Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Former Manure Pit to Fish Pond

I was a lifelong dairy farmer (in Ky) till April last year when I had cervical surgery and decided to (needed to) quit dairy. I have a large earthen manure pit which we pumped 95% of the waste out the same month we sold the cows. Nothing except rain water has flowed into it since and it is nearly full. When full it is about 9 feet deep or deeper, and it has a capacity of around 250,000 gallons. I tested the water at the edge today, and the PH is between 6.5 and 7 now. I am wondering if this summer I could stock it with a few sterile carp to help clean it up a bit over another year or so. The water is dark still, but there is no manure in it other than what little was left in it, and it should be pretty much broken down by now. Do you think it will be ready for carp this summer? Any advice would be welcomed. If I can get it in proper shape, I'd like to raise catfish, or if best, another species along with cats. Guidance appreciated!

Welcome to the forum.

Unless you have a problem with underwater weeds growing in the pond (not algae) there is no reason for stocking the Triploid Grass Carp.

If it's algae that is the problem, then check to see if stocking Tilapia is legal in your state. They do wonders for algae control if stocked in the correct numbers.

To raise catfish in there, or other species along with them, you will have to treat it like a feed lot and feed them a good quality fish food.

I would look into aeration for it too.

One acre covered by 1' of water is 325,851 gallons. You have roughly 3/4 of an acre foot of water which is (244,385 gallons).

I have a little experience with manure pit turned fish pond. As it ages, it will tend to be very productive usually green year round due to low visibility with planktonic algae. Nutrients from residual manure will continually recycle in the pit to keep some specie/s of planktonic algae always I some sort of bloom = green. Expect large swings or shifts in dissolved oxygen. Strong aeration will minimize but maybe not eliminate occasional fish kills. The one pit I know of is only able to grow fathead minnows(FHM) after it was finally aerated because FHM have a fairly high tolerance to low DO. Other species usually die due to periodic events of low oxygen due to high respiration of blooming algae which in warmest water and cloudy weather, DO sags the most at night.

Another abandoned manure pit was drained and the bottom layer removed, dredged, bulldozed down to original dirt/clay. This pit has much better overall water quality.

Do you have a size (lengthXwidth) of this pit? IF it is 80'X80' steep sides with ave depth 5 ft this is 0.73 acft of water = 237,800 gallons.

I will take a LxW measurement asap. Thanks for the info. I was hoping for better news regarding raising edible fish.

Just another thought on a possible way to improve the water...

If you have access to a trash pump, use it to "stir up" the water as much as you can by placing the discharge of the pump on the bottom of the pond. That will get a lot of the old manure sediments that remain suspended. Once it's stirred up, drain the pond with the pump. The next time it fills, the water quality should be much better.

I am not a pro....just my 1 cent

Good luck and don't give up!!!!!!!

Edit: The dark color of the water could be a high tannin content or other toxin. I strongly recommend you take a bucket of the water and toss a couple minnows in it to see if they survive before you stock anything into the pond.

The other homemade toxicity test is to add some fish to the inside liner of a minnow bucket or similar live box placed in the pond for several days to a week. You could use a deep laundry basket to hold a few bluegills for a week or two in the pond. If the fish remain alive the pond is adequate for stocking. Note this does not guarantee no fish kills due to low oxygen summer fish kills. If fish die I would drain it and have the bottom sediments scraped and removed down to original dirt. .

I've known of tilapia being used to clean up manure pits.

Cody Note: Worthy of a try.