Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site want to build a trout pond

Hi guys I stumbled on this site some how and I love it. A lot of my questions have been answered already. Here is my thing. I just purchased a 5 acre lot in Minnesota just west of Minneapolis. I want to build a pond about 2500-4000 sqft for a few reasons. Hold water to supply my apple trees and sweet corn with water, swim,landscape purposes and raise trout for fun. I have read that the temp needs to be kept in the 55-65 degree area, but is that for rainbows or brown trout? Is my pond big enough. How deep should I make it? I can get about 8-10 feet pretty easy. How many fish can I put in it? I will use a plastic linner, is this ok? Thanks in advance for any help I recieve.

The 55 to 65 degrees applies to browns, rainbows, and brooks although brooks would be happier if the water stayed in 50's. Browns are hardier tha then the other two but for best health and success staying between 55 and 65 is your best bet. I have brooks in an approximately 5000 sq. ft. pond right now that do O.K. in the 55 to 65 temp range too.

How do you plan on keeping the water cool enough in summer? Are you going to depend on a cool deeper layer when the pond stratifies? If so, you are gambling and will probably lose due to loss of oxygen in that deeper layer later in the summer. If you were to get by with a cool deep layer that has enough oxygen, feeding would be dicey as you wouldn't be able to see them to feed them. I use floating feed so I can monitor their feeding. You can get by, by not feeding but growth is slower, survival is less, and you can only hold so many pounds of fish vs. fish that are fed pellets.

I run 45 gpms of aerated well water at about 52 degrees 24/7 into my 88 by 59 foot pond in summer that has a steep drop off to 9 feet to keep warming to a minimum. I mix the water column with diffuser in the center on the bottom 24/7 except when air temps climb above 80 during the day. Some use a surface aerator but I prefer the diffuser as I believe it breaks down the wastes produced by my fish and prevents an anoxic layer on the bottom. As soon as temps go below 80 F. in the evening and/or the sun gets low in the sky I turn the compressor back on. This is to prevent too much warming and mixing when air temps are hot.

A liner would be O.K. and should keep weed problems down. However you may have filamentous algae problems if you have too many nutrients from the feed. A way to keep that at bay is not to have too many trout and don't overfeed.

I would feed the fish if you want more than a handful and you want fast healthy growth expecially with a liner.

I put in about 100 trout of about a pound to maybe two ponds every year. They grow to an average of five to 6 pounds plus in 11 months, but I feed them well. I have pics on my website which you will find above.

As far as size of your pond being big enough, the question is not if the pond is big enough but can you keep it cool enough with at least 6 ppms of oxygen? Trout have been, and are being raised in barrels, small circular tanks, raceways only three feet deep etc. My pond is just on the edge of being cool enough or too warm with the 45 gpms of well water I run into it. It could actually be smaller and I would be O.K. But if my pond was much smaller I believe I would have gill irritaion problems from suspended iron that comes out of the well at slightly over 2 ppms. It is reduces to less than 1 ppm in the trout pond as it settles with the inflow.

Any iron in you well water? If so, you need to determine how many PPM's. Much more than 2.5 mg/l and you could have problems especially if your pond is really small.

One more thing. Swimming in a small pond could cause stress to your fish which could make them go off feed and/or have disease problems. But then again you could get away with it.

Thanks alot cecil. I looked at your site the other day. Incredible. that is all I have to say. I love the big trout you have. I have a question on your aerated well water. What do you mean. do you actually run your well round the clock to keep it cool? Is this expensive? My plan was to take the bottom layer of water and water my trees and corn and lawn just to use up the water then add new every few days. Is this a good or bad idea. I figured I would need to water the lawn and my trees once a week anyways, why not take the water from the pond which has some forms of fertilizer from the fish waste and fertizlize and water the plats all at once.If I put in a few waterfalls would this add enough oxyget to the water or not. would I actually need a aerator? As for clarity. Is it better to have a clear pool or a little colored water? I would like the clearer the better because it would look nicer to me? Thanks alot I really appreciate your advise.

One more thing. If you don't mind me asking, how much are you selling the trout for?

