Following the severe cold last year and this year, my pond water turned bad, and I found frogs and plants had died and there was/is a sort of opaque look to the water which also really smells bad. The plants are water soldier, with a miniature water lily. The lily and some of the water soldier survived.
The pond is very small, about 6' by 3' and 2' 6" deep in the middle part. It has shelves where the water is shallower and in the deepest freeze there was about 2" of ice on top of the pond. It doesn't have a filter, as there are no fish, but I overflow it with a fountain trickle from the garden hose every couple of weeks in the summer to keep it fresh.
Last year I melted ice as often as I could by using a saucepan with hot water sitting on top of the ice to melt it, but I couldn't keep up with the really severe cold while I was out at work. I heard somewhere that it's better not to try melting the ice so this year I didn't, but the result is the same.
Does anyone have any advice, or is this an unfortunate reality with a small pond and the extreme weather we've had? The pond was wonderfully healthy for ten years, with a population of ramshorn snails, different kinds of beetles and skaters, damselflies and so on. It's really heartbreaking.
The ramshorn snails survived last winter, or at least some did. I'm not sure if any have survived this one.
I'm running some water in to effect a water change now that the temperature is above freezing, but I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do.
The pond is very small, about 6' by 3' and 2' 6" deep in the middle part. It has shelves where the water is shallower and in the deepest freeze there was about 2" of ice on top of the pond. It doesn't have a filter, as there are no fish, but I overflow it with a fountain trickle from the garden hose every couple of weeks in the summer to keep it fresh.
Last year I melted ice as often as I could by using a saucepan with hot water sitting on top of the ice to melt it, but I couldn't keep up with the really severe cold while I was out at work. I heard somewhere that it's better not to try melting the ice so this year I didn't, but the result is the same.
Does anyone have any advice, or is this an unfortunate reality with a small pond and the extreme weather we've had? The pond was wonderfully healthy for ten years, with a population of ramshorn snails, different kinds of beetles and skaters, damselflies and so on. It's really heartbreaking.
The ramshorn snails survived last winter, or at least some did. I'm not sure if any have survived this one.
I'm running some water in to effect a water change now that the temperature is above freezing, but I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do.
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