Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Pros and Cons of pond shape

What would you say your pros and cons are for a standard shaped circle or oval 10 acre pond vs a longer "L" shaped 10 acre pond. I visited a friend of mine down in Florida he had a L shaped pond. Just curious on your thoughts.

I like an even more irregular shaped pond, points, etc.

But back to your query. In my opinion, the only drawback is that the L shaped pond will require more $$ to have a properly designed aeration system in it due to it's shape. Oval/rectangular/square ponds are easier. Just due to their shape and how the diffusers move water.

Good point on the aeration side, I guess depending on how off shape the pond is would require quite a bit more diffuser stations. Maybe cut back how many diffusers per placement to help spread out aeration.


Do these ponds help in keeping bank erosion down? It seemed the front part of the pond took most of the wind, and where the pond curved back it maybe took some of the head winds off?

The more deviation from circle the pond is the more shoreline it has. Shoreline length impacts productivity, amount of vegetation, cost of chemical treatments, aeration, sometimes labor, etc. Goals and budget for the pond should be considered.

Bill when you stated shoreline length impacts productivity could you dive a little deeper on that note. I just want to make sure I'm following you.

The more shoreline per acre the more shallow littoral habitat there is; thus the more invertebrates that are produced especially if there is vegetation in this zone. Shallow shoreline zones have more structures along shoreline areas that receive sunlight that grows periphyton on these surfaces that results in or feeds more invertebrate biomass produced than deeper open midwater areas. More invertebrates = more fish productivity. One long-leaf pondweed plant was found to have 555 invertebrates on it that included 177 midge larvae, 143 aquatic worms. Researchers calculated 60ftX180ft stand of this pondweed would contain between 30-33 million invertebrates at any one time during the summer. Pros and cons of extra shoreline depending on ones goals.

more info on this:
https://books.google.com/books?id=9ylRCw...ity&f=false

Maybe it would be a good idea to cut a lot of little coves in the banks opposite the dam to increase shoreline, making the shape of that shoreline a saw tooth pattern. Creative dozing as such is not that hard and could be done as part of final shaping.

Thanks Bill I thought thats where you were going. Amazing how much life can be just a few feet of water. This pond I saw I wish I had taken some pictures of it was a jet ski coarse. It was " L" shaped but had a island that ran the nearly the outside length of the pond with a mirror sized "L" shaped pond on the opposite side.

I was thinking that if that island had been carved a few feet under the water surface you could have really three different shallow water fishing sweet spots. But to Esshup point earlier the aeration of something so complex could really hit the wallet hard.

My pond will be heart shape and dedicated to my wife.

I am not sure the shape of the waters surface edge, reflects the shape of what is below the surface in my pond. The shape looks to be rectangular when looking at the pond, but not so much under the water. Underwater points, road beds, channels, flats, steep drop offs, seperate pools and etc. And yes underwater shape does effect the cost of aeration. Additional equipment will be needed to aerate this type of pond.

Tracy

My wife and I spent years going over our pond shape. This was a 7 year plan with the pond and house. We chose a kidney shape with two deep holes in each end of the kidney with a ridge in the middle. The position was to the large open side of the kidney faces our prevailing winds. This was to get the most wave action.

With the two deep ends aeration was easy with two air stations and two more in the shallows. The shallow ridge is where we are working on planting lily pads and water plants. The west/north sides are where we place the branches for the perch to spawn on. They seam to like this side of the pond I expect because of the sun getting this area most of the day.

Cheers Don.

RFisher, you're alright.

Don I like the raised section in your pond. What happens if you had designed the raised section, but turned it horizontal not touching any banks. Would that make the aeration in that pond worse?