Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? can aeration clean my mucky bottom

I bought land and with it a beautiful 2.5 acre spring-fed pond. It is about 6-8' deep in the middle (hard to tell due to much level) and a over half of it less than 2'. Lots of muck. I hear a couple years back it had sewage running into it. It flows out steadily 24/7, 365 days per year into small river. Most times in winter there is at least some open water. It has Northern Pike (one was 36") and some other fish but don't know all species yet. Water clear as could be. Bottom has lots of silt and I would like to get rid of some of it. Cannot afford to drain/dredge, will running a fountain pump this winter help stir things up and start to clean out muck?

Hey Mike sounds like a nice pond! I am gonna say yes and no to your question.

A fountain pump will stir some things up I bet and provide some D.O., but I don't think it will do much for your muck. You will need to go with bottom diffusers for that and with a 2.5 acre pond you will need more than one diffuser station. And it's still not a quick fix it takes time to get rid of all that muck! Let see what others have to say.

RC

Hi Mike,

I apologize for the late response to your message, but I just noticed the thread. Where is your property located in Wisconsin? I have a 3 acre lake/pond about an hour northwest of Green Bay that I started managing rather aggressively two years ago.

I installed an aeration system with two large bottom diffusers. The lake itself is very old, with severe shoreline encroachment, so where the shore is today is about 50 feet from where it started when the lake was born as the last glacier moved through. Where my dock starts at the waters edge I have about 10 feet of muck, before hitting sand, and another 32 feet out into the lake I have upwards of 15 feet of muck.

Since starting the system I have seen a reduction in muck of about 4" inches per year. I am not sure if this is typical, and it may be due to the severity of the situation I am dealing with. Before I started aeration, testing of my lake indicated that the bottom layers of water were completely anoxic (devoid of oxygen), and by destratifying the water I've been able to increase 02 levels down to the bottom, which encourages O2 loving bacteria to grow, and depending on who you talk to, these bacteria break down muck 10 to 50 times faster than the anaerobic bacteria.

So I have seen positive results, but its as slow process, I may die and be bled dry by the electric company before I ever see a sand bottom again. I am considering some small scale suction dredging to open up part of the lake.. that may happen this fall yet.

Mike