Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Anatomy of an oxygen crash, or "Am I Willie Mays, or Jose Canseco?"

OK, you talked me into it. I'll try it. Now I need to acquire a nice source for some alum. My source that I used four years ago was really too expensive from what I've read. Especially since I had to order a large quantity. In this case I'm thinking of getting just 2-300 pounds. I'll run the jar test and see how many mg/ml alum it takes to floc the suspended residue without creating a pH spiral. I really think that if I get some of the alum mixed into the bottom sediment that I'll supress some of that bluegreen algae and minimize future algae blooms. Virtually every one of my fish are pellet trained, so an algae bloom means less to me than some other people for productivity.

Dr. Bruce, If this does not work, don't blame me for "talking" you into it.

What's the worst that can happen?


An oxygen sag? :p

Bruce the best way to reduce both the nutrients and the dead weed decomp is to let it grow and then remove it before it dies.

That's what Cecil is doing, right?

Yep sure is.

That guy's really shmart.

Your right and I hear he grows some big fish !!

Yep I'm shmart. Whatever that is.

Bruce,

I got Alum pretty cheap from a Chemical supply in one of the nearest big cities. If I remember right it was only about $11.00 a 50 lb. bag but I could be wrong. (Somewhere in that price range) Sure was much, much, less than what the aquaculture supply catalogs were selling it for. And of course no shipping as the wife picked it up for me.

I just did an Internet search to find the chemical company. It's used a lot by sewage treatment plants so you can always ask them where to get it if you Internet search does not pan out.

I made a slurry with it in large garbage cans spaced evenly around the .69 acre pond. Then using a gallon plastic pitcher cast it over the surface. I filled the garbage containers with sump pump, I couldn't see why you couldn't spread it with a sump pump also. Didn't bother the fish and it never dropped my Ph even though I added quite a bit.

A picture showing that nasty bottom algae that occurs during oxygen sag events. Does this look like bluegreen algae?



And here's Shorty collecting chunks of cattail roots so we can plant on the islands.



And here's Shorty again, planting the root pieces to try to tie up some of the nutrients in the pond so we can avoid future oxygen disasters.

Bruce this is not Blue-Green Algae, which I assume you meant Cyanobacteria kind?

It really looks like tiny dots suspended in water, until it froth to the surface with glow in the dark green and whiteish hue. A bit like if paint was floating on the water...
Not the blue green kind, just plain old algae about to rise to surface to complete its cycle of reproduction.

As of today, 80 public lakes are closed by authorities here in Quebec due to BGA.

On another note, if you are pushing the limit of fish production in your pond, have you thought of using beneficial bacteria to eat the excess nutrients from fish digestion? Of course, I would only recommend it with bottom aeration as bacteria will migrate to a substrate to do their job, and DO levels are also important for them. Those friendly bacteria will love the roots under the islands. In fact you can expect about 70-80% of nutrient uptake to be done with the bacteria living in the matrix and root systems of your island. Plants will uptake the rest when they are growing. When growth stops and plant concentrate their effort to seed maturing, then your nutrient uptake will be mostly done with bacteria. That is why we now choose plants that are known for their massive root system, cattails should be good for that as long as the island is large enough to hold future growth... That could be another post almost by itself!

Interesting! Gotta to go to the East Coast tomorrow, so I will read the followup in two weeks from now! Take care!

I've seen a few small chunks like that floating around but fortunately they are few and far between. Mine looks like it has broken free of the bottom and has some black muck in it.

That's it I give up. Between reading this thread, the archived threads on aeration and now the recent debate in the Sweetwater aeration thread I have come to accept the fact that all of my fish are gonna die.

I ask you, if someone like Bruce can't keep fish alive what chance does a mild mannered bean counter's fish have?

I'm going out to the pond to read my fish their last rites. It's the least I can do.

Jeff if you try to tell those RES they are going to die they will try to take you out on the spot.

Don't worry, JHAP. Most people aren't as dumb as I am to try to get 2,000 lbs/acre. :rolleyes:

I ask for all of my difficulties.

Last night I checked the pond and it looked beautiful. Surface DO was 6.5 ppm and deep DO was 3.8.

Everybody's happy.

Bill Cody wrote:
I was curious about the use of an alumimun sulfate slurry after a weed treament to tie up some of the nutrient load (phosphates) of the pond. It could be more of a semi-permenant solution to the weed problems at our pond. Right now we do a weed treatment and there is usually another weed type present that really thrives on the newly released nutrients. It's a vicious cycle.

Bruce, I think I can hook you up with some cheap Alum out of KC. Let me know if you are interested.

That's funny. I just now ordered some out of Omaha that I'm going to pick up on Wednesday. Do you need any?