Hey guys - it's time for me to weigh in on this - I am the "Pond Boss" for the West Branch, MI pond being discussed - Paul Ebaugh is my oldest brother and we are partners in this project. I consider the pond my large aquarium as I used to have tropical tanks etc.
Couple of clarifications, as I have spent many weekends working on this pond and measuring, testing and observing the results over a 5 year period.
Pond size is 60 x 225, so it is only a .3 acre, not .5 acre. Artesian flow is 15 gpm and the supplemental well runs only about 10 gpm. In-coming water temp is at 48 degrees. Reply to Cecil's input is that we do not have enough in-coming water to keep it cold. The secondary strategy was the thermostatically controlled aeration system. As Paul mentioned, night-time temps consistently dip into the 50, 40's, even 30's in the summer months. So, about 90% of the night temps are below 60! The aerator is set to turn on ONLY when temps dip below 65 at night. Believe it or not, we can get a full 2 degrees lower temp in just one night when the temp drops into the 40's. So, true enough, we don't have enough in-flow, but this temp controlled aeration approach is very effective on keeping the pond below 70. Even on a blazing hot 88 degree day, it is possible with these combined strategies to keep the pond at about 67 degrees. It is as Cecil mentioned a few years back - "walking on a ledge in a light wind". We lost 50% of the fish last stocking cycle and I think putting in 200 fish was too much for the pond size. Perhaps a smaller population (maybe 50-75) browns would not tax the water chemistry as much.
Michael Ebaugh
