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#472478 05/22/17 12:26 PM
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Hi all,

My family and I bought a new house this past winter, and it has a decent-sized pond on the property. It is about 100' x 55'; max depth of about 12'. The previous owner used to take care of the pond - his kids would swim in it, but for the past 3-4 years, he has just let it sit. It was completely covered in green algae last fall when we first saw it.

We want to get it cleaned up and hopefully swimmable for our own kids, but we are first-time pond owners. I have done quite a bit of reading online, but am not sure we are doing everything we should or doing it correctly.

About a week ago, we sprayed algaecide on the algae that was floating on the surface. We also bought some of those "muck-eating" tablets and put them down in the area where we would like the swimming area to be. We got the fountain working again, although I understand this does a minimal amount as far as helping with the water quality. Yesterday, we went out with pool skimmers and cleared off a TON of the algae that was on the surface. Lastly, my husband fixed the motor for the aerator that the previous owner left (no idea what kind), and we ran that for a short time. The smell was horrible! And now the whole pond is cloudy.

If anyone can give us some advice as to what we are doing wrong or what else we should do, I would really appreciate it!

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Welcome,

You have a lot to learn for sure! I never realized how much stuff you need to know when managing a pond... Your in the right place for sure folks here will sure help you out if they can.

If you don't mind me asking where are you in Wisconsin? Do you know where Eagle River is? I grew up there my whole life I sure miss it sometimes...

First thing folks here will want to know if what are your goals for your pond? Just swimming and it looking nice or fishing and swimming if so what type of fish?

Getting air going is good, but you should be careful how long you run it each day if your concerned about killing any fish. Normally you should start it up for 15, mins, then 30 and 1 hour and 2 and so on. The stink you smell is all the yuck muck build up on the floor of your pond and gases trapped in it. It can be very dangerous to your fish at first when you start your air up that's why you need to limit how long you run it at first if that's a concern for you. If not I would let it run.

The muck tablets you put in your pond will help get some good bacteria in the pond and working on removing some of the gunk on your pond bottom but I would not expect that to work very quick. Your air is your best friend right now.

Cleaning the surface off like you did is good also. You may want to take some water and have it analyzed if you have someone near you who can analyze your water and make sure nothing is in that is real bad... you never know these days...

Good luck others will be by soon to give you much better advise then I did. smile And congrats on the new place.

RC

Last edited by RC51; 05/22/17 01:58 PM.

The only difference between a rut and a Grave is the depth. So get up get out of that rut and get moving!! Time to work!!
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+1 to what RC said. Bring the aeration on line very slowly if there are critters in the pond you value. No short cuts. Follow the schedule he provided.


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Thanks for the response! Yes, I am very familiar with Eagle River - I took many vacations there as a kid and now take my family up in that general area every summer! We live in Muskego (southwest of Milwaukee).

Our primary goal for the pond is to have it look nice and hopefully let the kids swim in it. Next year, we would like to stock some fish, but I'm not sure what kind.

I have attached a picture of the pond (I think), so that maybe you can get a better idea of what we are dealing with. It is still very cloudy from the aerator, but I'm hoping that as we let it run longer, that will clear up.

Right now, we have turtles and frogs in the pond. There might be some fish, but I don't know this for sure...

Thanks again for all advice and help!

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Welcome to the forum! I have relatives in Park Falls and in Fifield, and we go to Wi. every year to deer hunt just South of Presque Isle.

One thing that will help reduce the amount of muck in the pond over the years is if you will trim the trees back from the pond. The leaves falling/blowing into the pond help create the muck.


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FWIW the stink will begin to go away once the muck on the bottom switches from anaerobic to aerobic decomposition, and the muck will decompose much faster as well. However, the decomposition process will add more nutrients to the water column making for a more fertile pond. Sure, the ecosystem will love it, but the plants will too which is counter-productive for swimming in some circles unless you like flossing with pond plants.

If you have the ability to direct downspouts and non-fertilized surface water into the pond to assist in flushing old nutrient-laden water out, that will help some. Adding dye to the pond (I prefer green and black combo, some like it blue) will reduce plant growth on the bottom making for better swimming conditions.

Which reminds me: Do not use chemical fertilizers on your lawn. That will get into the pond and turn it into an un-swimmable hole. Only organic low phosphorous fertilizers.

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Originally Posted By: liquidsquid
Which reminds me: Do not use chemical fertilizers on your lawn. That will get into the pond and turn it into an un-swimmable hole. Only organic low phosphorous fertilizers.


