Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? 37 acre???

I'm new and have some questions. I don't even know the right questions to ask, so if you think of something I am missing please let me know. I have a non aerated 37 acre pond. We have a 4000gpm re-lift that pumps water from our tailwater recovery system, and a well that pumps 1500gpm. The pond averages about 6 feet deep. We irrigate rice and soybeans out of the pond and from June to mid August we will have pumped in enough water to have filled the pond 3 times. The water level never varies much in the summer as we pump in as fast as we drain out. Most of the water we use is from the well. When we have enough water to relift we use it. The water in our tailwater recovery system has been pumped across fields and then drain into our sytem of ditches. We have never had a fish die off. We have 1000 CC and 800 HSB. The LMB numbers are uncertain. I am going to get the LMB numbers to close to 50 per acre. My question is, should I aerate? How do I check the DO and what are good and bad numbers for the DO?
Thanks,
Cason

Not sure if the expert will suggest aeration, but if you need to aerate a shallow pond like yours, we have designed and developed linear tubing for shallow aeration: it's called Bubble Tubing; there is an ad in the latest Pondboss that describes this product. We mostly use it to distribute aeration instead of concentrating it in one spot with traditional disks.

I must have been logged with my old lost address...
good luck Cheyenne19
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any ideas

My first question would be as follows:

1. How long have you been using the current system?

Second question:

2. If you haven't had a fish kill, is there any particular reason that you think one may be imminent?

Third question:

3. Have you priced any sytems for aerating a 37 acre lake? You would need to balance the additional cost to the supposed risk.

This system has been working for years, but as we stock more fish I am concerned about how many mouths it can support. I feel like with some effort we can use more water through the pond than what we have been. I've just never thought about it until I looked at this site.

This could be acting as aeration if there is enough water being moved and exposed to the air during the process, if it tumbles like a short water fall this may also be providing sufficient aeration. You could also be moving enough water to provide horizontal aeration similar to what Condello does with his ponds.

thanks for the help guys. I feel like we'll be ok, I just hate to lose all of my fish.

To add to these good points, I would suggest that we rarely aerate such large bodies of water because the wind does a pretty good job at moving water and exchanging gases between air and water.

Shallow lakes have also a large macrophyte potential so oxygen comes from submerged vegetation during day time.