Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations I'm Back... Got pics of my pond :)...... Kinda Ugly

Got moved up north (Near Terre Haute IN), got out today to look over and get some pics of my little pond I get to take over. It's not a pretty sight, but it will be

Water has washed out a hole in the dam thats keeping the level a bit lower than it should be. In the pics I marked w/ a red D where the hole is, and lines with WL where the waterline usually is.

So first I'll need to patch the hole, there's a lot of debris I'll need to get out, some duckweed to deal with.

Next couple weeks I'll get out there & figure out some depths.

Would tilapia stocked next summer clear up the duckweed?

Hey Jack congratulations on the pond! Quick question are you sue that you have DW? In the pictures it looks like FA. Be interested to know the depth of your pond. If it is FA or DW I would be interested to know if the tilapia could keep it under control as well. If your climate is like mine which I presume it is....I figure that we could keep tilapia alive for around four months if we had weather like this past year.

I sort of see two options here. Spend allot of money and clean it all up, remove all the trees and rebuild the dam, or keep it like it is and make a few small, simple and cheap improvements.

A friend back had a pond that had a spillway off to the side of the dam and over the years, it had eroded down a few feet. We didn't have tractors or any practical way to move enough dirt to build it back up again. We tried with wheelbarrows, but that dirt just washed away.

Next we tried digging out a keyway type trench and filling it with sacks of readi mix. On top of that we built a wall of redi mix sacks. We just laid them on top of each other to fill in the opening and build up the sides to create a taller spillway that would keep the water off the dirt.

The opening in your pictures looks very similar to that situation. To my knowledge, that quick fix is still holding and it's been close to 15 years.

Eddie

Good advice, Eddie. I plan on raising the spillway several inches with sackcrete. I agree, it does look like FA. Start aerating and put in microbes next spring and it will start clearing up. Rake as much as you can out. Find out where the excess nutrients are coming from. You have possibilities for a nice secluded pond. If not close to electricity, look into running an air line or solar aeration. With that size pond, it should not take big bucks.

From the pic I can't tell if it is 1) DW/WM , 2) FA or 3) aggregated planktonic algae. Forced to guess I would say #3. Each one would have a different method of dealing with the situation.

Definitely Duckweed or Watermeal, I checked http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/index.htm
It's all little round "thingy's". I'll be back there in 2 days and I'll take a sample.

I plan on poisoning out what fish are in it (I'm not sure what all is in there) in the spring, and I'll definitely try some tilapia.

I have access to a tractor/fe loader so I can move some dirt, but I might give that sackrete method a shot.

By adding microbes, I assume you mean plankton? I'm new at this so I'm not up on everything

In the first pic, next to the hole in the dam is a pretty large tree... I probably ought to get rid of it so the roots won't screw with the dam, shouldn't I?

I'm just so jazzed, I finally got my pond (I think I mentioned that

Congratts Blackjack, it looks like it has the potential to be a very pretty pond.

Went back today and got a better look at things, the vegetation is duckweed for sure, right after that I had a run-in with the neighbors dog and had to cut things short. I'll be going back tomorrow to have a "heart to heart" with the dog