Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking BG WENT IN TODAY!!

DIED, I'd recommend that you take a pH reading at around 8 p.m., and then around 6 a.m.

pH fluctuates so much during the day, depending on whether your plants are photosynthesizing, or respiring.

The pH graph is meaningless unless you are getting readings at the same time of day each time.

...or did you know this already and I just missed a previous post? The picture you included in your 1,000th post has distracted me from the true meaning of this thread. :p

jeff, when you come visit next, the four of us will be standing over my beleaguered low water level weedy pond, after about the third beer, you can pipe up and say "hey dave, you REALLY need a new well up there above the pond"

by all means, lets get back on track here
actually, i believe the true meaning of this thread is 1) to celebrate the birth of a west coast BG pond, and 2) a place for DIED to post whatever the heck he wants to (within the family-friendly, albeit not necessarily PC confines of the web site of course). the pic that still haunts me is the one (i think heybud) posted of the gal with three....ummm...pectoral protrusions...wow!

that said, thanks for the rec's bruce. i'm acutally aware of the misgivings of pH measurements, but am fairly comfortable using the values for comparison purposes. my sampling protocol remains the same for all measurements which have all been taken at roughly the same time of day, after lunch (when i'm home). electrical conductivity (EC) and total dissolved solids (TDS) have tracked perfectly with the pH measurements (although maybe this is because EC and TDS change alot during the day too, but i think these are more stable parameters than pH). i averaged out some of the variability by averaging together readings from all portions of the pond whether in the shade or in the sun. and i calibrate the meter before each use to known standards. i believe the trends to be accurate for the general condition of the pond...but i believe in santa claus too, so... :rolleyes:

...but do you believe in Tom Cruise?

Only if he stays on his meds

thanks theo, a definite improvement

why rad, i'm as pure as the wind driven snow. its my buddy jeff who needs the meds....which reminds me to answer jeff's question......no ideas on the pH swings other than it has to do with the cessation of watershed input and subsequent stagnating pond water. interestingly the creek water remained in the high 7's and low 8's during the period in which the pond water rose to over 10. of course now, there is no creek, and there wont be one until round about december/january.

i had a mickey mouse rig for the aeration electrical which changed today....a nice first cabin set up. when i complete that this week, i'll take a pic or two and post the project.

D.I.E.D.
The poor attempt at a joke was "do you believe in Tom Cruise?" only if he stays on his meds

Since Tom doesn't return my phone calls anymore I cannot comment on his current medication situation.

It's easy to determine whether or not I'm on the medication ....

Thoughtful aeration thread = on meds

RES cartoons = fallen off the wagon

jeff, cant wait to show off the new electrical gig for aerator...its a must see. may have time to get a couple pics and post em up here this coming weekend.....busy busy week ahead.

its ok rad, me and intentional humor is about like waitin ON the RR tracks for the train to pass.

for those following this rag.....JHAP......here's a new set of summer data points. average surface pH is staying below 10 thankfully, despite the extreme volume loss the pond is experiencing and will be experiencing until november. average surface temps rising gradually...aeration running for 8 hrs every night between 2330 and 0730 hrs.

Fairly steady climb in temperature. I would think that would begin to taper to flat in say August?

Did you aerate that much in 2006?

Have you noted any changes in the pond since aerating?

Here's a graph that shows my view on the subject.

just trying to keep things cool

Wow, I would have never in my wildest imagination (and you should know by now that my imagination runs pretty wild) that there was a correlation between global warming and the demise of pirates.

I fear that DIED is an endangered species. Crank up the air conditioner my friend!

JHAP, i sporadically aerated on critical hot days with no sunlight in 2006.....so really not much.

since routine aeration started earlier this year, the water has assumed a beautiful olive/emerald green color indicating a strong yet not too strong continuous plankton bloom. the baby fish will have (and have) so much to eat, its wonderful. the clarity is much less than last year, the weed growth is much less, and the adult fish couldnt be happier......its just the overall decreasing water volume that keeps me awake at night.....

Glad to hear the aeration is working out. Still no progress on my aeration. After my June trip I am fairly sure that a windmill will not work. On those hot sticky days there is little to no wind at the pond until late afternoon and then only for a couple of hours. The company that quoted me a solar system completely backed off when I started questioning the adequacy of the system. I was concerned that the suggested pump wouldn't produce enough CFM at an adequate PSI to pump air to my 17+ foot depth and also pump enough air to support multiple diffusers for my size pond. I asked about those issues and about water turn over rate and suddenly the emails stopped. I suspect that the system did not have anywhere near enough air flow to service my size pond. Back to the drawing board!

I agree with you about water volume. Way too little rain this year. I keep hoping for a freak summer rain storm but nothing so far.

well i've been remiss in my pondmeister duties since early july, it has been a very busy summer! i had the extreme enjoyment of floating around on the jon boat this afternoon, enjoying an adult beverage, being followed by clouds of mosquito fish and curious GSF and BG. i took several measurements around the surface and averaged them up to put another point on the plot.



i am SOLD on the "night-only" bottom aeration, we have been in a big heat wave w/ daytime air temps to 105 and the average surface temp was only 85.....it simply cant get any higher as we are coming off a week of this heatwave w/ cooler weather ahead. the pH seems to have stabilized (all things being equal) around 9, but interestingly, in the surface water above the upper stream channel where the elodea and pondweed are prodigious, the pH was 9.4.....everywhere else it was 8.9 to 9.1. temps were also slightly higher in this area though.

anywho.....JHAP, i know you'd like to live vicariously through my data (you know, get a feeling for how yer pond is doing), but our situations have become quite different this summer now that i am aerating (and you have fresh spring water input).

the overall water level is down between 5 and 6 feet, the deep end still contains ~9 ft with two months to go.....fingers crossed, fish are happy and want to be fed each night, but i've been holding off, and only feeding about every three days or so.

Dave any chance you could have a small alkali seep in the bottom of the pond? What type of surface minerals do you have in the watershed ? It would be interesting to see a pH from early am. to gauge your pH swing.

DIED,

That's a nice graph, just curious, have you been tracking DO levels as well?

eric, no seeps here, bone dry. the water table has disappeared into the bedrock below, my pond water resides on the clay band-aid i put in the pond a couple years ago. the bedrock is a slaty shale (a meta-volcanic type) that, in terms of dissolved minerals, imparts little to the surface water. down deep though, groundwater, which has had a long residence time in the bedrock, is extremely hard and has high iron and sulphur from dissolved pyrite.

i agree....i'll try and pick a day during our warm weather and get periodic readings from dawn to dusk....would make an interesting graph....

thanks ceadmin, i havent seen you post in a long time, welcome back. no i dont have a DO meter. IMO, they are too pricey for the amount and value of the data i (personally) would get from them given that i just have a humble and young sunfish pond.. if i was raising trout in a marginal climate, or raising fish as a business (from an aquaculture standpoint), i would definitely own one though.

i've watched large GSF come up from the depths during feeding time, so i know they are using the entire water column which was one of my aeration goals.

Dave, any sightings of the RES? You mentioned above both BG and GSF but not RES. Have you spotted any RES?

I'm curious as to whether or not our RES spawned this year have you been able to determine that?

I do live vicariously through through your data. It will be very interesting to see how closely our ponds correlate to each other or whether they are now completely different.

jeff, with the hotspell, the RES have retired to deeper portions of the pond, and do not come out and play during feed time. i have spotted just a couple in the last month or so. i have not made time to dip net the shallows and see if i can tell what all successfully spawned. there are a GADZILLION gambusia which have probably made a HUGE dent in any offspring.