5'x2'x2') that my 3 Koi and 12 goldies hang out in during the winter. I move my outdoor pond filter to the same indoor tank to keep the bio-filter active.

I drain my 180 and leave about 1 foot of water, where I let the plants freeze-in. I will just net-out the leaves and gunk in the summer, re-fill it, test the water and move the fish back in early April, weather permitting.