LS, I've been hanging around here for a few years, but haven't seen this stated so forcefully. I have 6 acres of alfalfa that are part of my pond's drainage. I know they put down dry fertilizer, and spray roundup on it. It represents over half my pond's drainage. We swim in the pond a lot. How do you define "un-swimmable hole"? Any ideas on what to do to counteract the chemical fertilizers that must be reaching my pond.

Also, Esshup, The wife will never let me cut a tree down around our pond. I'm going to have to live with millions of leaves falling into our pond every fall. Won't aeration get rid of the leaves/muck? That's my plan anyway. Hopefully next summer.

JillG, we have relatives in Brodhead, WI is a beautiful state. Love going up there. My dad grew up in Baraboo, we used to go there every year or two as a kid. Welcome to the forum. We love swimming in our pond also!

Last edited by SetterGuy; 05/24/17 01:48 PM.

9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep.
RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these.
I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
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I too have tons of leaves falling in the pond in the fall and the oak leaves all winter and then the oak leaves melt through the ice at ice out too. Your pond and my pond are not too large that we can't rake the edges and get a fair number of leaves.

In the spring at low 'tide' I used to rake by throwing a landscaper's rake with a rope out 6-8', with the rake weighted down with weights. I would drag it back and and can clear out hundreds of pounds (wagon loads!) of nutrients, decomposing leaves, last years FA, etc. I can't do much about the deep layers and yes the leaves tend to build up there and go stagnant, turn black, smell!

I run aeration in summer only. I'm toying with ideas to stir up the bottom in the deep (trash pump, mechanical agitator, towing a box spring through the deep once in a while etc) and continue to aerate.

There are threads here about setting up some snow fencing in the fall to prevent leaves from blowing in but most of mine fall from above.

I think in the deep without mechanical agitation and aeration the leaves will not break down much, they seem to be preserved in the cold anoxic water. Although my aeration is in the deepest point, the bubbles go up and I'm not sure how much the water is stirred right at the bottom at the leaf surface. Certainly when the leaves are 18" thick you need mechanical agitation.

Bird poop and phosphorous in fertilizers is a tough thing to combat. I believe our region, or maybe State has a law on the books that only phosphorous free fertilizers are allowed.

However, this year no matter how tempting it is to rake the edges, I'm waiting. The FA that is there and the sticks and leaves are the only cover my micro-organisms have. The perch fry, the tadpoles, the toad-poles, the minnow schools, they all are in the shallows and I don't want to rake them out. I love the sandy bottom, clean swept look all around the edge but maybe I'll go for that look later in summer when everything got a good headstart on growth.

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Nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium do not know if they came from organic fertilizer or synthetic fertilizer. "Organic" nitrogen may come from manure while "synthetic" nitrogen is isolated from the air we breath, but both are composed of the same thing in the end. One difference is that synthetic fertilizer can be blended to fit the use pattern while organic fertilizer will almost always have either a nutrient deficiency or surplus. Thus, delivering organic fertilizer in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of the target plants will almost always have certain nutrients delivered in excess. This excess will often end up leaching where it was not designed to go.

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Thanks for replies. I'm not sure where un-swimmable comes into the picture. I guess I'm not 100% sure where the leaves are doing damage. My science and chemistry classes were a long time ago. My fish are healthy. Nobody seems to be getting sick from swimming in the pond. The water is realitively clear. Not fighting FA (right now)
Maybe it's time to leave well enough alone. wink


9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep.
RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these.
I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
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Hey Jill don't run into to many folks that know where Eagle River is. That is cool! Glad to have you aboard... I grew up there from 1970 to 1986 my parents wanted to move but did not want us kids going anywhere else for school at the time. Hard to make a living up there but they stuck it out for us kids and I am glad they did. Have a lot of GREAT memories from up there for sure!!

Anyhow good luck and keep us posted how it goes!!

RC


The only difference between a rut and a Grave is the depth. So get up get out of that rut and get moving!! Time to work!!
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Hello. new here. little help on the abbreviations: FA? RES? and FHM? TIA! (thanks in advance!! lol)


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Welcome to PBF!

Here's a link to the acronyms used on the forum. IMHO FWIW it will come in handy!

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92442#Post92442

Bill D.


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TY!


God is not the voice in the whirlwind....God is the whirlwind (Atwood)

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