Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions New Guy with One Million ?'s

I joined this site because my friend has a very nice secluded pond that only a few fish. Our estimates are that the pond is 1.25acre and deepest 10ft. Problem is water is stagnant and pond is almost completely consumed with algae.

Question is do any of you have a diagram of how to make a aerator pump for a windmill? I cant find any anywhere. Dropping a grand on one factory made is not an option. We have to build it ourselves.

thankful for any help.

Welcome to the forum...

You found the right place. There are plenty of guys on here who know their stuff when it comes to aeration. Building and installing aren't the only aspect of aeration. So be careful how in implement a new aeration system.

Tell us a bit more about your pond:

How old is it?

Is it round, oval, triangle shaped, etc?

Mean depth?

It is dug or dammed?

Fish species present?

Is it simple run off, spring fed, etc?

The pond has to man made because their is a dam type structure. Not to for sure how old it is, was their when property was bought. I'd assume its been their at least 30 to 40 years cause they have owned it for about 25. It is run off fed, it has hill side around most of it except for where dam is. Other side of damn is straight down hill. Its got crappie, large mouth, channels and bluegill but very few numbers.

What are your goals? Obviously you want to clear up the filamentous algae problem...What else are you trying to accomplish?

Clear up the algae which is super thick and makes it tough to fish.

More oxygen in water so that the fish can live longer and grow bigger. All the fish we catch in the same little area right off the dam. I think that the rest of the pond is uninhabitable because the algae is taking away all the oxygen our fish need.

Freinds Pond, welcome to the forum!

Tilapia are legal in Kentucky and will take care of the algae quickly. It's a little late in the year to get the best bang for the buck, but you can get them pretty cheaply right now if you are near Paducah.

I bet it's not algae.

Can you post a picture af the stuff, Freinds Pond? If not, try comparing it to the pictures in the FA Archive Thread.

From the archive, its mostly like the one on the bottom. When I go threw it with the jon boat it like breaks up into little tiny particles.

Looks a lot like whats in these photos I got off google.

That's watermeal. You can kill it with Flouridone, which is sold as Sonar, or under a slightly cheaper label called Whitecap. Nate Herman (n8ly) on here sells it, as does Greg Grimes. You can also stock tilapia which will eat it, though if you're feeding a pellet food to your bluegill the tilapia will eat the pellet food and thus in that circumstance may not clean up the watermeal.

wow thanx for the help. I guess that means that no aerator would be needed?

Where do the tilapia fish come from/

Rainman I am in Louisville pond is out by Taylorsville Lake.

An aerator is always a good thing for a pond, when properly installed; even if it's only run at night, it lowers the possibility that your fish are going to be oxygen-starved at some point during the respiration period (night). But particularly with a pond that has watermeal, an aerator is a wise investment. Typically a big part of the problem is that the pond is old and has a lot of muck and excess nutrients built up on the pond bottom, which are the conditions that foster watermeal and duckweed. So aerating properly would definitely be a good thing for that pond. Watermeal does not go gently into the night, so anything you can do to make the pond less ideal for it, is good.

Rainman, don't you have a dealer you work with in Paducah that sells tilapia?

Thanx for the help everyone. Anywhere I can find step by step instructions on how to make my own windmill aerator.

I'd like to just try to build a homemade el cheapo. If it only helps the pond a little then I'll be happy. I just got to at least give it an effort. I love fishing the pond.

Tain't never seen no step by step instructions.

Basic principle is (for a Koenders') the propeller turns a cam which moves a big, thick rubber diaphragm up and down, pumping air on one stroke. Perhaps on the "dual action" windmills they manage to pump on both stokes.

Seems like I've seen kits somewhere for building your own, but they're still not cheap; they cost a good deal less than buying one already assembled though, if I remember correctly.

So I just now did a search again, and couldn't find the company I found a few weeks ago. I found a company that sells windmill kits, but the cheapest one is still over $800...

Walt,

I meet with the guy tomorrow. He has mixed tilapia now, but he is going to grow out my Blue Tilapia exclusively now. We are starting with 90,000 one inchers next week and expect to raise 20,000 pounds to be available for spring stocking.

Rainman:

What size do you expect them to be come Spring stocking time? I think I need to double this years order......

That's awesome, Rainman!

BTW Esshup, I spoke with the owner of Minnesota Muskie Farm a day or two ago and they're changing their name, either to Trophy Gamefish or Trophy Sportfish; I believe it's the former but I didn't write it down. Also, he said they had some sort of issue with their website but expect to have a new one up by sometime next week. The phone number I had for them is still good.

Walt:

Thanks. I'll keep tabs on them. Right now the finances won't support a musky order.

I looked into getting a windmill type aerator, and the prices were outragous.

Windmill aerators ain't cheap, you're right about that. I think you pretty much have to be a Fortune 500 exec to afford one.

I hear you too on the finances. I'm only ordering a handful of tiger muskie for the ponds I work with because most are two acres or less. You don't need (or want) more than two to four twelve-inchers per acre; I've gone higher than that in the past with northern pike, but those are numbers Nate recommends, and they make a lot of sense to me, especially for muskie. There was a testimonial on the hatchery's old site from a pond owner in OH or IN who had good success stocking 5 in each of two 1.5 acre ponds he had.

How would you get the fish to me in Kentucky???
Do those fish die off every year and have to be restocked?

Fish are commonly trucked and or if small shipped in bags with O2 by overnight currier.

The Rainman can ship you smaller orders and deliver larger ones via fish truck. He has routes all over the place, so I imagine you could put in an order now and have it scheduled for delivery in the Spring.

They ship quite well. I'm actually sending 2,000 fingerlings down to a fish exporter in Palm Beach, FL next month to be repacked and exported to a fish farm in Trinidad.

Yes, they die off around 50 degrees or so.

I go through Ky. quite often.

While scrolling through the "Active Posts - Past 24 Hours" that post of Rainman's showed up as the last active post in this thread.

Imagine my relief when clicked on it and realized that he was talking about Kentucky.

Thanks for pointing that out Jeff!

Anytime Rex, anytime.