Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Anatomy of an oxygen crash, or "Am I Willie Mays, or Jose Canseco?"

Hi Bruce, aka Jose striving for a Willie status, When we visited this your ponds this spring I was a little nervious about the stability your "dad's pond" ecosystem. However you seemed to have things well under control due to past experiences. I guess there are always new things to learn. At least presently, I think what happened is the Zannichellia died off naturally in its annual cycle. It is an annual. Many annuals die off once the seeds are fully mature such as curly- leaf and narrow leaf pondweeds. The abudant monoculture dieoff and decay caused the oxygen sag. Part of your bloom could could have also died at the same time. To prevent this in the future I would do at least one or two things or a combination thereof. 1. When pondweed is growing well remove at least 25%- maybe 40%-50% of it from the pond. 2. Introduce a competing submerged species that will tolerate the water movement from the sweeper nozzles such as eelgrass - Vallisneria. Eel grass typically develops in mid summer and remains viable through fall into winter.