Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Should I aerate

Guys I have a 4 year old 3 acre pond at my farm. It has f1 bass and cnbg in it. Pond is located in central Alabama.

Long story short I have a leak in my damn and the only real way to fix it is to drain and redo the damn. I am not willing to throw $30,000 at it right now.

At the height of the drought my pond was probably down 7-8 feet last summer. We still caught fish but I am worried about the o2 levels in the pond should it fill back up quickly.

How do you determine if you need an aerator? Depth at full pool is 15-16 feet at the pipe.

Here are some pictures of the lake when it was low.

http://s27.photobucket.com/user/emrisg/library/Farm%20Pond

Thanks for your help.

Well, it looks like you lost a LOT of the water in the pond. So, the fish that were used to having more water to swim in were crammed into a much smaller area. Higher water temps hold less dissolved O2 also, so the low water levels during summer make it even more critical.

One way you can tell if you need aeration is to see fish piping at the top of the water right at sunrise, or see white fish bellies floating. But then it's too late.

You can go buy a YSI dissolved O2 meter and take readings, anything below 5 ppm or mg/l is cause for alarm.

The older the pond gets, the higher the O2 demand on the pond will be due to decaying organics and possibly a higher fish biomass load.

Has anyone used a jet ski to aerate their pond.mine is about 3/4 acre 26' deep. Was thinking I could ride for about 5 minutes each day by standing it up I can drive a lot of water down to the bottom.

Hmmm that's different... Don't think you would get it 26 feet though. Or even 15 feet. I think you would be better off attaching a 10 hp motor to the end of your dock and letting it run. I know a lot of folks that argue the point that circulation is better than aeration. Kasco I believe makes a nice circulator pump just for ponds, but if you have to have gas power a 5 or 10 HP motor would get your pond doing the whirlpool in no time. I often thought about doing this with a nice trolling motor and solar panel. Let the panel charge battery by day and run trolling motor by night. You will be amazed at how much water a 72 pound thrust TM can move!! Not even on high anyway just a thought. Not really sure on the jet ski.... It may help in your first 10 foot of water I guess... but not sure..

RC

I have tried it if I point the nose up and throttle up it will stir up some muck from the bottom.it pumps a lot of water.

Here are my thoughts...
First, the jet ski is out of the box thinking. I like people thinking outside the norm. I can't see a jet ski as being very effective, since water chemistry and biology is dynamic. With water pushed downward, displacement with a that amount of vertical movement can help for that moment. Something consistent, such as bottom-diffused aeration, or circulation which moves water toward the atmosphere, allows gas exchange at the surface on a regular basis.

But, I think the better answer is to not worry too much about oxygen levels. When your pond drops and maintains a level, your fish adjust their numbers to fit the habitat and space, meaning that lots of fish are eaten. If your pond stays at that level for months at a time, then the population of fish stabilizes and doesn't really create an overabundance for that environment.

But, if you are feeding fish and not harvesting many, then I can see water quality degradation as a potential problem.

How effective is a large fountain compared to bottom diffused aeration? How effective is a paddlewheel?