Pond Boss Magazine
https://www.pondboss.com/images/userfiles/image/20130301193901_6_150by50orangewhyshouldsubscribejpeg.jpg
Advertisment
Newest Members
Shotgun01, Dan H, Stipker, LunkerHunt23, Jeanjules
18,451 Registered Users
Forum Statistics
Forums36
Topics40,902
Posts557,119
Members18,452
Most Online3,612
Jan 10th, 2023
Top Posters
esshup 28,420
ewest 21,475
Cecil Baird1 20,043
Bill Cody 15,112
Who's Online Now
5 members (Fishingadventure, RogersTailgate, jpsdad, anthropic, Brev), 714 guests, and 197 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
M
OP Offline
M
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
Hi. I started to aereate a quarry, it is deep: 30 feets. So far teh aereation system is working great. Before sstarting it, I dove in the quarry: there was very clear stratification: the first 10 feets were somehow "milky", the there was like 15 feets of somehow clear water (6 feets of clarity), and then in the bottom there was this sulphur smellis brown water.
After some days of aereation, the hole water now has a light brown color, there is no stratification in the water. I dove again and in the bottom... it is clompletly dark (I assume the light is filtered and no light is gettim to the bottom now).
Im somehow worried... is this normal and part of the process? The black muck of the buttom is being moved all over teh water? Will this improve?

Thanks for the help and comments

Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 6,086
Likes: 93
S
Offline
S
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 6,086
Likes: 93
Normal aeration startup is done small amounts at a time so change is gradual. Then move to full time pump run.

If there are nutrients in the bottom water mixing them up will likely get an algae bloom. Good for fish growth and for food chain. Not good if you want clear water.

What were your expectations from aeration?


John

I subscribe to Pond Boss Magazine
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 15,112
Likes: 478
B
Moderator
Ambassador
Field Correspondent
Lunker
Offline
Moderator
Ambassador
Field Correspondent
Lunker
B
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 15,112
Likes: 478
If you have black bottom muck particles being moved off the bottom, your diffuser is too low into the sediments. Put it on a flat plate, shield or separator so it lies on top of the sediments or place it on a stand so the bubbles are out of the bottom muck.


aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine -
America's Journal of Pond Management
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 6,086
Likes: 93
S
Offline
S
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 6,086
Likes: 93
Give it a week and see if things start to stabilize and improve. If a lot of stale water is mixed up it will take a week or two for nature to adjust to the new water situation.

Not an expert. Just what I would do. Hopefully you start to get an algae bloom and the water gets the food chain process going.


John

I subscribe to Pond Boss Magazine
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
M
OP Offline
M
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
Would be a good idea to put a strong amount of benefical bacteria now? I mean: if a lot of nutrients are being now releases, the bacteria would "eat" this new nutrents in the water. I kind of want to avid the algae bloom.
My objective with aereation here is to have clear water (I know that aereation is not the only mean to achieve this). I have started with aereation but m plan already included the use of benefical bacteria aditions. I was planning to do it 2 or 3 weeks after aereation was working .
Thnaks for your comments

Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,183
Likes: 44
Offline
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,183
Likes: 44
Martin,

Bill is right.

Do you have any water inflow/outflow?

Are there any fish in there?

Remember, nutrient is only removed by outflow or removing biomass (fish/vegetation).


Brian

The one thing is the one thing
A dry fly catches no fish
Try not to be THAT 10%
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 1,358
Likes: 4
Offline
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 1,358
Likes: 4
Can you take some pictures? I really want to see this place!

Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
M
OP Offline
M
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
There are little fishes , very few acuatic plants. I want to change this, I want some more fishes, and of course some good acuatic plants.

So you dont reccomend useing benefical bacteria for now?

Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,183
Likes: 44
Offline
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,183
Likes: 44
Martin,

Bill would be the right guy to tell you if Bacteria is right or not.

I believe you will see a good natural algae bloom with the nutrients being brought up. I could be wrong. How is your water temps by the way.

How are the fish doing with the bottom muck being brought up?

Also, pictures would help.


