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Heating your Koi Pond

By January 13, 2009February 19th, 2020Guest Articles
There are many reasons for heating your koi pond,maybe you just want to see your enjoy your pond in all seasons.Whatever your reason we just want to give you some insight to make it easy to accomplish. There is now new technology,enery efficient heaters being developed for pond heating.Therefore we recommend electric koi pond heaters,submersible heaters,heat exchangers and floating pond heaters.Pond heating Considerations: First you must determine whether you want to de-ice or actually heat your pond to a specific temperature .Deicers melt the ice to provide an opening for harmful gas exchange only. Heating your pond to obtain a specific temperature can be a bit technical, so if your not sure about the heater sizing we recommend that you contact our koi pond heating specialists. The outside low temperature is the key to your kilowatt requirements and unfortunately it can vary. Your heater output kilowatts are calculated based on your low ambient temperature and if your geographical area drops far below that normal low temperature a safety factor should be included in the calculations.We recommend submersible pond heaters for small to medium size ponds and energy efficient heat exchangers for large ponds.

* Pond Heating: There are conditions that effect pond heaters and make it more difficult controlling pond temperature.

* Pond Waterfalls are used for aeration and beauty,but they cool the water and work against the heating process.

* Pond Water Depth a good designed koi pond should be at least three foot in depth,shallow large exposed surface area ponds are easily effected by wind chill factors and require larger pond heaters to maintain temperature.

Koi Pond Information: One period when koi keepers traditionally have their most difficult time with health problems is during the transition from winter to spring. As waters begin to warm up, pathogens are able to multiply at a more rapid rate than koi can defend themselves leading to an increase in the likelihood of disease. If a pond is heated over winter, then this risky period is removed from the koi owners.

Do not raise the koi’s water temperature too fast. Parasites and bacteria can also grow more quickly in warm water. The fishes system takes time to adjust but the disease organisms do not. Raise the temperature from ambient at 3 – 5 degree intervals every 24 hours to 80 – 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Maintain a stable temperature with less than 2 degrees variable per day Treat with 0.3% salt and parasiticides or antibiotics during the adjustment period, and continue with medication if necessary until cure is affected. Maintain temp. for 4 – 6 weeks after cure, then slowly drop the temperature to match that of the pond water. This will ensure a stronger Koi and ease the fishes transition back to the pond.