Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions New member in Panic mode

Glad I found this site/forum, hope I am not too late. I have a 12yo pond, 1/5 acre, 7.5 feet deep, sealed w bentonite. Pond contains CC, LB, BG, Crappie, and Talapia. I have spent several hours going thru this forum and found that I have been severely neglecting my pond for years. I have never had an issue until now. I noticed 1 dead CC 7 days ago. First one ever so I wasn't too concerned. Last night I found another dead CC and crappie. Now I know I have problem and im trying to act quick to avert disaster. After reading numerous posts on this site I am aware that I may have several issues, first one I believe I need to address is aeration (chemical kill is not possible). I have the diffusers and weighted line covered, trying to find pump recommendations and where it can be purchased for reasonable $. I have temporarily set up my trolling motor on my dock to try and get some circulation and more oxygen in water. I have a well by pond w submersible pump, and have the ability to add fresh water, would this help or make problem worse? I have several 5lb LB that will literally eat BG out of my hand. If my ignorance causes their demise I will be sick to my stomach. Any ideas suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I'm not an expert but you may have too many fish for too little water. May need to take some out. It is getting hot here in Kansas and your problem will likely only worsen. I think you are heading down the right path with aeration.

What I am using is probably not a long term solution but I have been using cheap linear air pumps for a couple years now. Eventually I will probably replace with a good pump but they seem to last about a season running continuous (8-9 months) before needing a fairly cheap rebuild (12-15 dollars)and would be more than adequate for your pond depth and size. I bought mine at Webb Water Gardens and the pump brand is Pondmaster AP 100. They are available at lots of places by doing a web search.

There are a lot better pumps but for around 150 dollars this would get you by for this season at least. I run 4 of them 24-7. Some day I will likely put in a more expensive pump but these are doing the job. They are not any good for anything over about 9' max depth. The air flow drops to almost nothing any deeper. But I am running them at 8-9' with good water flow created.

Once I look it up, I will edit this post and add a link to my threads where I show pictures and talk about my system.

4 Pondmaster pumps in the housing I built Look at picture 003

Temporary setup Shows my initial setup testing to see if the cheap pumps would work. The diffusers I knew would be permanent but I ran one of the Pondmaster AP100 pumps for a while the first fall just to see if they were effective before buying more. Look at picture 006 and read the description of the pump

single diffuser in 1/10th acre pond This shows a picture of a single Matala 9" diffuser running in a 1/10th acre sediment pond. It is taking a little more than half the air from one of the AP100 pumps with the rest going to another single diffuser in my 1/20th acre forage pond. The next couple posts below this one shows some more pictures of the setup.

Some additional info Just a few more pictures and description, this time in my 1/20th acre forage pond.

Like I said, the Pandmaster AP100 pumps are not the best long term solution for aeration, but it is a rather inexpensive way to get a small shallow system up and running to see if it is something you want to continue to do. They have worked for me, but as they wear out I likely will put in a single big pump for the 4 acres total of water I am aerating right now. Then just manifold out to the diffusers.

Edit: I see they are not as cheap as they used to be. Now a couple hundred dollars. I think I paid around 135 for mine when on sale. I do not want to put a link to it because they are not an advertiser on Pond Boss but if you do a search for "webb water garden pondmaster ap100" it will come up. At that price you may actually find a better solution than the AP100 for inexpensive.

Thanks for the direction. You may be correct about the population. This is the first year I have put in Tilapia, just wanted my fish to have an endless supply of baitfish, and I may have caused more harm than good.

How many lbs of Tilapia did you put in?

Here is a thread you might find useful as a person contemplating aeration. It answers some of the common aeration questions that arise.

Pressure calculations

I put in 30 Tilapia that I had wintered in an indoor tank. They ranged from 4-6 inches when I set them free.

If it is only three fish that you lost I wouldn't panic just yet. I know we had big swing in water temps here in Nebraska in the last 10 to 11 days that stressed my fish. My evening surface temps went from 68 / 70 degrees into the upper 80s in just a few short days. My GSH were about ready to start spawning but now water temps are probably too warm. I had 9 SMB floaters six/seven days into this temperature jump that was probably caused by a combination of things but appears to have settled down. Work on getting aeration going and keep your fingers crossed.

Oggy,

First don't panic. We've all lost fish.

My guess is that you are experiencing what Shorty described above. Yes, aeration can help that problem.

Something that is good for many emergencies, and many other uses, is a semi-trash pump. I have a 2" pump with lots of 2-inch hose (maybe $250-300). I've got lot of garden hose and a number 75-125 foot directional/rotational sprinklers that mount on tripods.

I've only used my pump and sprinklers a few times over a number of years around my most vulnerable pond when I thought I was having problem with low Dissolved Oxygen due to a from a heavy rainstorm or other major temperature change. For more information, see Fish Kills and Pond Turnover

As trash pump/semi-trash-pump can certainly add emergency oxygen to a pond. It can also water your garden and lawn problems. It can be a lifesaver while waiting for the fire department to arrive if you have major fire.

Good luck,
Ken

My guess is low dissolved oxygen. The well water will only make the problem worse if you don't shoot it into the air or bounce it off of rocks, a packed column or something like that to get O2 into the well water. As it comes out of the ground it is virtually devoid of O2.

The trolling motor will help, but have the tip of the prop break the surface of the water to create splashing - putting more O2 into the water.

Same with the trash pump, splashing the water puts more O2 into it.

Google paddlewheel agitators or you could also use a surface agitator like this:

Volcano II

If you have not already read about startup procedures for aeration systems being started up for the first time, you need to either do some searches and find previous discussions or ask about it here.

You don't want to take an existing pond with possible anoxic stratified water and just turn the pump on and let it go. You could cause yourself lots more problems than you already think you have.

Need to start up the aeration in short spurts before turning it on full time. Turn the first turn of water slowly. Do some searches or ask for more specifics if you do not already know how.

A lot of options here. The trolling motor will help but a trash pump could also. Just put a pvc pipe on it and put a 45 degree angle on it and let it suck and push water back into the pond like a big fountain. Remember when throwing water into the air to catch D.O. it really needs to be at least 2.5 to 3 feet high to catch good D.O. before it hits the water again. Like said above get that air going as soon as you can. I've lost a few fish before too with air so like the guys said I wouldn't panic just yet but being proactive is a good thing for sure!!

RC