Supertrout,

I run the 45 gpms 24/7 into the pond during the summer to keep the water cool. The inflow not only cools the pond, but dilutes and removes ammonia and nutrients by outflowing into another pond. The pond it runs into is a much bigger warmwater pond and the inflow actually creats an algae bloom for me that does not require adding any fertilizer. The seechi dish reading in the warmwater pond averages about 24 inches.

45 gpms is actually a lot of water, and you need a place for it to go after it leaves the pond. 45 gpms is 2700 gph, and 64,800 gallons a day. It's important your aquifer can handle the flow without drying up or lowering your neighbor's wells.

Your proposal to remove a little water and add a little now and then probably won't cut it to keep the water cool enough in hot weather. But being in Minnesota and if you are shaded maybe there is a chance.

I drop my approximately 52 degree well water fresh out of the well into a series of five gallon buckets filled with plastic media to break it up adding oxygen (well water has zilch for oxygen)This also blows off gases like nitrogen and sulfides and carbon dioxide if you have any.

Aeration of the pond itself of some type would be needed in my opinion. Aeration does several things; It adds oxygen (trout need lots), it helps break down wastes, and it breaks down toxic ammonia which is a metabolic waste of fish.

You could go with surface aeration, but I can't advise you on that. I prefer a diffuser that sits on the bottom in the deepest water with a compressor to mix the water column and prevent an anoxic layer on the bottom. This also helps break down wastes.

Jeff Markel, that also has a trout pond, should see your post and give you his two cents. He uses a surface aerator and does not feed his trout. He is located in Nebraska. It seems to work for him.

As far as expensive that is relative, but my 1 1/2 horse submerged 220 volt well pump uses about $100.00 worth of electricity a month running 24/7 from sometime in April to the end of September.

I sell my trout for roughly $10.00 per pound including shipping depending on if they have any defects. However the regulations for selling even frozen deseased trout are a nightmare. Every state is different, with some requiring permits, and most require a paper trail to show they did not come from public waters which is illegal in most states.

Dear Mr. Trout.

As far as what to add from what Cecil said that would be awful tough. The reason that i use a surface aerator is because i add non aerated well water to my pond during the hottest period of the summer. Typically July and the first two weeks August. This keeps my temps down arround 60 degrees in the lower 1/3 of my 30,000 square foot pond. The reason Cecil mentioned that i would respond is because i used a diffuser system in the deepest part of my pond last year and had a total Rainbow die off. What happened was i added non aerated well water to my pond to cool it and at the same time running the diffuser. The diffuser did not come close to providing the huge amount of oxygen that i needed. Once i restocked last fall and put in a Kasco 2 horse aerator it solved all my problems. Not one fish lost due to lack of oxygen. As i see it you have two options. Do exactly as Cecil has instructed you. Run aerated well water in your pond 24/7 and put in a bottom diffuser, or due as i have done. Run well water in and use a top water splasher. Otherwise you will be going to the trash with lots of dead fish. Cecil got me info and some supplies on how to aerate my well water and i will do this next year. If you choose not to aerate well water run your water as long as it takes to keep temps low. Run your surface aerator only at night to keep from heating water during the day. I have had zero problems doing this all summer and it has been 90+ for 6 weeks straight. During the Fall and winter i turn my bottom diffuser on at night to keep and open hole in the ice and also helps to break down the nutrients. As far as expense in electricity the 2 horse surface aereator costs me $34.56/ month. The well running in the summer will run me about $26.00 this is a 3/4 horse submersible. The bottom diffuser will cost $17.75/month. Obviously most of the year all i have on is the diffuser other than about 3 months of the year when i run the splasher and well. Not that expensive. My cost is 6 cents per kw/hour. Here is how you figure the cost. Take your volts x amps=watts. watts x 1000 =Kilowatts/kilowatts x running hours = kilowatt hours x your local rate. Other than that listen to guys on the forum and esp. Cecil as he is incredibly knowledgeable on the subject.

Best Regards-Jeff Markel

Thanks for the kind words but I am still learning.