I searched for winterizing and found a couple of REALLY old threads, but had additional questions to what those answered, so hopefully someone can help.
I saw that feeding below a certain temp was discouraged because the goldies slow down so much and won't eat and it fouls the water, but the rosie reds/minnows do not seem to do that. They are active all the time, no matter how cold the water is (or so far anyhow that seems to be the case, and I've read that you'll see them swimming below the ice if the pond freezes over), so I'm wondering if I should still feed them throughout the winter if the pond isn't frozen and the fish are active?
The odds of it freezing over are low since I live in GA, and the temps here just don't stay cold enough for very long to have that happen, especially since the filter/waterfall runs 24 hrs. So that's question 1 - should I feed the minnows?
And my second question I asked on my pond thread, but I don't think many people read that anymore since it's a little older - and that is, is there an air temp at which I should shut the filter off due to danger of freezing in the pipes that are above ground? Those pipes are 2" PVC, and are carrying about 3400 GPH from 4' below ground level (which will never freeze that deep here), so I'm not sure how easily the pipes would freeze, and at what temperature I should be concerned there.
In Jan/Feb here we typically see some teens/twenties overnight with warming to 40's during the day. It is incredibly rare that we'd ever have a 24 hour period of not getting above freezing.
Any help on those two main questions would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
I saw that feeding below a certain temp was discouraged because the goldies slow down so much and won't eat and it fouls the water, but the rosie reds/minnows do not seem to do that. They are active all the time, no matter how cold the water is (or so far anyhow that seems to be the case, and I've read that you'll see them swimming below the ice if the pond freezes over), so I'm wondering if I should still feed them throughout the winter if the pond isn't frozen and the fish are active?
The odds of it freezing over are low since I live in GA, and the temps here just don't stay cold enough for very long to have that happen, especially since the filter/waterfall runs 24 hrs. So that's question 1 - should I feed the minnows?
And my second question I asked on my pond thread, but I don't think many people read that anymore since it's a little older - and that is, is there an air temp at which I should shut the filter off due to danger of freezing in the pipes that are above ground? Those pipes are 2" PVC, and are carrying about 3400 GPH from 4' below ground level (which will never freeze that deep here), so I'm not sure how easily the pipes would freeze, and at what temperature I should be concerned there.
In Jan/Feb here we typically see some teens/twenties overnight with warming to 40's during the day. It is incredibly rare that we'd ever have a 24 hour period of not getting above freezing.
Any help on those two main questions would be much appreciated.
Thanks!