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I'm a complete noob to managing ponds and am struggling to determine the best way to aerate our HOA's retention pond system. Map of ponds attached, but the pond forms a rather thin "U".

The East and West arms are connected by a culvert on the South end. Additionally, the entire south end is very shallow (1-3' max). We'd like to dredge to get to 4-6' prior to adding aeration. The rest of the pond is probably 3-6' deep other than corners on the north end.

Let me know if any additional info is needed. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

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What are the goals for the ponds?

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Here is what I would look at doing:
-get a depth profile of your ponds
-electrical availability, help determine type of system you can run
-as stated by Bocomo, Goals (clarity, aesthetically appealing, fishing)
-distances of runs to diffusers from will determine what type of system or (s) that you may need to use (just from looking at it probably 2 systems and I would want compressors near the middle of the ponds)
-do you mean to DIY or turn key system

Bill Cody and rest of the guys will add to this list and give you more suggestions. This is a main start


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Thanks guys.

Goals: Clarity and lack of surface algae (I don't mind fish being in pond, but fishing is not technically allowed). One other goal, an aeration system with as little maintenance as possible.

Our chemical applicator gave us the following depth guide (let me know if it needs to be more detailed):
The west pond had a depth of 3 to 3.5 feet along the south road portion, with the main part of the west pond ranging from 3.5 to 4.5 feet. The East pond has a depth of 1.5 - 2 feet in the front portion near the road, with a depth of 2.5 feet near the working fountain to 3.5 feet along the middle of the East pond. When we started to come around the corner of the East pond to the back area, the depth dropped down to 2-2.5 feet around where the tree hangs over the pond.

Electrical is available at the south end of the ponds as well as at the center. Currently, no electrical on the north end.

Turnkey probably makes most sense, but also curious about DIY.

Last edited by SwedishPimple; 10/13/15 02:44 PM. Reason: Added Goal
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Your pond is not much more than a dammed up shallow ditch due to the very shallow nature of the basin. I have never seen such shallow ponds in an expensive house subdivision. The water resource barely qualifies as a glorified wetland. I have seen swamps deeper than those. It is way too shallow to be successfully managed as a real pond without almost continual maintenance. The developer should have been sued for fraud by all those who bought houses bordering that pond. Those ponds will be constant headaches to manage for goals of low algae/weed conditions. The best aeration for "ponds" of that type are fountains. Fountains are high maintenance and expensive to operate. Ponds that shallow rarely thermally stratify to need bottom aeration.

The chemical applicator is probably getting rich keeping algae out of those ponds. I expect them to eventually over time to become basically 'chemical dumps' due to all the chemicals needed to keep them 'weed free'. The ecosystem of those ponds has to process all the chemical inputs and the biological activity will likely be chemically overwhelmed.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 10/13/15 08:49 PM.

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I'm sorry to say it, but I agree with Bill's assessment. Sunlight can get to the whole bottom of the BOW, and that means algae and plants can grow everywhere. In a BOW that shallow, oxygen depletion is not an issue during the day. A bottom aeration system isn't that efficient in those water depths - I'd look into agitators or fountains to help put some water movement into the pond.

Aeration isn't the magic bullet you are looking for. If you can reduce the majority of nutrients in the pond, that will help a lot. Aluminum sulfate treatment, etc. I don't know if Tilapia are legal to stock in Michigan, but if they are, I would add 50 pounds per surface acre as soon as the water temperature got into the mid 60's in the Spring.

If the water was 6'-8' deep, then we're talking a whole new ballgame.


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Not what I wanted to hear, but appreciate the honesty. I'm new to the subdivision and apparently the developer went belly up in the mid to late 90s before the HOA could take legal action.

The entire pond may be too shallow, but the only areas that really suffer from surface algae (after chemical treatment) is the south end. We plan on dredging the south end to be more consistent with the rest of the pond.

Some comments/questions for Bill/esshup and others:
- We've been told by several pond vendors that fountains are not the answer because they will get clogged (and burn out) due to the shallow nature of the ponds and excess algae.

