Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Small ponds for raising trout?

Hi, I am looking into raising trout and am trying to find more info that does not rely on shallow tanks or raceways. I want to use relatively larger and deeper earthen ponds and a more natural approach. One thing I am trying to determine is the minimum flow rate I will need to be successful. The standard trout farm methods require a very high flow rate, which I could never sustain. One source I found suggests that exchanging the pond water 1-2 times per day is sufficient. I still don't have enough flow for that, my creek has a minimum 15gpm and I would need to use a hydraulic pump to fill the trout ponds. The pump has an efficiency of about 1:6 which takes my flow rate down to about 2.5gpm. Will a constant flow rate of 2.5gpm be workable? I was thinking of using 6 trout ponds in series with a minimum 3-4ft drop between them for aeration. The largest pond for the mature trout would be 5,000 sq ft surface area with the others sized appropriately for the different stages of growth. The flow rate could only sustain a full water exchange in all the ponds a few times a year. No good? Any advice or links to more reading would be appreciated. Thanks!

If you do a search in old posts Cecil Baird provided flow rates needed for his 1/10 acre pond. I think his flow rate was above 2.5gpm. But with a flow of 2.5gpm IMO the water temperature exiting the pond would be too warm for raising trout in a 2nd pond. Others may be able to help with this info.

Since Cecil is not longer here and left the Forum here is a brief description of his trout pond with well water inflow. From his description I doubt very much that 2.5 gpm flow will be enough for even just a small pond of 0.1 ac. A flow of 2.5gpm might be enough cool water inflow for a container of a couple thousand gallons to raise several trout.

""I don't need any measures taken as 45 gpm of well water flowing into my 1/10th acre trout pond 24/7 in the summer with steep sides keeps temps pretty low in the hottest part of the summer. Once I put a pier in and was able to measure the temp of the water column I was amazed at how low it was. Upper 90's air temp and water temp was in the low 60's the top few inches. Down from there to the bottom was right around 60.

I'm thinking the top would have been warmer but colder below that if I didn't run the diffuser at night. However I believe running the diffuser part time was imperative to prevent an anoxic layer from developing near the bottom. OTOH I really don't know as to what effect the incoming well water has and could prevent that."" This quote was from:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=375867

???????????? WHAT---say it ain't so !!!!!!!!!!

Lately I haven't been around much, so I don't know why but this is terrible news. I have noticed a few posts here and there that are Cecil's forte with no response. I thought it was strange, but also thought it's vacation time. I hope he comes back, he is a rare and true asset to this forum.

I agree that it would be a big loss if an experienced pond wizard is driven away, especially when the source of knowledge is willing to share in such a well written way on a daily basis!

I have not been on the PB forum long but have seen this happen more than once already where very needed and appreciated members are driven away.

Is there not a way that those who are responsible for the disparaging comments or the verbal harrassing of the helpful folk can be dealt with? Perhaps they get a posting 'time out' that is temporary until they can learn to be civil again? Seems like it makes more sense to address the few trouble makers rather than lose the best parts of the forum.

I know how hard it is to do such management/moderating and do not want to criticize the mods either.

Would hope Cecil would feel the overall nature of the postings on the board are more civil/supportive and productive in the future and feels he can safely return without fear of being mistreated again.

Thanks guys. Well, there goes that idea. Are there other species of warm-water fish that would be productive to raise in a setup similar to what I described above? One more thought-- since the weather here in western NC is mild in the winter, could I use a strain of trout that spawns in autumn and just stock the pond for the colder months? Still not enough water exchange?

As long as your water temps are below 70°F, the trout should do O.K. We stock trout here around the middle of October and fish them out of the ponds in June.

Cody note: In those several months the trout with regular pellet feedings can grow around 6"-8" - real dandy fish.

Ok, so a seasonal stock of trout could work, it seems. Is there another cool-to-warm-water species that I could stock in the summer? I was thinking catfish, but they grow slowly, don't they? Thanks.

Catfish are a relatively warm water species, and will grow slowly in cool water.

SMB, YP, HSB all do well in cool-to-warm water, and are available as pellet trained fish, like RBT, so growth rates are pretty substantial.