I built a 3/8 acre pond in the hill country. Aerated with a vertex, stocked it with fish from Overtons and I have been burying fish for 2 days now. Why did the vertex not keep any fish alive? I obviously had a algal bloom that sucked all of the DO out. I am frustrated and am wondering if I wasted all my money putting in aeration to prevent this from happening. The fish were growing and reproducing great. I have scooped up tons of perch,catfish and fathead fry! I do not have any aquatic plants in this pond and will be getting some soon. What else can I do? I tried to do it right, and still got burned. I also had a feeder on the pond as well.

Could be like a new aquirium, the beneficial backteria and plant life etc might not have been able to keep up with the fish load ( waste nitites/nitrates etc). Perghaps it needed to mature a some before a heavy fish load. I am not sure if this appies to smaller ponds or not.?

Might wanna get your water tested.. Sounds odd to me.

What is the time line on the events ? Start with the building of the pond date to current.

Oct 2010 pond built and I pumped water from my well to keep about 3 feet deep
February 2012 filled with spring rain
May 2012 stocked it and began feeding and aerating
August 2012 crashed

Murph, your story sound all too familiar to me – same story ….
Perfect Pond – Had one…
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=23883&Number=299979#Post299979

My 2 acre pond was in “perfect balance” for my goals until the extreme record breaking Texas heat wave shrunk it to 1 acre ….
Too many fish and not enough air to go around - recipe for a a fish kill every time.

My solution has been for Overton to install a Kasco surface aerator for emergency use.

Good luck – it happens to all of us at some time or another – you also have more survivors than you realize.
George Glazener

George thanks for the encouragement , I will get it right eventually, but dang it hurts when you have spent as much money on this as I have!

Very strange for a brand new pond to have O2 problems with only stocker fish. Should not be a carrying capacity problem. How much has the pond shrunk in size , if any ?

Has the water been tested?

Doesn't aeration help with DO?? He had a Vertex system installed..

Get the aquatic plants. And, as Ewest suggested, get a comprehensive water test done. You could have other problems than just DO.

Water has not been tested, and the pond was down about 1 foot and did not lose much surface area. I will get the water tested when I get a chance. I took my pool water kit down there and ph was 7.8 and the alkalinity was high at 180. I do live in the hill country and it will always have high alkalinity.

PH of 7.8 is starting to get a little high I think, when did you take that test? PH can go up and down a lot. Lots of times it will spike in the evening. So if your PH was 7.8 in the morning or mid afternoon I wonder if it's spiking into the mid to high 8's in the evening and the fish couldn't handle it? PH high's and low's can be very stressful on fish. Not sure if that was your problem just throwing around ideas?? Like Mr. Eric said you should get a real water test done. Maybe a soil test too if you can.

That is a very good alkalinity for fish. 75-200 is ideal.

I have posted this before. From https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/112/
A desirable range of total alkalinity for fish culture is
between 75 and 200 mg/L CaCO3.

Fish and other vertebrates have an
average blood pH of 7.4. Fish blood comes into close contact
with water (1- or 2-cell separation)
as it passes through the blood vessels
of the gills and skin. A desirable
range for pond water pH
would be close to that of fish
blood (i.e., 7.0 to 8.0). Fish may become
stressed and die if the pH
drops below 5 (e.g., acidic runoff)
or rises above 10 (e.g., low alkalinity
combined with intense photosynthesis
by dense algal blooms –
phytoplankton or filamentous
algae).
Pond pH varies throughout the
day due to respiration and photosynthesis.
After sunset, dissolved
oxygen (DO) concentrations decline
as photosynthesis stops and
all plants and animals in the pond
consume oxygen (respiration). In
heavily stocked fish ponds, carbon
dioxide (CO2) concentrations can become high as a result of respiration.
The free CO2 released during
respiration reacts with water, producing
carbonic acid (H2CO3), and
pH is lowered.
H2O + CO2 = H2CO3 = H+ + HCO3
-
Table 1 summarizes the relative
changes in dissolved oxygen, CO2
and pH over 24 hours.
Carbon dioxide rarely causes direct
toxicity to fish. However,
high concentrations lower pond
pH and limit the capacity of fish
blood to carry oxygen by lowering
blood pH at the gills.

Listen to Ewest. With Alkalinity at 180. the pH is going to be buffered quite well. There will not be any wide range of fluctuation.
Ph of 7.8 is actually near ideal.

How many of what species of fish were stocked? How much were you feeding? (how long did a 50# bag of food last?)

Was the aeration running 24/7?

About 90 bass from different sizes ranging from 4 inches to 2 pounds,
200 6 -8 inch catfish,
500 bluegill
Tilapia and minnows
I wanted to put as many fish as I could, I am not going to lie.

I was feeding about 15 seconds twice a day and a bag of food every month.

Aerator was running 24/7.

Musta' missed it Murph.... what size pond?

Little over 3/8 of an acre

Unfortunately, you found out what happens when there's too many fish (too large of a biomass) in a pond.

Murph, some of us push the envelope - same song second verse...

I have a problem of falling in love with my fish - gotta start harveting - cull all of your female CNBG except the giants.
You probably have more survivors than you think.

I know some fish farmers overcrowd their brood ponds sucessfully with surface aerators - botton diffuser systems circulate water - not enough air in these 105 temp days.

Good luck!

With it being a new pond it must have been a explosion of tilapia and BG growth and reproduction, if it is a carrying capacity problem. I am not sure that was the problem although it will be if that many stay and grow.