650g pond heat regulation

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kev82

Feeder Fish
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Sep 7, 2005
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Iceland
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So I dug a hole a few weeks ago, added the pond liner etc

Now I live in Iceland, and it gets cold here during the winter, so I took the water coming from the radiators in the house and put it in the pond. It's still a little too warm (35°C ~98°F), so I was thinking what ideas you have to regulate the temperature of the pond?

I was for example wondering if there was some simple/cheap water mixing thingie I could use to mix cold/hot water together and set it at f.e. 30°C so the water coming out is somewhere around that range.
That way I could be pretty much sure that at least some part of the pond is of good temperature for fish.
I don't need any fancy regulating stuff, I basically just want to cool the water down a tiny bit before it goes into the pond.


I'll probably be adding my convict fry to the pond as an experiment when I get the temperature right.

Oh and the flowrate from the radiators in the house is pretty good - probably recycles once every hour or so, so I have no worries that the pond will cool down too much during the coldest times..


Nuke me with your ideas :)
 
There is a shower regulator that mixes hot and cold and is presetable so no one gets scalded.

Or how about delivering the water to the pond with a fountain to air cool it. If it's too cold outside bypass the fountain with a sprinkler valve arrangement. Or feed half to fountain / half to pond with a ball valve on each. Just have to play with it a little. Depends on size of the pond.

PIcs...Pics...Pics...

Good Luck,

Dr Joe

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Ah of course, I forgot the pics..


I only have this one, taken on my cellphone when I was working on it and filling it...


Picture should give you an idea what i'm working with - the pond isn't that large so I wasn't really planning on any fountains or waterfalls... It's around 2ft deep on average though.


The water isn't scalding hot btw - well, not for humans anyway. I doubt fish like it that warm though :drool:


Oh, and since the pond is like an hour drive from here, it's just a weekend house, then adjustments must be kept to a minimum :)

Image021.jpg
 
Interesting problem, going to have to think about this...

Questions:

1) Is electric always on?

2) Is the heat always on in the house?



The fountain I was speaking of was just a small one like http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=5218&N=62728+113609
but just using the fountain head/no pump.

Can you find some used solar panels and run the hot water through them to cool the water.

Maybe you could just let the water spray out of the pipe as it enters the pond.

If that's still to hot let it full into a small pool (really just a ten gallon concrete water hole) and flow over the side into the pond like a weir, or put it in the center and make it a water feature / plus it will help aerate the water.

I thought every Icelander had a geothermal gyser in their back yard. :grinno:

Just had a second thought; Are you recycling the pond water for the heater?

Weekend house, what you have others for Monday - Friday :D Must be nice I only have ONE house...But it's in FLORIDA :D :D :D

Dr Joe

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Because of the huge temp drops you'll experience in winter, I would greatly expand that pond (by at least 10 times). It will definitely need to be over 3 ft deep to maintain any sort of temp balance below the thermocline layer of water.
You can regulate your existing heat setup with a thermostatic controller (with probe) and solenoid activated flow valve that opens to deliver hot water to the pond as it's needed for maintaining whatever setpoint you set the thermostat to.
 
Dr Joe:
Water and electric is always on. Water currently enters the pond splashing but is still 5-8°C hotter than it should be. And I doubt it would get much colder when it's at its coldest here because the water is already replaced ca. once per hour (roughly).
Fountain might be an idea though, or some kind of spraybar, should cool the water down considerably, I might try something like that.

It's my parents summerhouse, so i'm not that rich - Just have my ONE apartment :)
And yeah, geysers all over the place (hah), but the water coming in the pond is geothermally heated actually.

Oddball: This was when I was making the damn thing, I DO intend to make it a tiny bit prettier than this.
Oh and making the pond bigger is not an option right now. Maybe next summer
 
What are your temps there anyway? :) gotta be more interesting than mine...

Maybe the idea of a second, smaller pre-cooling pond might be reconsidered. But try the fountain / spray bar idea (maybe 2 in series with a shut-off on one) first (cheaper), spray up into the air, just make sure that isn't too high so a heavy wind won't blow the water out of the pond and erode/flood something.

This could be a pretty neat project, having bog plants flowering in the dead of winter!

I'm really interest in how this plays out. Most problems I have here are cooling and stabilizing temps.

Parents place huh? Nice.

Make sure if you ever get in a fight with them YOU get custody of the pond :D :screwy:

Keep us posted and take progress pics, wish I could come help :D

Dr Joe

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The absolute coldest it gets here is ca 0°F during january/february nights... Average is probably 10-25°F during the winter... Summers are alot warmer obviously :)

I might go to some plumbing store and ask for advice there..
Right now i'm looking for something that could just send the water in the pond at 80°F and leave it at that. Then i'm just gonna pick up a thermometer that records highs and lows, and i'd record the findings and reset the high/low thingie every time I get there... If the temp gets too low, then put the water in a little hotter - play around with it a little. That way I should be able to monitor the temperature somewhat, and if I see that the temp stays between 70 and 80°F, then most fish should be able to stay there. It's not like the temp changes would be instant, and i'd pick some hardy fish... Maybe a channa? :)
 
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