-What type of fountain/agitator would you recommend if aeration isn't a viable option?

- Specifically, two vendors recommended the Airmax shallow water system. This product still won't help?

- What would the aluminum sulfate and/or tilapia do to help the pond? Is it just to control algae growth?

- Based on only a quick google search, it seems tilapia is legal to stock in Michigan. Where is best place to purchase? Could I eliminate chemical treatments with tilapia alone?

- What are you opinions on barley straw being used to limit algae growth?

- Should I be doing water tests on the pond to ensure it isn't a chemical cesspool? If so, what type of tests do you recommend?

Thanks again for all the advice -- great forum!

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Welcome to the forum from another Michigan pond boss member. Tilapia are legal in michigan. I found a local hydroponics guy who was advertising to sell them on craigslist. He turned out to be close to me and was nice enough to deliver them.. He has checked on them over the course of the summer and would even be interested in finding a way to net them out for me and overwinter them in his indoor tanks and then loan them back to me for algae control next spring. It could be a good business, like the people who truck bee hives around to help those who need seasonal bee work.

Tilapia eat algae mostly. They do help with some natural aeration action by stirring up the debris on the bottom as they sort through it.

I don't know where in Michigan you are, but there is always the option of ordering fingerlings on Ebay. The problem with small tilapia is that big tilapia are expensive to ship and to keep alive, small tilapia ship fine, but then don't eat enough unless you buy scads of them. You need bigger tilapia to eat enough algae in the short season that they are alive in the summer. They die in the fall.

My bigger tilapia had young and now I have thousands of young tilapia all wishing there was some algae left in the pond to eat.... They will all go belly up very soon here.

I have to figure that some 'stirring' of the water whether it be with bottom aeration, surface aeration, or even just taking a trash pump with 3" output hose and just blast the bottom to stir everything up every week would help. taking a row boat with an outboard and stirring things up with propwash would help too.

If you could get the HOA to kick in some funds you either fill it in and save money and headaches for evermore, or you kick in funds, pump it down, dredge it to a depth where it could be more sustainable, then aerate.

I'm not an expert but the warm water, shallow water, no new fresh water coming in and perhaps years of sediment build up (did you say how old the ponds are) are a challenge.

Barley straw is a limited helper. Even if tilapia took out all the algae you may have other aquatic weeds to keep up with.

Pond dye could be considered if homeowners are Ok with a blue or black water color.

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Thanks, Canyon. I grew up in West Mich, but now am in Ann Arbor. Where is your tilapia supplier located? Would be good to chat with him. I'm a nature lover and not a huge fan of stocking fish only to have them die several months later. After doing some reading through this forum, it sounds like I want to avoid fingerlings for the reasons you mention.

I'm actually a member of the HOA Board and filling in the ponds is not an option according to DEQ, township, etc.

As mentioned, we do plan on dredging south end to 4-6'. That alone is estimated to cost $7-10k. How deep does it need to be for aeration to work?

The ponds are ~20 years old. One thing to note, the ponds don't seem to freeze completely unless temps are very frigid. Our chemical vendor hypothesized that we have some low flow springs underneath. Not enough to keep water level up, so we have a well pump running 24/7. Muskrats have created a leak somewhere in the system. According to long time residents, this land was swampland prior to a subdivision.

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Originally Posted By: SwedishPimple
Thanks, Canyon. I grew up in West Mich, but now am in Ann Arbor. Where is your tilapia supplier located? Would be good to chat with him. I'm a nature lover and not a huge fan of stocking fish only to have them die several months later. After doing some reading through this forum, it sounds like I want to avoid fingerlings for the reasons you mention.

I'm actually a member of the HOA Board and filling in the ponds is not an option according to DEQ, township, etc.

As mentioned, we do plan on dredging south end to 4-6'. That alone is estimated to cost $7-10k. How deep does it need to be for aeration to work?