Brian

The one thing is the one thing
A dry fly catches no fish
Try not to be THAT 10%
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 15,112
Likes: 478
B
Moderator
Ambassador
Field Correspondent
Lunker
Offline
Moderator
Ambassador
Field Correspondent
Lunker
B
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 15,112
Likes: 478
Bacteria additions will not hurt the pond ecology and may help digest excess suspended particulates. The degree of benefit is debatable. Add some to test benefits. Not all bacteria products are the same. Finding the best one is a challenge.


aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine -
America's Journal of Pond Management
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
M
OP Offline
M
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
An Update: the mess I started talking about in the original post actually is like this: water is not brown, the brown coor is actually a visual efect. I took a water sample in a white bucket: the water has a green color.

So I guess I do have an algae bloom you were talking about. I have been monitoring all I can (and all my budget lets me). Here is some new/uodated data:

I have not started the aereation in the hole quarry, just is a section of it with a good amount of aereation. At the beginning the bubbles (diffuser installed at 33 feets deep)/and water comeing from the bottom had a really strong sulphur smell. There was a really well defined separations of waters in the middle of the water column.

Now after some weeks of aereation, I have this algae bloom. But also I have noticed a huge increase in zooplancton. The sulphur smell has desapeared, at all. There is no sulphur smell comeing out, and also in the bottom (I dove in the quarry and in the past you could sense this smeel even being underwater close the bottom).

1 week ago I added a product: benefical bacteria. It is aimed to consume the nutrients the algae needs, so I guess I should see improvements of this algae bloom soon?

My objetive is to have clear water, right now it look like Im going in the oposite direction since before starting the aereation, there was a zone of clear water (from surface to 20 feets deep, deeper than that there was a really dark brown area of sulphur smell zone).

Im in the right path? what else would you recomend me
Thanks inadvance for your sugestions

Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 6,086
Likes: 93
S
Offline
S
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 6,086
Likes: 93
It sounds like to me you have unlocked nutrients in the lower water and nature is taking its course by finding something that is taking advantage of that new dispersed nutrient supply.

I have read a little on this forum about products that lock up phosphorus but really know nothing about them. It would be my non-expert opinion that you will need a way to either remove, use up in a beneficial fashion or lock up the nutrients you have released into the water column to have clear water. But that is just a guess. Generally clear water means nutrient poor water. Water with nothing in it to grow anything.

Now I'll let someone else that actually knows something take a stab at it.

Last edited by snrub; 08/21/16 05:09 PM.

John

I subscribe to Pond Boss Magazine
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 6,086
Likes: 93
S
Offline
S
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 6,086
Likes: 93
If you are looking into creating a diving spot this is a local open pit mine that served the purpose for many years.

Ornogo open pit mine diving Skip down to where it talks about Oronogo Circle Mine (Lead and Zinc mostly)

When I first became acquainted with it in the late 60's it was exceptionally clear. Over the years whatever minerals or poor water conditions that kept it clear changed and the last time I dove it ten or so years ago it maybe had ten foot visibility due to the algae bloom. And it was starting to support a modest fish population. When I first dove it there were no fish even though people had tried to stock it. Nature has a way of rectifying water quality over time.

Unfortunately one or our government agencies with unlimited appetite to spend taxpayer money did this to it, so it is no more.

Divers say goodbye

We also had what we as kids called alkaline pits. I have no idea if the description was chemically right or not. The strip pits were old coal strip mining pits filled with water that might be up to 30 feet deep but most were only 10 or 15 or less. Something about the minerals in the water made them stay crystal clear. Might not have been the most healthy thing to swim in but they were a favorite late night place to skinny dip if we could talk some girls into into it or later taking my kids snorkeling when they were young. By the time my kids were old enough to swim in them nature had changed them to a degree where some type of weeds would barely grow around the edges and some moss in the bottoms (that smelled nasty if you moved the bottom around) and you might find mosquito larvae in some moss around the edges and a few turtles occasionally visiting them. Still no fish and pretty clear (maybe 6 meter vis). But by the time my kids were adults those pits are weed filled with green biomass and algae. So over the length of my lifetime natures process transformed them from lifeless (and very clear) BOW's to life filled fishing holes. Now many have been filled in with taxpayer money and made into semi-worthless pasture although over time nature will take care of that too and they will once again become productive.

