Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond TEMP

My pond is 9 months old still not full likes about 2ft to overflow deapest is 19ft. My water temp is 76dgs with it not being really hot weather yet. should i be concernd about temp geting to hot and harming fish BG LM CC .DO i need to Aireate. thanks for any help guys.

Bassman I don't believe you need to worry about your water temp. harming your fish. Get a new thermometer and check it weekly. Drop down 5,and 10 feet and take a reading. I believe your temp. reading is only of the surface. It's amazing how much variation there is in Ky. My pond read thursday at 6:00pm. surface 58 dg.,5 ft.54 dg.,10 ft. 49 dg. You must be in south-western Ky or receiving warmwater discharge from a power plant!! Have fun with your pond!

bman42368 - You have warm water fish in your pond. Providing that adequate oxygen is present they do best in water at temps of 80-86F.

Upper lethal limit for LMbass is 96F which also depends on the size of fish and somewhat on region of country. LMbass survived in a shallow Michigan pond when water temperature got up to 100.4F. Those fish did not "read the book" regarding upper lethal temperature limit for their species. Smaller bass also tolerate warmer temps than the larger sized bass.

Channel catfish and bgills also prefer water temps in the high 80's to low 90's. Bgill were once found in heated power plant water of 95-105F.

C.catfish grow best in water 86-89F. C.catfish were captured in water at temps of 100F; again in heated power plant discharge water.

The main problem for fish is that water cannot hold as much dissolved oxygen at the higher water temperatures. Thus warm water can more quickly "runout" of the supply of dissolved oxygen compared to cooler waters. For this reason warm water is less stable in its dissolved oxygen supply and more vulnerable to causing fish stress than cooler water.

bassman...

You asked about aeration. Bill is correct, the higher the temperature, the less oxygen can be held in solution.

I was concerned with my pond's aeration after my Uncle's 20 ft. deep pond had a major fish kill (lack of oxygen) when the pond stratified and turned over when a cold front cooled the surface water.

I purchased a 12 ft windmill from www.malibuwater.com which is a supporter of this site (see products). Other companies sell a similar windmill or even the same product. It takes a lot of simple bolting work to put one together and makes for a good weekend project.

The windmill operates an air compressor and has been fantastic. Somehow it is engineered to turn out of the high winds to slow down to protect itself. I have had it for over 2 years in Oklahoma and so far I am impressed with the duribility. They provided a spare rubber diaphram which I have not used yet....

It does not take much of a breeze to turn the windmill.

Now comes a dig.... If the wind stops blowing for several days, will the pond oxygen get too low? Also, if the wind is blowing.... do you really need the windmill, will not the wind on the surface keep the pond aerated? I will never know the answers to these questions as the wind never stops blowing in Oklahoma.

The malibu site offers other options and provides a good discussion of why you need to aerate for other than oxygen levels.

One thing for sure, a 19 ft pond has a potential of stratification and aeration prevents statification.

Good luck and happy ponding.