Hi Folks.
Alot of fanitical pondowners/fishkeepers here..this is my type of site!
I live in Saskatchewan and had a half acre dugout ranging from 14 to 20 feet deep built in October 2009. It was located in a slough bottom that typically would have about 2 feet of water in it after the spring melt and be dry by mid July.
Thanks to 2 wet years in a row there is now about 7 feet of water on top of the dugout and covering an area of 6 acres.
I stocked 600 rainbow trout in it last spring which I am wanting to overwinter.
I have been attempting to aerate the pond but have run into some difficulty. I erected a fence originally about 30-35 feet in diameter above the aerator to keep our dogs away from open water but have had to expand the size of the fence twice already due to a larger than anticipated open area. I have the airstation in 28 feet of water and even using the minumum airflow(which is at 10 psi)the bubbles create enough of a boil to clear a big area of ice. This winter's warm temps. and ice half the normal thickness don't help either!
If the current 50 foot diameter fence doesn't safetly retain the open water/thin ice I might have to turn the system off for the winter.
Intermittent use has been resulting in a large area of thin unsafe ice and no open water for the exchange of oxygen.
Sorry for the long winded post, any advice would be appreciated!
