Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions new pond, new questions

Haven't been to the board in awhile since it has been a long snowny winter in New Hampshire. As spring beings to emerge so is my pond. After all the work I put in last year trying to stop a leak, it looks like I may actually have a pond to care for.


The long winter has filled the pond and it seems to be holding (fingers crossed). With the pond full the water is a very dark brown and I can only see to about a depth of 1 foot into the water. I have started the beginings of a sump powered water fall, but that doesn't seem to be clearing the water any.

How should I aerate this 80'x50'x 8' deep pond to clarify it?
I have had great help here to solve my leak problem and hope to have some suggestions on clarifing my pond.

Thanks for your help.

Don't know the answer to your question but your pond sure looks nice Scruffy.

Hello Scruffy,

Beautiful pond...glad it is holding water for you too.

From the photo, it looks as though you have quite a few trees around the pond and even if you devoid of trees, water acts as a magnet for leaves and leaf drop.

What I am getting at is the color may be associated with the leaf build up in the bottom of the pond as they decay and decompose.

A system for your pond is very easy to install and operate, for you only during the spring and summer months is the general operating season.

What type of fish are dominate in the pond?

Cary.
My intension is to stock Rainbow trout again this year. I stocked them last year and they did well until the leak took it's toll and the heat build up from lack of water.

Long story short,I sealed the pond with bentonite and blue clay and compacted it and this is the first it's been this full.

I am trying to keep the leaves out of the pond by raking them, as you may notice the small piles around the pond in the picture.

I'm finding it had to believe that leaves have such a great affect on the pond. I have a shallow fire pond at work that is loaded with oak leaves and the water is crystal clear.

I thought that might be the species you are stocking. Bottom aeration is such a good circulator that it tends to raise the temperature with in 1-3 degrees of the surface temperature thereby making the habitat for trout difficult.

I would recommend a 1/2 HP surface aeration unit like the Kasco 2400. This will allow a two fold benefit, first operating it at night only will increase the oxygen levels at night when they are their lowest and secondly it will act as a cooling tower when the night temperatures will lower the surface temperatures.

We can help you further if this is the route you would like to pursue.

One more question.
Since the pond is new, dug in August of '06 and drained and sealed last year during the summer. What are the chances of it clarifying on it's own, over time? Water comes from run off from about a 4 acre area which runs through a hardwood and pine woods.

I building a small waterfall which I plan to run through a small (2 cubic foot) bio-filter box. Quite a bit smaller than what the pond needs, but better than nothing?

Hi Scruffy, nice looking pond. I think aeration is important here but you might want to check DO and temp levels throughout the water column to see if it's really necessary. I would like to be able to help you with aeration but I think that our diffusers might be a little bit of overkill for your size. I'm sure one of the other vendors will be able to help you.

What I would suggest is, if you go with aeration and it doesn't clear up as much as you would like, consider direct ozone injection into your sump pump/waterfall line. We have installations just like this that we were able to turn the water from a chocolate milk look to crystal clear within two weeks. This can be done without chemicals or harm to your fish and there are no harmfull bi-products.

Hey Scruffy, nice looking pond. Good luck with your trout, I've had my share of trout winterkill too. By the way, did you know NE Mason has a nice pond over there in NH.

I'm building a floating fountain to circulate the upper water colume, as suggested. Ozone sounds interesting, but isn't it bad for the enviornment?

AP, haven't seen any posts from Mr. Mason, does he have trout?

Thanks for the replies.

Hey Scruffy, I believe NE MASON has brook & Rainbow trout. Look on the users list and you'll see his posts. He has some nice pictures of his pond.

Wow AP, I have a long way to go to catch up with the Mason"s :-)

His pond is just a little bigger than mine, but a lot more finished. I hope to have success with trout also, but have areation issues with finding a good waterfall pump along with clearing my pond of surface debris. Really don't want a fountain, but it may come to using one. I prefer to have a more natural look without a gyser in the center of my pond. :-(

Thanks for the heads up on NE Masons ponding.

Hi Scruffy, good question. There are a few misconceptions surrounding ozone technology due to media and the use of the word "ozone". Ozone (in the quantities created by humans) is completely benign to the environment. Although it is a very strong oxidant (second only to elemental flourine) it has no negative biproducts. Typically when ozone oxidizes it leaves CO2 and inert ash. Unlike chlorine and other oxidants, there are no harmful side effects such as trihalomethanes (cancer precursor) that you would find with chlorine based products. The only things to look out for is to not breath large quantities of it and be sure to incorporate a "gas off" system if there are fish as ozonized water can harm their slime layer. Furthermore, ozone can clean water so well that it can disrupt the food chain so sometimes adjustment may be necessary to protect your fishery. Your waterfall would be more than adequate for a gas off. A few things about ozone:

1. Diffuses about 13 times faster into water than atmospheric O2.
2. Reduces surface tension of the water molecule allowing suspended sediments to drop out easier.
3. Actully destroys organic material (i.e. algae) on contact.

In addition to being used extensively in industries such as pool/spa, HVAC, Koi ponds and environmental cleanup, it is the same technology used by God himself to purify our rainwater. You just can't argue with that.