Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Weekly Observations

Anyone drawn any profound conclusions from this chart? I have not, but it is cool. I would like to be fishing there with a cooler full of live eight inch river shiners and a medium heavy slip bobber set. I believe Darlene and her sisters are loading up for winter now.

You ought to know that Dwight doesn't dirty up his Corona coolers with anything that is slimy, isn't prepackaged or doesn't come in convenient 24 to a case libations.

Or he drills holes in them to make a livewell. Actually in the old days, I have seen his cooler quite sloughish with empty beer cans, mixed with NP for the cutting board, and some ice leavings.

2 questions one comment.

1. Can we see a pic of the ice breaker barge in plow mode ?

2. Temps down at all depths , DOs up at all depths all while there is less plankton producing O2. Where is the extra O2 coming from or is the water just holding that much extra O2 ? If yes to the water holding that much extra O2 then is the BOD down that much ?

Comment - this continues to be a great study in how ponds work. What is shown on the chart and understanding why the factors change and how they are related is a great learning event.

I know Ewest knows this, as do most regulars. However, just a reminder to new readers that dissolved oxygen saturation changes with water temperature. Colder water has a higher level of dissolved oxygen saturation. Speaking very generaly, when Dwight's water is about 75 F, oxygen saturation is about 8.5 parts per million. At 45 F, saturation is about 12 ppm.

This D.O. thing is something I need to understand better. Will look at the archives this winter.

1)I will take a photo or two when and if the Barge is in breaker mode. It all depends on how the ice forms.

2)There are multiple casual factors working the D.O. this time of the year.

The water is holding a lot more O2 because of the temperature decrease.

The BOD has and continues to ease. Most of the summer submergent plant life has already decomposed and disappeared.

The remaining submergent plant life does produce O2 as photosynthesis continues at a lower pace than the warm water period.

The higher level pond dwellers are slowing their pace because of the cold water thus reducing the amount waste products they produce.

We have continued having rain events which tend to increase the O2 levels.

At least that is the way I see it.

Dwight you are getting very good at this project including your analysis. I hope you will keep it up so we have a full years data.

I have all of the data from December 2008 to the present. I plan to continue collecting this data for another year. If one year is good, 2 must be better, right?

Yes, especially with as squirrely is this year's weather has been... Very good stuff Dwight!

The temperature remains the same top to bottom though 1 degree cooler than last week. Clarity increased to over 9 feet. D.O. remains saturated top to bottom.

It is good to go into the winter months with oxygen at saturation levels.

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Do high D.O. levels equal increased growth rates?

Low DO's stress fish and if to low become fatal. Fish under stress do not grow as well as those in optimum surroundings. The question becomes what is the optimum DO range for a fish species. Also keep in mind that DOs effect water quality as well as fish respiration. With better water quality there are less water related non-DO stressors (water quality stressors other than low DO such as high N or ammonia) present and thus the better the conditions for good growth.

In other words:

All things being equal, fish should grow faster in a high D.O. environment versus a low D.O. environment.

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We have had some warmer weather, a little more rain, and a lot of wind(yesterday).

I wonder if all those critters reduced the visibility?

I suppose they could reduce it due to shear numbers.

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The drop in clarity is apparently caused (as ewest surmised) by the hatch/bloom of some tiny little critters Swimmin in the Light. This hatch/bloom has expanded since the original photos. I hope to have more information on these critters after the analysis is returned from (super secret entity).

Interesting stuff ! Why would the clarity and DO both be down in cooler water unless something is using up the O2 and giving off CO2 and/or something that was giving off O2 has decreased?

zooplankters, zooplankters

My thoughts exactly - 150 Billion of them.

It appears that the zooplankter population continues to expand as the clarity dropped significantly this week. D.O. has remained stable and water temperatures have increased a couple degrees top to bottom. We have had above average air temperatures this past week that have warmed the water and possibly caused expanded zooplankton production.

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I now have nearly a years worth of data and can report that the following averages. I didn’t expect that the average D.O. and water temperature would be almost identical top to bottom.

Yearly Averages:

Clarity: 79.8
Surface D.O. 10.8
Mid Level D.O. 10.7
Bottom D.O. 10.6
Surface Temp 53.4
Mid Level Temp 53.8
Bottom Temp 53.7

After exhaustive study of Bremer Pond readings, and researching long range weather forecasts, I have determined that he will have total ice coverage, (except for circulated area) at 0300 on December 2, 2009. Do you think I can persuade him to stay up that late to experience this occurence?

We are getting close to the coldest water being on the surface and the warmest on the bottom. Ice will then be inevitable.

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Dwight - are your Clarity measurements in inches - centimeters? Obviously they are not in feet since you have some readings in the low 100's.