Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New House - First Pond - What to do

Hi Everyone,

I've been monitoring the site for about 2 months, since I purchased a new home with a 1 acre pond. I'm looking for some guidance on pond maintenance. I've had the water tested and verified everything is in good order according to the Lake Doctor. Previously, there were no fish in the pond. I stocked 400 BG, 200 CC and 1000 BHM in late December and plan to add LMB in the spring. The pond has at least 12 softshell turtles and several alligator snapping turtles. Some of which are huge. So, that is a concern but, it may help keep the pond in balance.

I'm most concerned about keeping the pond healthy. There is an existing Kasco fountain that needs some maintenace. So, I'm sending it back for repairs.

Some facts about the pond.
1. 1 acre square
2. 20 yrs old
3. 4hp Kasco fountain
4. Water clarity is deep green
5. Max depth is 12 feet
6. Some shoreline torpedo grass

What would you do?
What should I do to prevent algea, duck weed, ect..

Thanks,
-Steve

Welcome and congratulations.

How big were the CC that you stocked?

Small 2 inch

I just want to be on top of the maintenance and it seem like algae can get out of control quick. So, what do you use as a preventative. I'm in N.E. Florida.

OK, so it does not seem like the CC will be able to eat the minnows you stocked for sometime.

Control of algae is not something I know much about, so let's see what others have to say.

Preventative control of FA is all about controlling excess nutrients. Underwater vegetative growth will do that, but you might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. (i.e. too much weed growth) Controlling Phosphorous in the pond will help limit FA growth.

Tilapia, where legal to stock, and stocked in the correct amounts will control FA during the period of the year when they are active.

Or, you could go the chemical route, chelated copper products work very well, although if you have trout in the pond, that's not an option - a product that is Sodium Carbonate Peroxyhydrate based will work in that instance.

I was able to repair the fountain, added some dye and ran the fountain for 2 days. Everything cleared up and seems in good order. I'm going to hold off adding any chemicals.

Tilapia will help with your FA, You can source wild tilapia from many of the ponds and impoundments around you or a person sells them on Craiglist in St Augustine. LMB might be a little hard to manage in a 1 acre pond. I have opted out of LMB and went with predators that will not repoduce and over populate.
You could stock Flounder, Mangrove Snapper, snook, Tarpon or even Redfish into your pond ad predators and they would not over populate as they do well in fresh water buit can not repoduce. Many people are not aware of this.

Keep in mind that tilapia in warm water areas where they can overwinter can cause significant carrying capacity problems (too many for the available water).

In regards to mangroves, redfish and flounder, that is very interesting. I will research that.

Ewest is correct, tilapia are really thick in the ponds that over winter them here with the exception of a pond I know of in South Jax Beach that has four 20 plus pound tarpon and two 15 plus pound snook in it. They really seem to hammer them. I guess a really good LMB population would help also. I read some place that tilapia can reduce LMB recruitment due to spawning site competition. In a small pond that might be good as long as you have enough large ones to control the tilapia population. If you did get over loaded with them you could manually remove some or the occasional hard freeze we get in this area will thin them out for you too.

Sorry don't mean to hyjack you thread.