Winter Pond Cover

[Scrup]

So..I made a cover for it out of PVC and some painting tarp. Worked great, until some of our Chinook winds came through the past few days (60mph) And tore it all to pieces. These are a regular occurrence here, so it is something I need to plan for. I was hoping it would hold, but even after gluing them together, the winds managed to snap the poles which then shot up straight and went right through the plastic sheeting.

Awesome.

Thinking of building something smaller, just a little triangular roof thing at a 45 degree pitch. Only problem is, What to make it out of.

Considering either Metal conduit or wood. The REALLY big catch here, is that the pond is 15 feet wide at its widest spot. Meaning if I go with a 45 pitch, the legs would need to be 11 feet long. And aside from the fact that most of these materials come in 10 foot segments, I can only fot an 8 foot piece in my car. So I will have to join these together somehow. The conduit would be easy, not sure about how well the wood would hold up, but it would be cheaper.

Any thoughts on which might work better, or any other ideas?

Not having a cover is not an option right now. Possibly if things get too frustrating I will just throw a tarp over it and sandbag it, but I am really liking the greenhouse effect I got from the pvc structure (almost 10 degrees warmer in the tent).

Thanks for any help or advice you can give!

[smaug]

Why is an uncoverd pond not an option?

[Scrup]

We tried it last year without the fish to see how the water did and the dog would fall into it while romping through the snow, that's the big reason. I can always just pull out the plywood we used last year, but was hoping to get something a little more ascetically pleasing and that would let some light through.

Also I am hoping to keep the plants around it alive through the winter. I was told to mulch them and they would be fine, but mulch + our winds= mulchy pond water. Leaving it uncovered is possible as a last resort, but I would like to see this work.

Plus if I can get this going, it saves me the trouble of netting out all the leaves all through the fall. right now they are piled about 8" thick all over the yard and have not finished dropping.

Also, at our altitude I am worried about it freezing solid (which it did last year as far as I could tell, and people a few cities over have told me their ponds freeze down to 2-3 feet, mines only 3 feet deep...), or capping over with snow while I am not home. I now have one pump circulating around the pond and another devoted to surface agitation, but I still worry.

With the last cover on it, the temps were usually 5-10 degrees warmer inside..It gets cold but we also get a ton of sunshine.

[smaug]

Thats a pickle for sure.I guess in your neck of the woods ,freezing solid would be likely.With lots of wind it will be difficult for sure and I got no real ideas for this.

[Scrup]

I just rebuilt it and fished out all the leaves...typing is really hard right now, fingers are having trouble moving. I made it really low to the ground this time and at more of an angle just using the pvc. Hope this will help shed the wind off a bit. It actually bent the threaded steel posts I put into the ground....pretty powerful stuff.

As long as it holds up until the weekend when I can redo it right....thanks for trying..lol.