Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Freeze out and start over

North40, I'm not an expert on winterkills but here is what I'm seeing:

1. You should do NOTHING till you have an aeration plan. If winter conditions typically produce 18-20" of ice and you aren't there to clear the snow then what will stop you from winter killing every year? Or are you saying that winter kill is due to a one time toxin event related to your 'bloom' that made the water murky?

2. I'm not following you on your desire to cut back on vegetation? Winterkills are worse in seasons with early and heavy snowfall. You can't control that and it sounds like you are too far away to clear a portion of the ice to get sun down to the plants. If the sun can get to the plants then the plants HELP you by making oxygen. If there are too many plants and limited sunlight then the plants hurt you by dying, decaying, and consuming oxygen. Plants are great for supporting the food chain as they provide cover for fry.

Again aeration is the only way to help mitigate the parts you can't control (how cold, how long it is cold, how deep ice is, how much snow you get, and whether plants reach the tipping point and die). There are some great recent threads here on solar aeration, but those successes have not happened in a location as far North as you likely are at.

A good quality windmill with expert advice on location, placing of the air lines to avoid winter freeze up, and a good quality diffuser membrane placed in the shallows may be the solution too.

Others can chime in too, but I would hate to have you go gangbusters on your stocking plan only to face repeated winter kills.