Point is, if you get clear water, it likely will be a life long process of keeping it that way. Nature will figure out a way of altering it to its own uses and grow something in it without your attention to force it to do otherwise.

Last edited by snrub; 08/21/16 05:59 PM.

John

I subscribe to Pond Boss Magazine
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 6,080
Likes: 1
Offline
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 6,080
Likes: 1
Martin,

Per your request, my comment..

If I understand correctly, you have an algae bloom at 33 feet. If that is correct, to me that means sunlight is reaching to the bottom. IMO one option for you might be to plant a short vegetation species that is endemic to your area. That will help use nutrients and reduce the food available for the algae. That should improve clarity in the long term IMO. The vegetation will also provide oxygen during the day and provide habitat should you ever want to enhance your diving experience with a fish population to observe.

Good luck and please post some pictures/videos if you get the chance.

Bill D.

Last edited by Bill D.; 08/21/16 09:13 PM. Reason: Clarification

[Linked Image]
Be Brave Enough to Suck at Something New!
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
M
OP Offline
M
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
No, depth is 33 feets, that is where the air difuser is intalled. Actually the algae bloom looks like it is everywhere: surface and bottom. More strange: in the bottom it is completly dark: nolight reached the bottom because all light is filtered in the first meters of the water column.
I will take pictures at various dephs. Also, I havee the quemical analisis of a awater sample , taken before the aereation started, want to see it?

Joined: May 2013
Posts: 2,892
Likes: 144
C
Offline
C
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 2,892
Likes: 144
yup!!

Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
M
OP Offline
M
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
Here it is some data of the water analisis:
PH: 6.6
CO3CA 266
Phosphates 1,8 mg/l
S 0.95 mg/l
Disolved O2 7.2 ppm
DBO 122
CACO3 203 mg/l
NO3- <5
NO2- 0.01
SO4= 103 mg/l

Now Im planning to use Aluminium sulphate to deny P to the algae. What do you think about it, can you tell me how do I calculate the amount of alumiun sulphate I need?
I have done tests on bottles: the water turns milky, and a cludy water forms.


I know that in a long term , to control phosphates I should have acuitic plants? Im in that way, but for the moment I need to control this algae bloom.
Thanks for the help and advices


Link Copied to Clipboard
Today's Birthdays
cro, HC1968
Recent Posts
Dewatering bags seeded to form berms?
by RogersTailgate - 03/29/24 05:45 AM
Relative weight charts in Excel ? Calculations?
by jpsdad - 03/29/24 05:43 AM
pond experience needed
by esshup - 03/29/24 12:45 AM
New pond middle TN: establishing food chain?
by Bill Cody - 03/28/24 07:57 PM
Happy Birthday Bob Lusk!!
by FireIsHot - 03/28/24 07:33 PM
Working on a .5acre disaster, I mean pond.
by PRCS - 03/28/24 06:39 PM
Fungus infection on fish
by nvcdl - 03/28/24 06:07 PM
Can anyone ID these minnows?
by Dylanfrely - 03/28/24 05:43 PM
1 year after stocking question
by esshup - 03/28/24 04:48 PM
Yellow Perch Spawn 2024
by H20fwler - 03/28/24 04:29 PM
New 2 acre pond stocking plan
by LANGSTER - 03/28/24 03:49 PM
Newly Uploaded Images
Eagles Over The Pond Yesterday
Eagles Over The Pond Yesterday
by Tbar, December 10
Deer at Theo's 2023
Deer at Theo's 2023
by Theo Gallus, November 13
Minnow identification
Minnow identification
by Mike Troyer, October 6
Sharing the Food
Sharing the Food
by FishinRod, September 9
Nice BGxRES
Nice BGxRES
by Theo Gallus, July 28
Snake Identification
Snake Identification
by Rangersedge, July 12

� 2014 POND BOSS INC. all rights reserved USA and Worldwide

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5