Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations First spring having a pond

Hey Guys, I havn't posted for a while here but do quite a bit of reading. Anyway, I am located in Ontario Canada and bought a place last year with a 1/3rd acre pond on it. All last year including this time last year when we first visted the property the pond was nice and clear and could see down 6-8'. It was like that right up untill ice out. Then things started changing...

I turned on the aerators in mid april and soon after the water started getting dark looking (almost a brown look to it...tea looking), every now and then I catch a strange smell...smells like something dead almost,sometimes has an oily look to it on the surface and decaying mater is comming to the surface.

The pond is located in the middle of a forest and last fall I strugled to get the leaves of the water with little to no help. When the ice went out you could see tons of leaves on the floor of the pond.

We have also had ALOT of rain here since the begining of april and the pond has a small creek feeding it and it drains just into the rest of my bush with no real exit from my property.

Just wondering what you all might think is going on. would the bubblers be stiring up the decaying matter? I have the pond stocked with Rainbow last fall (all are doing well...I catch them quite often) and the other fish in the pond are doing well also other than I had 1-3lbs largemouth dead last week but not sure what that was from.

I have the bubblers going 12 hours a day right now and started in april with the same start up procedure I did last fall when I first got them....up untill I put in the bubblers the previous owner just had a little fountain going durring the summer months.

Thanks in advance...Ryan B

anyone??? or should this be posted in a different forum.

Ryan

Are the bubblers (what exactly do you mean by that? photo?) sitting directly on the bottom, or do they have some barrier (like Cecil's classic inverted garbage can lid) to keep them out of the sediment?

Tannic water often holds plenty of fish with no problems. AS you noted, one dead bass could have been frm anything.

they are sitting directly on the bottom...and are just air stones. Do you have an online link to something better?

Ryan

Vertex and other aeration suppliers may have something available.

Many of us just DIY. It doesn't have to be sophisticated, just something weighted to keep itself on the bottom and hold the air-releasing mechanism up out of the mud. IIRC garbage can lids and tires have been used. I made mine out of an old range vent hood:

Hi Ryan, I'm interested in an answer to your question also. I'm about to start aerating my 20 year old pond for the first time too :o.

What kind of diffuser/s are you using? I thought, and I could be wrong (newbie), that if you had a membrane diffuser the bottom wasn't disturbed because the air goes straight up. Maybe someone else can clarify this. I'm wondering if it's possible to have too much "boil" or can you have a lift so strong that it will suck up debris from the bottom? I ordered a vertex membrane diffuser and I am concerned that the base will sink in the muck putting the membrane surface closer to the bottom, could this cause debris to be circulated (?).

It seems like your aerator must be the cause of your problem but maybe it's a temporary condition and things will settle down. You have me concerned that I may have a similar problem when I start mine up.

I have been told how to slowly start up my aerator and I was warned that there may be some smell at first. The start up schedule that I'm using is: 15 min 1st day, 30 min 2nd day, 60 min 3rd day etc. and when I get to 4 hrs in a day I should keep it there until there is no more smell and then progress to 8 hrs, then 16, then 24. I can't remember if I was told that the water would murk up or not but I hope not. Hopefully someone with more knowledge and experience will answer.

ETA: I just noticed that you are using air stones, maybe that's your problem. I didn't mean to hijack your thread.

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