Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? old pond aeration questions

Its a 4.5 surface area soil conservation pond. Im guessing it used to be realy deep as the dam comes up 30 or so feet from the bottom. But it is at least 20-40 years old and now has a max depth of 8 feet with an average depth of 6 feet. It is probably .25 miles from a power source.

What are my options on aeration or should i aerate at all?

Thanks

you are going to get a lot more intelligent replies than this, but my thoughts are based upon my experience with redoing an old 1 acre pond in central texas, first,do you have an algae problem, are you wanting to stock with fish, do you see dead fish, aeration will improve all of the above , now when it comes to system questions i will wait for some of the regular members of this forum, ted lea, and others to give you some technical advice. good luck this is a great place to ask questions.david903

In late summer alge becomes a big problem but its not bad now. Im trying to get ahold of some talapia to stock to help control plants and alge. The pond is stocked with bass and bluegill. It has the signs of bass over crowding, small bass and large bluegill. Im goin to try to take out at least 100 small bass this year and im hoping that with the introduction of the talapia will help ballence things out. Im located in north east central kansas. Oh and no i havent seen any dead fish.

Several reasons im interested in aeration. Increasing the habitable space for fish in the pond and clearing some of the sludge off the bottom. My hope is to stop the filling in process untill i can afford to redo the entire pond which will be a long time from now.

ToiletDuck,

If you haven't already stocked Tilapia, you might want to reconsider...its mid-June and your growing season is much shorter in north Kansas. Tilapia begin to die at 55 degrees water temps...they pretty much shut down eating as temps approach 60 degrees.

they are pretty cheap at $4 a pound so even if they dont live very long it wont be much of a loss