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The guy who put my pond in said I could run the waterfall all winter but reading here I think maybe I shouldn't. I did just get a floating heater to keep a spot open. If I turn off the waterfall do I remove the pump and bring it inside so water doesn't freeze inside it or do I just leave it in the skimmer?

And while I am asking questions, how do I order lotus from Bonnie?

I would remove the pumps from the pond, you don't want them to freeze. There are different opions on storage of submersible pumps. Some pull them out and store them in a dry place, others keep them in water. I called the manufacturer for their recommendation. What I did was remove my two skimmer pumps and placed them in buckets of water in my basement. This way the seals don't dry out.

There are other ways to keep a small area in the pond open. Running a deicer can be expensive. If you go that route I would put the deicer on a thermostat to control when the deicer turns on and off.

Other means to ensure a hole remains in the ice is use an aerator and stone. Install the stone off the bottom of the pond so it doesn't steal warm water that the fish like to stay in. Another option is purchase a small inexpensive submersible pump and locate it just below the surface of the water. Let the pump continue to run. Both these options help mainain constant water movement. I like both these options because it provides me visibility that something is going on. I still use a deicer, but for backup. I've had a number of them fail so I really don't trust them.

Hope this helps.
Steve

In MI we always disconnected the pump and waterfalls because if we left it running the wind would blow water away and turn to ice. Thus we were always adding water. Then we stopped running the pump and turned off the falls.

We placed the pump on the bottom of the pond for the winter and ran a large air pump and air stone.

When we moved to NC we turned off the pump and water falls. Because it does not freeze here -rarely, I should say-. We always had a mess to clean up in the pond every spring.

So we started leaving the pump and filter and skimmers running all winter long. And our spring clean up was much easier.

One thing for sure if you run the pump and or water falls in the winter in icy regions you need to check daily to make sure that water is not being pumped out of the pond under the ice.

Bonnie