Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Trout pond aeration help

Hi everyone one, first post but have been lurking for a few months.

I have added on to my existing pond making it roughly a 250'X150' kidney shaped pond, with an average depth of 12 deepest being 18' for about 1/3 of the pond.

My goal is to maintain a healthy population of rainbow trout year round, strictly for sport fishing for family and friends as well as use the pond for swimming and other water enjoyment.

My main concern is our winters,they can be prety nasty for long stretches? I will be installing an aeration system, preferably bottom diffusers, would I be able to keep an area ice free if I raise them within say 4 ft of surface? Is this my only concern?

The original pond was 100'x60' with avg depth of 8' deepest 11', and has 80 rainbows in it since May. My bottom temps with nightime running of diffuser has never gone above 65, while surface hits 78-80 by evening, rainbows are at 9" from orig 5".

Based on this information do I need to worry about summer water temps? If so what would the most effective aeration type be?

Oh yeah my diffuser is right on bottom or 6" off, in 11' of water in the original pond. Hope I have given enough info, thanks everyone, this is a great site!

Welcome to the forum Chris!

Rainbow trout like water temps below 68 degrees and DO levels over 10 ppm. If you don't have a DO meter, working with a trout pond, I would recommend you get one...

Anything much above 72 degrees and not near full saturation of DO will be fatal to rainbow trout. If it is a gradual rise in temperature, rainbows can tolerate temps near or slightly over 80 degrees for short periods of time, but that requires DO levels that are at full saturation. So I would be concerned with temps pushing 80 degrees. If your bottom is staying near 65 degrees, you are in much better shape, however the water temp is not the only factor, the DO level is huge as well. I lose my rainbows most years not because of the temp but because the DO level gets too low... Also, different strains of rainbow trout have different maximum tolerances. I cannot recall which strains are more tolerant, but it should be easily found by an on-line search.

A couple methods which may work for you as it has worked for other trout pond owners on the forum and perhaps they will share their first hand experience with you. Set your bottom diffuser to a hemostat and set that at about 65 degrees. You can also consider a surface fountain that is also set on a hemostat. These should increase the DO levels but help maintain lower pond temps. For winter aeration, 3 to 4 feet depth with a powerful enough aeration system should keep a section of ice open but not super cool your pond. I am no expert in this so hopefully others will chime in and assist you...

Chris S, welcome to the forum, nice to see more trout raisers.
If your bottom temps stay in the 60's you should be ok, as CJ said dissolved oxygen is the important thing. You didn't mention if the pond is spring fed or surface water.
At 18 ft your pond is in good shape for the winter, but it would be a good idea to keep your diffuser shallow in the winter to keep an area open to improve DO.
My pond is an acre but only 8ft deep, but I have water piped in from a stream which I have increased from 40GPM to 95GPM which keeps the DO high, and temps below 5ft at 67 or below.
In the summer I also have the aerator set on a thermostat so when the air temp gets below 60 the aerator runs to help cool the pond.
The killer for me is winter, as my water source freezes up and do to leakage my pond dropped and was not able to supply enough DO to the trout, although the Pumpkinseeds and shiners survive.
With your pond depth and if your water level is stable the trout should winter well especially if you aerate shallow.

PS. I see CJ has a disclaimer on his posts, but you would be wise to follow his advise.

Thanks guys for the replies, much appreciated.

Don't keep us in the dark Chris... Keep us updated on your progress so all the forum members can learn from your experiences!

Yes and please post pictures.

Holy smokes Chris another Manitoban! This is a phenominal site and filled with info, take some time to poke around through the archives. Have you ever been to the Garson hatchery/sportfishing park? If it's trout you're looking into that'd be the place to start.

Wow what are the odds of that?

That is exactly whereI got mine from, great guy and the fish looked great and are growing well.

I'm sorry i caught this thread kind of late but I allow my trout pond to freeze over every winter without any problems. However if you get a lot of snow I would run an diffuser to keep some water open. I have run a diffuser in deep water in a trout pond with no problems. The trout don't seem to be bothered by it compared to warm water fish.

hey i need help. i just had the same thing happen. i have a pond at a property out in warren MB and we have dug down to 12' and this week the ice and water dropped unexspectedly. are there still living fish? can i get the water back in somehow, if i flood the pond will it seep under the ice of just freeze on top and winter kill them? i have 6 diffusers runing ang with an airator on the bottom in the deepest part.

Hey there troutangler ~ what happened? can you give us more detail? Is all the water gone? I would think if you flood the pond it would help melt the ice and fill the pond back up...

Yeah I'm a little confused by the "I had the same thing happen to me" comment.