Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations What does wind do for a pond?

I was just wondering what effects alot of wind on a 1 acre pond has? My pond sits up on a hill and it almost always has wind action. Yesterday it was white capping like a lake and i was worried that it could stir up stuff from the bottom and mess up my o2. But nothing ever happens buisness as usual. Is there any postive effect of this?

I thought wind across water was a natural form of aeration.

Do I have that concept wrong?

I thought the same thing...true or false ?

Wind increases aeration

Water temperature is generally chasing air temperature. Wind hastens this process.

Heavy wind can cause stratified water to turn over.

Wind decreases sunlight penetration into the water column.

Wind decreases UV penetration into the water column.

Wind creates zones for fish to feed because it disorients zooplankton.

Wind lifts sediments off the bottom of the pond which can facilitate feedings by zooplankton and smaller fishes.

the perfect spot.Wind is blowing,20-30mph and in the 80s today and tommorrow.Will the pond warm quicker with bottom defussers on or off?

Bruce, give me about a week to flow chart that and I'll figure out if the answer is yes or no.

On

Thanks Bruce.Ive got them on,AND saw some CC feeding this morning.The wind hadnt kicked up and I was drinking coffe on the dock at the pond.I do believe spring is springing in Texas,unless it snows this week-end.

Only downsides to wind that I know of is it can cause erosion on banks, it can drop temps really fast in a small pond and stress fish, and of course if you have an anoxic layer on the bottom of your pond it could bring it up and cause a fish kill. But that is perventable if you use diffusion to break up the stratification.

I could also have some problems in my trout pond if it is excessively hot with high winds (very rare here).

Overall though, as Bruce has stated wind is a good thing. I'll take wind action over stagnation any day. My ponds get a lot of wind too due to alot of treeless open farm land and other open land around me.

To show you how quickly temps can rise in a pond with high winds and warm temps last spring I had my big pond go from near freezing (it has some ice the day before) to 50 F. in one day from top to bottom. Surprized me! The winds were gusting into the 40 mph range and temps were in the 70's. This is a 3/4 acre pond that averages 7 feet deep.

When you come out of 50 deg F water in a 1 acre pond on a 40 deg F day in late October, wind makes the pond water VERY warm












by comparison.

[quote=Theo Gallus]When you come out of 50 deg F water in a 1 acre pond on a 40 deg F day in late October, wind makes the pond water VERY warm in comparison.

I was actually swimming, but not for fun. I was placing the airstone for our windmill.

P.S. We did not have the canoe yet.

Theo - by comparison, it is better to use a boat compared to swimming when placing an airstone in 50 F water
I would have found a way to make a quick homemade boat/raft.

Actually placing the airstone could have easily waited until the water temp was a more comfortable 60F-65F. Stratification is usually not strongly set or established at 60F. Layers can still be fairly easily mixed at around 60F. Main depending factors are depth, size of diffuser, air flow volume, size of pond, and volume of deep unmixed layer which all affect turnover rate. Usually a small pond such as yours less than one acre does not have a real voluminous, deep unmixed layer compared to the volume in the mixing epilimnion layer. Thus it does ot take an unusual amount of energy to mix a small pond when the epilimnion is 60F. Plus from ice out to 60F the "hypolimnion - thermocline" or deepest layer has not had enough time in most cases to form anoxia. Anoxia of deepest layer at least in OH ponds does not set in until around 70-75F at the surface.

I don't get wet placing airstones. I tie a rope to the thing and pull it out where I need it with it on to see the location.

PS: Cecil probably learned that trick from Cody. LOL.

Bill:

Swimming in 50 deg water is better. When you swim and it's that cold, you have towels and dry clothes ready at the edge of the pond!

I'd just spent 3 weekends putting the windmill together - you think an Icthyusiast on a roll is gonna wait 6 months before finishing the installation? The fact that it was BPB and pretty much unnecessary is beside the point.

Thinking about it, I believe my wife actually thinks I'm crazier for canoing in that weather, to reposition the airstone to shallow water for the Winter, than to swim that one time to put it in to start with.

You may notice that this story is NOT listed in the "My Stupidest Stunt" thread. Not even close.

Just a curious question, why doesn't anyone install two airstones/diffusers, one shallow and one deep. Have a two-way split connected to the main air line on land and a valve to control which destination the air goes to? This is my eventual plan, but I was wondering why I never hear of this for anyone else. Something I am missing perhaps.

I've done that. It sure beats moving one every fall. However for the last few years I have been just removing snow to allow light penetration. My ponds are so steep sided that moving the diffuser as shallow as possible still did more mixing than I wanted to, and therefore some stress to my largemouths (which I no long raise).

However one of these days I may be SOL just removing the snow. The downside to removing the snow is if you get heavy snowfall before the ice is safe enough to step on it and remove it. Then you could have a problem if you can't get on the ice for a good amount of time. (Heavy snow insulated the ice and keeps it from freezing thicker. I've actually had water underneath deep snow)
So if I'm smart I will have the shallow diffuser as a back up.

Isnt it Bruce that likes to go ice swimming?You could get him to come over and clear snow in thin ice conditions

An interesting thing about wind over a pond is that it makes the water act exactly like a big wide conveyor belt.

The wind pushes water across the pond to the leeward side, where it sinks. The sunken water than runs the opposite direction along the bottom, and surfaces at the windward side of the pond.

Last year I dumped some alum on the leeward side of the pond. A few minutes later I walked around to the windward side, and was amazed to see flocs there. The alum had traveled 150' in 5-6 minutes.

Unless you have very deep isolated holes, a little wind keeps the pond water completely mixed.