The ponds are ~20 years old. One thing to note, the ponds don't seem to freeze completely unless temps are very frigid. Our chemical vendor hypothesized that we have some low flow springs underneath. Not enough to keep water level up, so we have a well pump running 24/7. Muskrats have created a leak somewhere in the system. According to long time residents, this land was swampland prior to a subdivision.



What is your definition of aeration working? From what I'm told, aeration alone won't clean up filamentous algae.

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Bocomo, I would define "working" as creating a healthier pond. That stated, I don't know what metrics are used to judge a healthy pond. I know I have an algae issue on the south end, but in the middle, things look pretty good. Is it healthy...no idea. Curious to get everyone's thoughts on pond testing as well. Our chemical applicator will charge $200 to do it, but I'm hoping that is something DIY if it's helpful.

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Your goal is to increase water clarity and decrease filamentous algal growth. I assume that your clarity is limited by algal bloom most of the time and not by suspended clay but this is easily verified.

You have 20 years of nutrient loading in very shallow water. Dredging will reset the clock on that.

Aluminum sulfate treatment will reduce soluble phosphorous (needed for algae/plant growth) temporarily. You could also look into adding pond dye to block photosynthesis though some people don't like the Tid-e-bowl color. Tilapia will eat algae, but they also die off en masse when the water cools and you won't have largemouth bass in there to clean them up.

Water testing can be done on the cheap through Texas A&M by mail.

http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/files/waterweb1.pdf

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Thanks, Bocomo. Last year the chemical applicator believed we killed off too much "good" algae on pond bottom, which led to turbidity due to suspended clay.

We do add pond dye and I personally don't like the blue lagoon look. Working with applicator to apply a black/blue dye to look more realistic.

Will check out Texas A&M -- I wonder if Michigan State offers something similar.

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Wait for someone more important than me to sign off. I'm not a professional!

I would add that I'm told alum, when properly applied, will also reduce turbidity from suspended clay.

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Ha, no worries. I'm not planning on doing anything this Fall except maybe the dredging. Should give me five months to come up with a good plan for 2016 and beyond.

Who applies aluminum sulfate or is it a DIY product? It is not listed as a product on my chemical applicator's website.

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Send a PM to Rainman on the forums. He spreads lime/alum for a living.

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With that shallow of a pond, the dye will probably not work. I'm only saying that because to get the dye to work, it has to reduce sunlight penetration in the water. Get it dark enough to work in shallow water, and the aesthetics might not be what the HOA is willing to live with. You want to get the dye dense enough to limit sunlight getting to the pond bottom.

The good thing about Tilapia is that they die off in the winter. Scavengers will eat the dead fish that they can reach, removing them from the BOW. To grow, the Tilapia eat algae, which uses nutrients in the pond to grow. With the scavengers removing the Tilapia every fall, they are removing nutrients from your pond.

I have a HOA here in Indiana that has a large pond that they have problems with in regards to weeds and algae. It is 8' deep in the deepest part of the pond. If the water is clear, algae will grow on the bottom of the pond in over 6' of water.

They want fish in the pond, and have experienced both summer and winterkills. They are using a Vertex bottom diffusion aeration system in half of the pond now, and will be adding another system to the other half of the pond next year. The year after that, they will be adding 1 hp surface agitators (not fountains) to help aerate the shallowest part of their pond. The surface agitators that I've seen that have the least amount of problems with regards to clogging are the Volcano II aerators made by AquaMaster. They have stainless steel parts, and are more durable than agitators with plastic parts.

http://www.aquamasterfountains.com/volcano-ii-hydromax-series/volcano-ii

As a side note, they experienced a summer kill this year in their pond. Many, many 6" crappie were observed dead, along with other fish species - nothing dead was less than about 5" in length. The summer kill happened in the half of the pond that did not have the aeration system in it. So, that alone proved to them that the aeration system is working and doing what they wanted it to do. Enough fish died that it stunk pretty bad when you were down wind of the pond.


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