Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Weekly Observations

Do you think the readings from 7/7 will be the water temperature peak for this summer? You are a day early posting this week, you must be having a big party on Saturday.

We returned from vacation today and I couldn't wait to see how the pond was affected by another week of no rain and 90F+ temperatures.

Water temperatures continue to climb in the mid and upper ranges while the bottom temp has dropped. Clarity has dropped 12 inches since last week. D.O. remains good throughout the water column.

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Have you checked the difference in your top temp and the rivers?

No, but I can do that tomorrow. I expect the river will be warmer.

Around 4pm today the river surface temp (4 inches) was 92F and the pond at the same 4 inch depth was 84F.

Any fish pics?

I missed on that one. I would have thought that running water would have been cooler.

Groundwater influence.

Now that makes sense

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Looks like some water mixing at different levels to me (see temps moving in opp directions).

Saw what looked like a dead fish lying along the east shoreline (oh no, not Darlene!!!!). After further investigation I found a big ole dead (stinking to high heaven) Carp. It had a hole in it's side and someone had been eating on it. There were lots of Heron tracks in the area so the is probably what killed it.

We finally got nearly 2 inches of rain this week.

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Looks like the rain and plankton are raising the TDO. Watch for indications of thermo stratification starting lower down.

Water cooling, D.O. rising, clarity dropping.

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New plankton at work ?

I believe that is the case.

It could also be partial mixing of the water in and just above the thermocline or bottom sediments. Any recent fairly strong winds or weather fronts to circulate the pond? I noticed the three water temp zones are now closer in temperature. Thus top, mid, and bottom have similar density and less resistance to mixing. Mixing, depending of strength, not only circulated nutrients for plankton growth but also fine micro sized detritus. Fall naturally stimulated lesser phytoplankton blooms are common in temperate waters.

Gotta get this over 666 reply's!

On your mixing question, "Any recent fairly strong winds or weather fronts to circulate the pond?".

The weather has been pretty benign in the wind department. We did have 2 inches of rain in our area the previous week. That rain and the runoff into the Rock River caused the pond to rise about 5 inches from the previous week. That certainly could have "lifted" some bottom sediment into suspension.

Since there would be little resistance to mixing because of the like water temperatures top to bottom, the combination (of lifting and mixing) could well be factors in the drop in clarity.

Ground water mixing as well. IIRC you have had this late summer /fall bloom before.

Could it be an early Fall?

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Cooler water holds more O2 ? With clarity increasing one would think less plant life and thus less O2. Not the case here. Where is the extra O2 coming from (groundwater)? Dwight do you have any deep rooted vegetation?

Vegetation extends out to 8' deep water in some areas. Since the water hasn't cleared this summer the vegetation growth has been limited.
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Back to summer this past week with day time highs in the upper 80s to near 100.

It remains dry. The pond is now below the 0" mark on the depth tube. Zero on the depth tube was the all time previous low.

The water quality remains good.

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I forgot to post the previous weeks readings because of my focusing on vacation, so the past two weeks are now added to the thread.
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